Title: Atmosphere: a Love Story by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Book Beginning/ First Line Friday quote:
Dec. 29, 1984 Joan Goodwin gets to the Kennedy Space Center well before nine, and Houston is already airless and muggy.
Friday56 quote:
Happiness is so hard to come by. I don't understand why anyone would begrudge anyway else for managing to find some of it.
Summary:
Joan Goodwin has been obsessed with the stars for as long as she can remember. Thoughtful and reserved, Joan is content with her life as a professor of physics and astronomy at Rice University and as aunt to her precocious niece, Frances. That is, until she comes across an advertisement seeking the first women scientists to join NASA’s space shuttle program. Suddenly, Joan burns to be one of the few people to go to space.
Selected from a pool of thousands of applicants in the summer of 1980, Joan begins training at Houston’s Johnson Space Center, alongside an exceptional group of fellow candidates: Top Gun pilot Hank Redmond and scientist John Griffin, who are kind and easygoing even when the stakes are highest; mission specialist Lydia Danes, who has worked too hard to play nice; warmhearted Donna Fitzgerald, who is navigating her own secrets; and Vanessa Ford, the magnetic and mysterious aeronautical engineer, who can fix any engine and fly any plane.
As the new astronauts become unlikely friends and prepare for their first flights, Joan finds a passion and a love she never imagined. In this new light, Joan begins to question everything she thinks she knows about her place in the observable universe. Then, in December of 1984, on mission STS-LR9, it all changes in an instant.Fast-paced, thrilling, and emotional, Atmosphere is Taylor Jenkins Reid at her best: transporting readers to iconic times and places, creating complex protagonists, and telling a passionate and soaring story about the transformative power of love—this time among the stars. (Publisher)
Review: I loved Daisy Jones and the Six and disliked Malibu Rising both by Taylor Jenkins Reid. Though one would never know how I felt about the books by my ratings. I gave both of these books a rating of 4 stars. Ha! Therefore, I decided to read Atmosphere: a Love Story with a little trepidation. Would I love or dislike this one? Well, I'm happy to report, I loved this one.
Back in 1979, Joan Goodwin and Vanessa Ford are in the second class of potential female astronauts with NASA. They work hard and build a strong bond with the other members of their initiation class. Both of these women were tapped for their special skills -- Joan, astrophysics; Vanessa, for mechanics. The two form a strong bond and eventually fall in love. But during this time period being involved in a gay love affair would be a sure way to get fired, especially from such a organization as NASA. For this reason Joan and Vanessa have to keep their relationship a secret from everyone including their friends and family. When there is an accident in space the reality of their relationship verses the need to remain astronauts comes into focus.
When I sat with this story for a while after finishing the book, I determined that it advised me on an emotional level the validity of same-sex marriage. Everyone deserves to be loved and no one should dictate who others love. It was a powerful experience for me.
My rating: 4.5 stars
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