I’m a total space nerd. My eyes have always looked to the skies and beyond. Needless to say, I knew Taylor Jenkins Reid’s newest and bestselling novel Atmosphere would be a read I couldn’t miss.
Fans of Reid’s novels know that her protagonists are often strong, dynamic women confronting the realities of ambition, love, and expectation, usually under weighty circumstances. Atmosphere is no different and tackles these elements and more in the context of NASA’s Space Shuttle program during the early 1980s.
Told through a dual timeline, Reid’s story alternates between Capsule Communications Officer Joan Goodwin’s response to a crisis unfolding in space and the preceding years of her journey within the shuttle program. Joan balances working her way through the ranks alongside a cadre of talented men and women with navigating both professional and personal relationships (and yes, these do collide). Atmosphere takes readers behind the curtain of NASA and explores not just the final frontier but how notions of gender, identity, and ability are challenged in the workplace and on the home front.
With formidable characters, plenty of astronaut action, and a healthy dose of 80s nostalgia, Reid’s latest novel is an enjoyable study in how far we’ve come and how far we’ve yet to go in space and here at home.
