#8 in Romance
Atmosphere
- NYT bestseller · 14 weeks on the list, peaked at #1
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About the book
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 pilots Hank Redmond and John Griffin, who are kind and easy going even when the stakes are highest; mission specialist Lydia Danes, who has worked too hard to play nice; warm-hearted 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, everything changes in an instant.
Where the score comes from
The sources average 8.6 across 613 ratings. With that many, the reader vote carries 80% of the weight and the score stays at 8.4 — the Romance average of 7.7 barely moves it.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hardcover | 8.6 | 613 | 100% |
Reader voices
The most-liked reviews on Hardcover (credited to their authors).
“THE BEST TJR book I've read to date. It brought out my space astronomy nerdy side of my life, i normally hate romance books but this was beyond gripping and overall a beautiful story. Am I the only one to say Barbara F'n Sucks!?!”
“A change the way you look at the world type of book!! Perfect in every way. “All she could think about was how grateful she was that the earth was ninety three million miles away from the sun today, far enough to be warm but…”
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
Same shelf — Romance — with scores between 7.9 and 8.5, closest to this book.
