{ "item_title" : "Atmosphere - A Love Story", "item_author" : [" Taylor Jenkins Reid "], "item_description" : "Click Here for the Autographed Copy#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK • From the author of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and Daisy Jones & The Six comes an epic new novel set against the backdrop of the 1980s space shuttle program about the extraordinary lengths we go to live and love beyond our limits.The stunning hardcover of Atmosphere features beautiful endpapers and a premium dust jacket! “Thrilling . . . heartbreaking . . . uplifting . . . the fast-paced, emotionally charged story of one ambitious young woman, finding both her voice and her passion.”—Kristin Hannah, author of The Women“NASA? Space missions? The ’80s? This is a collection of all the things I love.”—Andy Weir, author of Project Hail Mary and The MartianJoan 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.", "item_img_path" : "https://covers4.booksamillion.com/covers/bam/0/59/315/871/0593158717_b.jpg", "price_data" : { "retail_price" : "30.00", "online_price" : "26.40", "our_price" : "26.40", "club_price" : "26.40", "savings_pct" : "12", "savings_amt" : "3.60", "club_savings_pct" : "12", "club_savings_amt" : "3.60", "discount_pct" : "10", "store_price" : "30.00" } }

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In the heady period just before Sally Ride’s triumph and Christa McAuliffe’s tragedy, self-described nerd Joan Goodwin has finally found her place: training to be an astronaut. As a woman coming from an academic background, she already has two hurdles to clear when thrust into a macho pack of space-bound top guns and tough guys. In Atmosphere: A Love Story, New York Times bestselling author Taylor Jenkins Reid (Daisy Jones & The Six) tosses in an additional fistful of challenges to complicate her protagonist’s life: a thorny relationship with her single-mom sister, a budding romance that she desperately needs to keep secret and an adored niece who she is helping to raise in the midst of everything else. The story opens with a literal bang when what should have been a routine satellite deployment goes catastrophically awry, threatening the lives of the crew of STS-LR9. Joan is acting as CAPCOM (capsule communication) at Mission Control in Houston, trying to guide the shuttle safely back to Earth while keeping her emotions in check. After all, it’s not just anyone orbiting hundreds of miles above the planet; these are her closest friends. Reid alternates between the immediate crisis and Joan’s development from an ASCAN (astronaut candidate) to an integral component of a space exploration team. As she and her colleagues undergo rigorous schooling, ambition and affection frequently collide, and they discover that inner space can be as difficult to navigate as outer space. It’s apparent throughout that Reid has done her homework. Her depiction of trainee life rings true, from the history lesson about the Apollo 1 disaster to the candidates’ first ride aboard the weightlessness simulator (known colloquially as the “Vomit Comet”). But this is by no means a story solely for the space-obsessed; the novel’s cast of characters is complex and multidimensional, and their personal and interpersonal journeys are just as compelling as their professional ones. Reid masterfully ratchets up the tension in Atmosphere’s breathtaking final chapter, where the physical and emotional stakes couldn’t be higher, and where Earth, rather than space, may turn out to be the final frontier.