Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid

This is one of a handful of authors that I read that are on the lighter side. Usually that slot in my reading is occupied by murder mysteries, and has been for over 50 years--but I am in my 60's now and have found that a light book that doesn't involve a dead body is also welcome in the repertoire. I found this one through Reese Weatherspoon's book club, and it turns out one of my kids is also a fan of hers, so now I am reading them as they come out rather than working through her back log. This one is linked to a real thing that happened, which is NASA figuring out (or under pressure) adding women and people of color to their astronaut candidate pool in the 1980's. I read The Six, a book chronicling the NASA careers of the first six woman last year, and there are a lot of overlaps in real life to this book. Here goes. Joan Goodwin has already looked to the stars. She never considered space a real possibility for her until she came 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. The events that follow in the book are not exactly as they occurred in real life, but most of the elements have a hint of truth in them. This was a good light read, and in a lot of ways, more pleasant than the non-fiction version of the story!