Discuss a book based on popular vote or monthly themes.
Winner for Readers' Favorite Historical Fiction (2025)
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. As the new astronauts become unlikely friends and prepare for their first flights, Joan finds a passion and a love she never imagined.
Then, in December of 1984, on mission STS-LR9, it all changes in an instant.
*Hard copies of this title available at CALS branches, eBooks available online*
AGE GROUP: | Adults |
EVENT TYPE: | Science & Nature | Literature & Language |
TAGS: | THOMPSON | EarthMonth |
The Roosevelt Thompson Library offers patrons more than 62,000 books, magazines and audiovisual items. The 13,500-square-feet facility also includes public meeting rooms, a state-of-the-art audiovisual system, activity areas for children, study rooms, nine public computers (including 3 laptops and a Chromebook), and wireless internet access.