Alright, I missed a couple here, and so I am making up for it. Forgive me!

First we have Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid. Absolutely phenomenal, if I do say so myself.

Rating: 5 out of 5 missions

I am fairly certain that this is my first book by this author and holy moly did I pick a good one. Atmosphere is just as much about the 1980’s NASA space missions as it is about love and family and friendship. I truly cannot fathom anyone giving this less than 4 stars. This was an emotional rollercoaster. So much of the highs from finally having women in NASA, to women on space flights, to the lows of family not being who you want them to be and of the old thinking of queer people being “deviant”. The whole gamut of feelings were expressed in this book. I appreciated that the author tried to both keep the NASA language as technical as it needed to be and show how high pressure it truly was, with making sure we actually knew what was going on. That she did so much research, even going so far as to interview and work with former NASA folks, is amazing. Obviously, some liberties are taken but honestly it seemed pretty true to form for the 80’s. I was rooting for Joan and Vanessa and Frances the whole book. Barbara could kick rocks, I’ve never wanted someone to fall off a cliff as much as I needed her to. You have this amazing kid and you do all that to her?! Ugh. I had my kid young and he just graduated high school with honors. I was there for EVERYTHING. I hated Barbara.

Gosh, but the ending? THE ENDING?! I sobbed. Full out sobbed. Had to blow my nose and everything. What a punch. But my god was it beautiful. I can’t wait to read more work by TJR.

Next up, we have Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. I was trying to finish this BEFORE it left theatres but alas, I missed the deadline on that one. HOWEVER, my partner actually read this before me which is a MAJOR WIN!

Rating: 4 out of 5 astrophages

Ok. Ok. I can see why there is a wide range of reviews on this one. I have watched The Martian, read Artemis, and now have read Project Hail Mary. I have to say, this was very science-y, moreso than I feel that Artemis was, so there were definitely large chunks of the science that my mind just glossed over. That didn’t take away from the story though, so I am not mad about it. Overall, I enjoyed the plot. I definitely felt like this one had me suspending my disbelief so much more (because who is truly going to learn a language that fast??)
but I did enjoy the pacing of the book. The flashbacks of learning what is happening to Earth and why Ryland was out in space, really helped to flesh out his character in a way that I found to be more believable. Was he still written like a weird science nerd? Sure, he also felt a little bit like a self insert character, but he was…tolerable. I definitely enjoyed his relationship with Rocky and their banter definitely made me giggle a few times. Overall, this was an enjoyable book, I would likely read it again, but I wouldn’t say I loved it, mostly because there was a lot more science mathing that frankly, I didn’t care about.

Ok, here is my space page reviews, and from here, I will be back with some horror reviews!! See you on the flip side!