Novelist Taylor Jenkins Reid transports her readers through time, exploring different eras through complex characters with fascinating careers in film, music, and the arts.

Now, Reid takes her fans to space. She talks to Kansas City novelist Adib Khorram about her ninth novel, Atmosphere, and how she creates such realistic stories about worlds she’s never lived in. Set in the 1980s, her new novel tells the story of what happens when an astronomy professor’s lifelong obsession with the stars leads her to apply for NASA’s space shuttle program.

The character finds friends — and love — while training for her mission and begins questioning what 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.

The author lives in Los Angeles and, aside from most of her novels rising to the New York Times bestseller list, they’ve also been selected by Reese’s Book Club, Read with Jenna, GMA Book Club, Indie Next, Best of Amazon, and Book of the Month. Among her most beloved books are Carrie Soto Is Back, Malibu Rising, Daisy Jones & The Six, and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo.