Lesbians in Spaaaaaace! The 2025 Reading Trend

⚓ Books    📅 2025-08-21    👤 surdeus    👁️ 5      

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One of the biggest books of the year—and certainly the biggest queer book of 2025—is Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid, a historical fiction novel about two women astronauts falling in love in the 1980s. But as it happens, that’s not the only book about sapphic astronauts out in 2025. In fact, one of my most anticipated releases of the year, To the Moon and Back by Eliana Ramage, is a different story about a lesbian training to go to space. And then there’s the anthology Lesbians In Space, also out this year!

I love this lesbian astronaut book microtrend, so I had to record it for posterity here. I’ll also give an honorary mention to Star Trek: Celebrations by Vita Ayala et al., an anthology of comics about queer Star Trek characters, which came out in 2024.

All Access members can also find a bonus list of 23 new queer books out this week at the end of this post!

cover of Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Taylor Jenkins Reid wrote one of BookTok’s favorite sapphic books, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, and now she has another sapphic historical novel for us. This follows Joan Goodwin as she trains to become an astronaut in the 1980s and falls for another woman in the program—but they have to keep their relationship a secret. This is a Good Morning America Book Club pick, a #1 New York Times bestseller, and the current #1 most read book on Goodreads in the past week. It’s hard to overstate its popularity!

To the Moon and Back book cover

To the Moon and Back by Eliana Ramage (September 2)

My most anticipated lesbian astronaut book of the year, though, is To the Moon and Back. It’s about Steph Harper, a young woman who is obsessed with going to space. She has been training her whole life to be the first Cherokee astronaut, and she’ll stop at nothing to get there. Over the decades we spend with Steph, we also get to know her mother, sister, and college girlfriend, each of whom has a complicated relationship with Steph. This is a thought-provoking read about ambition, identity, family, and Indigeneity. I’m reading it now and loving it—I just hope it gets the attention it deserves!

Lesbians In Space cover

Lesbians In Space: Where No Man Has Gone Before edited by J.S. Fields, William C. Tracy, and Heather Tracy

Sometimes, a title and cover speaks for itself. This is a crowdfunded anthology of sapphic sci-fi stories raised $10,000 (of its $4,000 goal) from more than 300 backers, so that shows how many people are eager to get their hands on it. The authors include Mary Robinette Kowal, Seanan McGuire, and Travis Baldree, and the stories promise “intergalactic colony queens, heists, smugglers, gods, and sentient planets.” There’s also bi, asexual, aromantic, nonbinary, and trans representation.

Looking for more? Check out these 10 Sapphic Sci-Fi Books You’ll Fall in Love With and 10 New Queer Science Fiction Books, from Cozy to Cataclysmic.

23 New Queer Books Out This Week

As a bonus for All Access members, here are 23 queer books out this week, including This Place Kills Me by Mariko Tamaki and Nicole Goux, Mounted: On Horses, Blackness, and Liberation by Bitter Kalli, and Body Problems: What Intersex Priest Sally Gross Teaches Us About Embodiment, Justice, and Belonging by M. Wolff.

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