A Braid in Space
Heavily influenced by the picture of Christina Koch's braid floating zero-g as she smiled at the moon (2026, during the Atremis II mission). Nonfic on space from perspectives outside of white men! Space exploration, astronauts, astronomy, and the history in between it all!
created by mysteriousgap
last updated May, 2026
Comments
Okay first of all, love the idea of this list and love you for assembling it! Second of all, if you don’t mind some space historian approved books, here are some of my absolute faves…
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Rise of the Rocket Girls: The Women Who Propelled Us, from Missiles to the Moon to Mars By Nathalia Holt
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Right Stuff, Wrong Sex: America's First Women in Space Program by Margaret A. Weitekamp
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Sally Ride: America's First Woman in Space by Lynn Sherr
And two honorable mentions that are on my radar but I haven’t personally read yet…
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The Astronaut Wives Club by Lily Koppel
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The Mercury 13: The Untold Story of Thirteen American Women and the Dream of Space Flight by Martha Ackmann
yes it is a lot of neil degrasse tyson! only allowing 5 books of his!
he has many important books tho!!! just some info that broke my heart when i saw it, technically he kept his jobs and said he was cleared but i’ve seen a lot of weird stuff and a variety of allegations pop up so idk :/
i donut want to be the one to break the news to u but he has many allegations :(((
okay edited bc i now have mixed feelings about this guy!
aww my heart, incredible inspo and idea!!! if ur taking cross genre or cosy sci fi recs: murder by memory and mimicking of known successes :)
i'm gonna keep this just nonfic but might make a list for fiction too!! i'll still be checking these out too ty 🙂↕️💗
OMGOMGOMG YES
My hyperfixation on space following the deadly combo Project Hail Mary & Artemis II is forever thankful 🙏
that's exactly what led me to making this list 🙂↕️ and @moski and me talking abt how cool a space nonfic quest would be one day (had to make a list in the meantime)
Manifesting non-fic space quest!
Haha I get you, it was definitely needed ! Thank you for your service 🫡 (in really hope to see it as a quest, I can already imagine how pretty the badge would be 🤭
The list I don’t know I wanted but needed 💚✨
yay!! i haven't read any of these myself but wanted to share this niche TBR
okay so:
- the smallest lights in the universe by sara seager
- the six by loren grush
- packing for mars by mary roach
- a brief history of black holes by becky smethurst
and the glass observatory by dava sobel!!! so sorry this list has me so excited
yay excitement!! i love the recs pls let me know if you think of/find anything else u wanna share!!!
realizing loren grush has TWO books called the six and i totally meant the other one 😭 both look good tho!!!
oh worm???
i just added this one!!
added all but packing for mars ! i might add this one later but i wanna read it first since im seeing a lot of mixed reviews and im intrigued to see how much humor versus actual science if that makes sense!!
As someone who’s read and really enjoyed packing for mars, there’s a good mix of humor and science! Her writing style is definitely one that you either love or hate, though - she doesn’t shy away from the silly and the strange, and she speaks pretty frankly about her subjects and her own experiences in all of her books!
u've convinced me to add this one!!
Eyyy, hopefully folks enjoy it as much as I did!! 🥰✨🚀
ofc!! i haven’t read hehe so understand
i have suggestions! one moment
Love this omg 🤩
yay!! project hail mary movie coming out during the artemis ii mission has during insane things to my brain
So real for this hehe
Maybe the book by Katie Mack would fit here too - The End of Everything (Astrophysically Speaking).
Great list😊
added! tysm!
What omg this is awesome I’m in loveeee 😍 adds all books to tbr also love to see Dr. Becky on here I watch her videos while cooking hehe
