Ask a Bookseller: ‘To the Moon and Back’ by Eliana Ramage

On The Thread’s Ask a Bookseller series, we talk to independent booksellers all over the country to find out what books they’re most excited about right now.

Angel Horne of Two Friends Bookstore in Bentonville, Arkansas, recommends the novel “To the Moon and Back” by Eliana Ramage.

It’s a debut novel about a young woman’s quest to become the first Cherokee astronaut.

From a young age, Steph Harper is driven to get to space. She throws herself into education and training, determined to get out of Oklahoma.

The novel focuses on Steph and the important women in her life — her mother, her artist/influencer sister, her college girlfriend — as their relationships stretch and change through decades and across distances.

Horne appreciated the representation in this book, with a queer Cherokee woman in a STEM field at the center, and she also resonated with the setting Like the protagonist, Steph was born in the early 80s, and she appreciated watching her live through the introduction of cell phones and social media.