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Light From Other Stars

"Then his body was no longer his own; it became all the bodies and shapes it had ever been, pulling backward, receding into what it once was.  He thoughts were electricity, which, like water, had a flow, like light, was a wave."
Light From Other Stars is the second book by Erika Swyler and it is fantastic! This is the story of Nedda Papas, an 11-year-old girl who dreams of nothing but going into space some day.  The year is 1986 and the town of Easter, FL has just witnessed the Challenger launch.  Nedda's father, a brilliant professor that once worked for NASA, has spent the majority of Nedda's life building a machine that will allow his child to stay young as long as she wants.  The machine goes horribly wrong and the small town pays the price.  
This is also the story of grown up Nedda, living aboard the Chawla, and how the events of her youth shaped her to become the woman she is today.  
This book really surprised me.  Besides being a really good science fiction story, it's also the story of loss and how it can affect us.  And within that story is the story of a mother and daughter.  That part got me right in the feels because I saw so much of myself and my daughter.  So much alike...almost too much alike.  The odd boundary it can create.  It perfectly showed all of the messy parts of parenting.  
I also enjoyed the portions of the book where Nedda is a grown woman aboard Chawla.  It was fun to bounce back and forth between young Nedda to grown up Nedda and see all that happened in her past to shape her.  And of course being a child of the 80s I always enjoy books set then.  
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