--- title: "To the Moon and Back, the Reese's Book Club Pick Now in Paperback, Follows a Cherokee Woman's Race to Space: A Guide for Book Clubs" description: Eliana Ramage's Reese's Book Club pick To the Moon and Back follows Steph Harper's quest to be the first Cherokee woman in space. Story, reviews, questions. author: Dr Marina Nani (Editor-in-Chief) date: 2026-11-07T19:57:32.542Z updated: 2026-11-07T19:59:18.418Z canonical: https://richbooksmagazine.com/article/to-the-moon-and-back-eliana-ramage-book-club-guide image: https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/art002e008487-large.webp categories: Literary Fiction content_type: Guide publication: Rich Books schema_type: Article about: - type: Person name: Eliana Ramage description: Novelist and citizen of the Cherokee Nation, author of To the Moon and Back, a Reese's Book Club pick. She holds an MFA in fiction from the Iowa Writers' Workshop and lives in Nashville. jobTitle: Novelist --- ### Book: To the Moon and Back *A Novel (Reese's Book Club)* By Eliana Ramage Steph Harper has wanted to be the first Cherokee woman in space since the night her mother drove her and her sister Kayla to the Cherokee Nation. Eliana Ramage's debut follows Steph, Kayla, Steph's college girlfriend Della and their mother Hannah across three decades. A Reese's Book Club pick, first published in hardback in September 2025 and now in paperback. [Waterstones](https://www.waterstones.com/books/search/term/to+the+moon+and+back+eliana+ramage) Reese Witherspoon chose To the Moon and Back for Reese's Book Club in September 2025 and called it 'a breathtaking debut about family, identity, and love across generations'. Eliana Ramage's first novel is now out in paperback, and if your book club is choosing its winter reads, it gives you more to talk about than most. ## What To the Moon and Back Is About Steph Harper has been on the run since childhood, when her mother drove her and her younger sister Kayla through the night to the Cherokee Nation, a place they had never been but where their mother hoped they would belong. Steph resolves to get as far from Oklahoma as she can, and then further still. She sets out to train for NASA and reach the moon as the first Cherokee woman in space. The novel spans three decades and several continents, and it moves between Steph and three women close to her. Kayla starts out as an artist and becomes an Indigenous social media influencer. Della Owens, Steph's college girlfriend, was removed from her Cherokee family as a child and spends her adult life reclaiming who she is. Hannah, their mother, held up the family's tribal history to inspire her daughters while keeping her own past secret. Steph's ambition pushes each of these relationships to breaking point. ## Where Eliana Ramage Found the Story Ramage is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, studied fiction at the Iowa Writers' Workshop and lives in Nashville. She began the book in her first year of college, after a class conversation with Native students from different tribal nations. Her classmates pushed her to think about the future and not only about loss, and one of them suggested that an astronaut from the tribe would also be part of the people's story. She finished the novel on the night her daughter was born. ## What Reviewers Said People called it 'a powerful, resonant debut', and NPR praised Steph's human voice for keeping the book grounded. The Irish Times found it a jubilant coming of age. The Christian Science Monitor called it a big, bumpy read that is worth it, and some readers found its 464 pages long and wished for a tighter edit. If your group likes a big family saga with plenty to discuss, the length works in its favour. ## Book Club Questions for To the Moon and Back These questions draw on the themes of the publisher's reading group guide. - The title comes from words Steph's father, an abusive man, says to her when she is a child. How does his hold on her change by the end of the book? - Whose ambition do you connect with most, and whose ambition unsettles you? - Steph looks to the future, while Kayla focuses on what is being lost. Why does ancestral connection matter so much to Kayla and to Della? - Why does Steph hold back from her cultural and religious roots, and what makes reconnecting hard? - What does belonging mean to Della, and how do the chosen families in the book compare with the families the women were born into? - How does hope shape each woman's choices, and where do you imagine them after the last page? For another November book club pick, read our guide to [Whale Harbor and its eleven Irish brothers](https://richbooksmagazine.com/article/whale-harbor-book-club-guide). **To the Moon and Back** by Eliana Ramage (Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster, 464 pages in paperback) [Waterstones](https://www.waterstones.com/books/search/term/to+the+moon+and+back+eliana+ramage) | [Barnes & Noble](https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/9781668065860) ### Books in This Piece - [Whale Harbor](https://www.waterstones.com/books/search/term/whale+harbor+mary+beth+keane) by Mary Beth Keane ## FAQ **Q: Is To the Moon and Back LGBTQ?** Yes. To the Moon and Back by Eliana Ramage has a queer heroine. Steph Harper, who dreams of becoming the first Cherokee woman in space, is a lesbian, and her relationship with her college girlfriend, Della Owens, runs through the novel alongside its stories of family, ambition and Cherokee identity. **Q: What is To the Moon and Back about?** To the Moon and Back is the debut novel by Eliana Ramage, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation. It follows Steph Harper across three decades as she trains to become the first Cherokee woman in space, and it moves between Steph, her sister Kayla, her girlfriend Della and their mother Hannah. It was a Reese's Book Club pick in September 2025. **Q: Is To the Moon and Back a good book?** Most critics praised it. People called it a powerful, resonant debut, NPR praised the voice of its heroine, Steph Harper, and Reese Witherspoon chose it for her book club. Some readers found it long at over 400 pages, so it suits you best if you enjoy a big family saga that covers several decades.