Breakfast Book Club

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

The Breakfast Book Club features mainly historical fiction titles and meets in-person on the last Wednesday of the month. January's selection: Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

Breakfast Book Club is a monthly book discussion featuring (mainly) historical fiction works. We meet in-person at Eola Road Branch's Quiet Reading Room on the 2nd floor. We will have a lively discussion with snacks by a roaring fire. Copies of the book are available for checkout at the Eola Road Branch Adult Reference Desk on the 2nd floor. Contact group facilitator Yiota Piraino at yiota@aurorapubliclibrary.org or 630-264-4126 for more information. No registration is required - please drop-in!

Book Description:

Remarkably Bright Creatures, an exploration of friendship, reckoning, and hope, tracing a widow's unlikely connection with a giant Pacific octopus.

After Tova Sullivan's husband died, she began working the night shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium, mopping floors and tidying up. Keeping busy has always helped her cope, which she's been doing since her eighteen-year-old son, Erik, mysteriously vanished on a boat in Puget Sound over thirty years ago.

Tova becomes acquainted with curmudgeonly Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus living at the aquarium. Marcellus knows more than anyone can imagine but wouldn't dream of lifting one of his eight arms for his human captors--until he forms a remarkable friendship with Tova.

Ever the detective, Marcellus deduces what happened the night Tova's son disappeared. And now Marcellus must use every trick his old invertebrate body can muster to unearth the truth for her before it's too late.

Shelby Van Pelt's debut novel is a gentle reminder that sometimes taking a hard look at the past can help uncover a future that once felt impossible. (GoodReads)

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