CState Book Club selection for May 23 discussion is “Remarkably Bright Creatures”

The Cincinnati State Book Club invites all faculty and staff members to join the discussion on Thursday, May 23, of the novel Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby VanPelt.

• The May meeting will start at 4:30 p.m. in the Library Conference Room.
• All are welcome to join the casual conversation– even if you haven’t finished reading the book! It’s also OK if you need to arrive after 4:30.

Remarkably Bright Creatures, published in 2022, is a novel that explores themes of friendship, reckoning, and hope, while tracing a widow’s unlikely connection with a giant Pacific octopus.

The publisher’s summary says:

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. 

Questions about Book Club? Contact Library Director Crissy Ross (crissy.ross@cincinnatistate.edu).