When We Flew Away
Whalesong: The True Story of the Musician Who Talked to Orcas
Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

Remarkably Bright Creatures

Dazzling and unexpected, Shelby Van Pelt’s debut novel, Remarkably Bright Creatures is set over the course of a summer in a fictional town on Puget Sound. This is a witty and warm tale of a widow’s friendship with a giant Pacific octopus reluctantly residing at the local aquarium—and the truths she finally uncovers about her son’s disappearance thirty years ago.

Tova Sullivan began mopping floors and tidying up on the night shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium after her husband died. 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. Finding the sea creatures around her easier to talk to than the humans in her life, 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 an unlikely friendship with Tova. Ever the detective, Marcellus deduces what happened the night Tova’s son disappeared. As his affection for Tova grows, Marcellus must use every trick his old invertebrate body can muster to unearth the truth for her before it’s too late.

More Adult Books

  • Once pitted as adversarial counterparts as the opinion editors of right- and left-leaning newspapers, veteran journalists Nolan Finley and Stephen Henderson join forces in this groundbreaking work to champion a novel approach to political discourse.

  • Read the original inspiration for the new, boldly reimagined film from producers Oprah Winfrey and Steven Spielberg, starring Taraji P. Henson, Danielle Brooks, and Fantasia Barrino. Celebrating its fortieth anniversary, The Color Purple writes a message of healing, forgiveness, self-discovery, and sisterhood to a new generation of readers.  An inspiration to authors who continue to give voice to the multidimensionality of Black women’s stories, including Tayari Jones, Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, Jesmyn Ward, and more,  The Color Purple remains an essential read in conversation with storytellers today. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award A powerful cultural touchstone of [...]

  • Game warden Joe Pickett fights for his life as his daughters try to uncover who shot him and left him for dead in this riveting new novel from #1 New York Times bestseller C. J. Box. Marybeth Pickett gets the call she has always dreaded: her husband Joe is in critical condition with a gunshot wound to the head. Joe was found in his pickup at Antler Creek Junction, a crossroads connecting three ranches. Each road leading to a dangerous family. Each family with a different bone to pick with the local game warden. Marybeth and the new sheriff assume that [...]

  • Winner of the 1987 American Book Award The Essential Etheridge Knight is a selection of the best work by one of the country’s most prominent and liveliest poets. It brings together poems from Knight’s previously published books and a section of new poems.