When We Flew Away
Whalesong: The True Story of the Musician Who Talked to Orcas

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

  • In Dream Count, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie explores the lives of four women navigating love, choices, and regrets during the pandemic. Chiamaka, a Nigerian travel writer, reflects on her past relationships while her friends face their own struggles, revealing the complexities of happiness and self-awareness in a beautifully crafted narrative.
  • In Finding Margaret Fuller, the remarkable life of Margaret Fuller unfolds as she navigates the intellectual circles of 19th-century America, becoming a mentor to Louisa May Alcott and inspiring Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. As she breaks barriers—becoming the first woman allowed to study at Harvard and the first female foreign news correspondent—Fuller embarks on a journey filled with passion, revolution, and self-discovery, ultimately challenging the societal norms of her time.
  • Harlem's Rattlers and the Great War delves into the history of the 369th Infantry Regiment, highlighting their fierce commitment to American ideals during World War I. This definitive study challenges the myths surrounding the unit, emphasizing their fight for equality amidst rampant racism. Through meticulous research, the authors reveal how these African American soldiers not only battled abroad but also sought to hold America accountable to its democratic promises.
  • How to Know a Person by David Brooks
    High Conflict: Why We Get Trapped and How We Get Out by Amanda Ripley When we are baffled by the insanity of the “other side”—in our politics, at work, or at home—it’s because we aren’t seeing how the conflict itself has taken over.That’s what “high conflict” does. It’s the invisible hand of our time. And it’s different from the useful friction of healthy conflict. That’s good conflict, and it’s a necessary force that pushes us to be better people.High conflict, by contrast, is what happens when discord distills into a good-versus-evil kind of feud, the kind with an us and a them. In this state, the normal rules of engagement no longer apply. The brain behaves differently. We feel increasingly certain of our own superiority and, at the same time, more and more mystified by the other side.New York Times bestselling author and award-winning journalist Amanda Ripley investigates how good people get captured by high conflict—and how they break free.