Page Turners Book Club will be reading Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt as their November selection. Kirkus Review calls it “a debut novel about a woman who befriends an octopus
… a charming, warmhearted read.”
The review goes on to say, “Tova Sullivan’s best friend is an octopus. A giant Pacific octopus named Marcellus … who can, as he points out, do many things we don’t know he can do. What he can’t do is escape from captivity in a small public aquarium in the fictional town of Sowell Bay, near Puget Sound.” Tova fills her nights cleaning at the aquarium where “she prides herself on keeping the glass and concrete scrupulously clean while chatting with the inhabitants, although she saves her deep conversations for Marcellus. Lately she’s been concerned about the way he’s been escaping from his tank and cruising through the other enclosures for live snacks—and sometimes visiting nearby rooms, which risks his life. Tova is too preoccupied to pay attention to the sweet but awkward flirting of Ethan, the Scotsman who runs the grocery store, but she does get drawn into the complicated life of a young man named Cameron who wanders into Sowell Bay … Although Tova and other characters are dealing with serious problems like loss, grief, and aging, Van Pelt maintains a light and often warmly humorous tone.”
Page Turners Book Club was started in the summer of 1991 by a group of Niguel Shores women (about six or seven, I believe) and has since grown now to consist of three groups with approximately twelve members in each. A list of all the books that the club has read over the past three decades can be found at the Niguel Shores website niguelshores.org. Click on “Clubs,” then “Page Turners,” then “Past Reading Selections.” The list is extremely interesting for anyone remotely interested in books!
I am happy to report that we have added a number of new members during the past couple of months and all are most welcome. If you have any questions or would like more information you can contact me at fozimec@
cox.net.
—Frances Ozimec
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