OC Reads
OC Reads is a program designed to bring people together through literature by encouraging them to read the same book and participate in discussions and other events centered on that book.
Each year, the OC Reads Committee selects a book and invites community members to read and discuss this book together. The reading experience is supplemented by a series of free programs offered at the library in the form of book discussions, presentations, and activities related to the book’s themes. The series of events culminates in a visit by the book’s author where audience members can engage with the author and have their books signed.
We hope you will join us in this celebration of books, reading, and community.
OC Reads 2024 - Remarkably Bright Creatures
Join us for A Talk, Q&A, and Book Signing
Saturday, October 19, 2024 at 2:00pm
Held at the Bill and Nancy Hughes Performing Art Center in the Ocean City High School
(501 Atlantic Avenue, Ocean City).
Entrance to the PAC is on 6th Street. Parking is available in the municipal lot across the street from the OCHS main entrance on 501 Atlantic Avenue.
Patrons may also attend the talk virtually with the link below:
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_xIM75R0gTaywTgrVUZTivg
Shelby Van Pelt’s Remarkably Bright Creatures, was published by Ecco/HarperCollins (US) and Bloomsbury (UK) in Spring 2022. For fans of A Man Called Ove, this luminous debut novel about a widow’s unlikely friendship with a giant Pacific octopus reluctantly residing at the local aquarium—and the truths she finally uncovers about her son’s disappearance 30 years ago.
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 the Puget Sound over 30 years ago. As she works, 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 tentacles 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. Charming, compulsively readable, and full of wit, Shelby Van Pelt’s debut novel is a beautiful exploration of friendship, reckoning, and hope–a reminder that sometimes taking a hard look at the past can help uncover a future that once felt impossible.
Born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, she’s now missing the mountains in the Chicago area with her husband and two children.
Recommended Book and Film Tie-In’s to Remarkably Bright Creatures
TV/Film
Secrets of the Octopus (National Geographic), opens a new window
Books
Inky's Amazing Escape: How a Very Smart Octopus Found His Way Home, opens a new window by Sy Montgomery
Animals, Animals, opens a new window by Eric Carle
The Octopus Scientists, opens a new window by Sy Montgomery
The Soul of An Octopus, opens a new window by Sy Montgomery
Secrets of the Octopus, opens a new window by Sy Montgomery
Octopus: The Ocean's Intelligent Invertebrate, opens a new window by Mather, Anderson, and Wood
How to Be a Good Creature: A Memoir in Thirteen Animals, opens a new window by Sy Montgomery
OC Reads Previous Titles
2024 - Remarkably Bright Creatures, opens a new window by Shelby Van Pelt
2023 - The Violin Conspiracy, opens a new window by Brendan Slocumb
2022 - The Butterfly’s Daughter, opens a new window by Mary Alice Monroe
2021 - The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, opens a new window by Kim Michele Richardson
2020 - The Only Woman in the Room, opens a new window by Marie Benedict
2019 - Where the Crawdads Sing, opens a new window by Delia Owens
2018 - Thunder Dog: The True Story of a Blind Man, His Guide Dog, and The Triumph of Trust, opens a new window by Michael Hingson
2017 - One Amazing Thing, opens a new window by Chitra Divakaruni
2016 - The Boys in the Boat , opens a new windowby Daniel James Brown
2015 - Orphan Train , opens a new windowby Christina Baker Kline
2014 - Shadow Divers, opens a new window by Robert Kurson