Books you need to read in May, including Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey’s The Office BFFs and Remarkably Bright Creatures

Also Metaphysical Animals and How To Prevent The Next Pandemic

By Alison Foreman, Saloni Gajjar | May 1, 2022 | 7:00am

Books News Jenna Fischer

Books you need to read in May, including Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey’s The Office BFFs and Remarkably Bright Creatures

How To Prevent The Next Pandemic by Bill Gates (Knopf); Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt (Ecco); We Do What We Do In The Dark by Michelle Hart (Riverhead Books); Metaphysical Animals by Clare Mac Cumhaill and Rachael Wiseman (Doubleday); Mean Baby: A Memoir Of Growing Up by Selma Blair (Knopf) Graphic: Allison Corr

Every month, a deluge of new books comes flooding out from big publishers, indie houses, and self-publishing platforms. To help you navigate the wave of titles coming to shelves this May, The A.V. Club has narrowed down the options to the seven books we’re most excited about.

Remarkably Bright Creatures: A Novel

Shelby Van Pelt (Ecco, May 3) Novelist Shelby Van Pelt weaves a tender tale of friendship and resilience in Remarkably Bright Creatures—the story of a giant Pacific octopus in his last weeks of life and a widowed aquarium worker looking for connection in grief. Told partially from the perspective of Marcellus the octopus, this charming two-hander (OK, two hands plus eight tentacles, but you get the idea) takes an unafraid look at the impermanence of life. Protagonist Tova Sullivan is a worthy character for the weighty material, reflecting readers’ loneliness back at them in a touching display of kaleidoscopic curiosity and compassion you won’t want to put down. Plus, Marcellus is a genuine poet. [Alison Foreman]

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