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
Books News Jenna Fischer
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.
5 Comments
I enjoyed The Office while it was on and had it on a lot as background noise during the pandemic/birth of my first child, but I am personally beginning to feel like it’s reaching the over-saturation point. Everyone else’s mileage may vary and I respect that. But for myself, having seen almost every episode until season 8 multiple times, when I now see it playing on Cozi/Comedy Central/FreeForm I just scroll past. I hope that the podcast and this book bring joy to people and the authors do well, but my personal Office cow has been milked way past the point of dry. Which is too bad because about 5 years ago I would have absolutely been interested in this.
That’s fair, though it does seem kind of odd to complain that a show that hasn’t been broadcast since 2013 is “oversaturated”. I get it, it still clearly has a loud and devoted fanbase and that can get kind of irritating, but it also kind of seems like if people are starting to get sick of it and all the noise around it nine years after the last episode aired that’s kind of on them for keeping it going at this point. There’s been other things made since then and there’s other retro-shows to enjoy as well is all I’m saying.
That said, I do remember how annoying it was when it seemed like you couldn’t move for people fawning over Firefly for, like, a decade after it was cancelled, so maybe I’m looking at this the wrong way.
I’ve managed to avoid it since I burned out on the show (before it ended, actually), but Fischer and Kinsey’s podcast has been in my queue for a while, for when the mood strikes. Fischer especially I remember as a fun presence; there was a moment where it seemed like she’d break out but it didn’t happen, and it’d be nice to hear Kinsey not playing *that* character. I guess nostalgia requires a bit of distance.
I haven’t finished a book in years. It’ s too hard. It’s way easier to watch TV.