GenX 🤝 Millennial Downtown Book Club

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 Puget Sound over thirty years ago.

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 a remarkable friendship with Tova.

Ever the detective, Marcellus deduces what happened the night Tova's son disappeared. And now Marcellus must use every trick his old invertebrate body can muster to unearth the truth for her before it's too late.

Shelby Van Pelt's debut novel is a gentle reminder that sometimes taking a hard look at the past can help uncover a future that once felt impossible.

We will start our discussion at 7:30. Food and drink are available for purchase.

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel is a post-apocalyptic novel tracing a devastating flu pandemic that wipes out most of human civilization. The story interweaves pre-collapse memories with life twenty years later, centered on an actress in a traveling Shakespeare troupe and how interconnected survivors endure through art and memory.

We will start our discussion at 7:30. Food and drink are available for purchase.