Though classes are starting to pick up, it’s still early enough in the semester to actually have some downtime. But if you’ve already re-watched “The Office” for the sixth time, it might be time to put down the remote and pick up a book that isn’t required reading. February is stacked with great new releases, and these five books — all coming out today — will keep you turning the page.

“In Other Words” by Jhumpa Lahiri

Jhumpa Lahiri is an author known for her explorations of human nature and the way people’s lives intertwine. “In Other Words” — a hybrid of Italian prose, a short story and an exploration of Lahiri’s relationship with language — is the author’s non-fiction debut. Lahiri’s other works are known for their compelling plots and portrayals of complex dynamics within families and friendships, but in writing about her own life, Lahiri was forced to confront the trials of learning how to express herself in a foreign language after having been so successful at writing in English, her native language. “In Other Words” is a meditation on how language plays into who we are, how communication connects us to others and how we feel when the words are hard to find.

“Wreck and Order: A Novel” by Hannah Tennant-Moore

“Wreck and Order,” the debut novel written by Hannah Tennant-Moore, follows main character Elsie as she travels across the world, and ultimately finds herself and who she hopes to be. Elsie’s travels around the world under the guise of education may sound appealing, but as she tries to escape through her journey, she finds that life is hard and confusing, and that we carry ourselves no matter where we go. Because of this, Elsie discovers that figuring out who we are is the hardest — but most important — adventure that we can embark on.

“The Heart: A Novel” by Maylis de Kerangal; translated by Sam Taylor

Previously published to great acclaim in France, Maylis de Kerangal’s “The Heart” is being published in English for American audiences this week and promises a provoking look at life, death and all that can change in a mere 24 hours. In the day following a fatal car crash, de Kerangal tells the story of the heart of a boy who was killed and the woman who receives it as a transplant. The novel explores the emotions and conflicts experienced by the other people involved in the process of the transplant — parents, doctors and nurses, among others — as they grapple with rights, wrongs, life, death and the hardships and blessings of being an outsider to an intimate tragedy.

“Ways to Disappear” by Idra Novey

“Ways to Disappear” is a mystery novel set in the heart of Brazil: Rio de Janeiro. With the upcoming Summer Olympics calling the same city their home in a few months, this fantastical novel provides an escape to both a city and culture which will soon be made public. When an author, Beatriz, goes missing in Brazil, her American translator, Emma, sets out to track her down, believing that the key to her whereabouts lies in her prose. Teaming up with Beatriz’s adult children, Emma must untangle the secrets and meanings that literature-in-translation creates and ultimately determine the true power of Beatriz’s words.

“Sudden Death” by Álvaro Enrigue; translated by Natasha Wimmer

Álvaro Enrigue’s “Sudden Death” begins as a tennis match, albeit an undeniably strange one; the ball is made from the hair of Anne Boleyn and the players are Italian painter Caravaggio and Spanish poet Francisco de Quevedo. Weaving art, history, religion and modern questions of existence together, Enrigue creates a story that is at once familiar and fantastical. By exploring colonial relations and conquests during the Age of Discovery, “Sudden Death” is not only a vehicle for examining the world as it was long ago, but it is also a story in which one will find love, lust, war, death and humor.