Book Club Night Kit

Dream State

Eric Puchner

Cozy night

A sweeping, tender novel about a wedding at a Montana lake house and the decades of love, friendship, and quiet betrayal that ripple out from it. It is the kind of big, warm, generous book that makes people want to talk about their own families.

Come Be At The Lake House

Chili on the stove, huckleberry crumble in the oven, and Eric Puchner's Dream State to talk about. Bring slippers, bring your copy, bring nothing at all.

Reading level: Moderate Pages: 528

Best for: A club that loves big-hearted family sagas and does not mind a long book if the pages turn easily

Discussion

Warm-up

1.Before we talk about anybody in the book, tell us about a house or cabin you have loved. What did it smell like when you walked in?
2.What was the moment you realized you were settled in and not going to put this one down? Grab the page if you still have it tabbed.

Digging in

1.This is a book about a place people return to year after year. Where is your lake house, the spot you go back to even when it has changed? How does it feel when you get there now?
2.The long friendships here are as tender as the romances. Which friendship in the book made you want to call somebody, and did you actually call them?
3.There is so much quiet love in the small domestic stuff, meals made, rooms shared, people waiting up. Which of those ordinary moments comforted you most while you were reading?
4.Puchner lets us watch Montana itself warm and shift over decades. Did that make you feel grief, tenderness, or something gentler? How does it compare to a landscape you have watched change?

Going deep

1.Living with these people across so many years feels like aging alongside them. By the last stretch, did you find yourself forgiving choices that upset you early on? What softened in you?
2.The book is generous toward people who hurt each other without meaning to. Did that generosity feel like a comfort or a challenge to you, and did you want to extend it to anyone in your own life?

On the table & to sip

To eat

Big pot of venison or beef chili with cornbread

Montana lake house food, the kind of thing a crowd eats out of mismatched bowls. Make it the day before and it only gets better.

Huckleberry crumble with vanilla ice cream

Huckleberries are the signature Montana summer treasure. Frozen berries or a blueberry-blackberry mix work fine, and warm fruit under a blanket of oats is pure comfort.

Sheet pan of cheesy potato and leek gratin

A homey mountain-cabin side that sits on the counter all night and lets people keep going back. Minimal fuss, maximum nurture.

To sip

Hot spiced cider with orange and clove (no alcohol)

Keep it warm in a slow cooker by the door so arriving guests have something to hold. Entirely non-alcoholic and the most welcoming smell in the house.

Huckleberry whiskey smash

Berry jam, lemon, and bourbon, stirred not fussed over. A nod to the lake house evenings and the long Montana summers.

Boxed red in sturdy mugs

Deliberately unfancy, like a cabin kitchen cupboard where nothing matches. Low pressure is the whole point.