Book Club Night Kit
Peck & Peck
Bonnie Garmus
Cozy night
A warm, wry novel about a young man with an unfashionable gift (an ear for poetry) who lands inside a famously secretive journal run by thirty-nine editors who believe poems can save us. It is funny, tender, and full of odd people learning to love each other.
Soup, Cake, and Thirty-Nine Editors
Come read about the world's most secretive poetry journal, in slippers, with a bowl of something warm. Bring a poem you love if one comes to mind, and absolutely no pressure if it does not.
Reading level: Moderate
Best for: A club that likes to laugh, linger, and talk about feelings more than themes, preferably with second helpings.
Discussion
Warm-up
- 1.Batter was named after his parents' dog. What is the story behind your name, or a nickname you have quietly carried for years?
- 2.Settle in and tell us: where did you do most of your reading of this one, and did the book start to feel like company?
Digging in
- 1.The editors believe poems hold the key to humanity's survival. Has a poem, song lyric, or single sentence ever genuinely gotten you through something? Bring it to the table if you remember it.
- 2.Batter has a skill no one wants. Which of your own small, unmarketable talents do you secretly treasure, and did reading about his make you feel better about it?
- 3.Peck & Peck is prestigious, secretive, and dysfunctional all at once. Have you ever loved a job, club, or family that was all three, and what did you miss about it afterward?
- 4.Which of the journal's odd rituals or workplace habits did you find oddly comforting, and which moment made you want to bring that whole office a casserole?
Going deep
- 1.Somewhere in these pages there is probably a moment where you felt the book put a hand on your shoulder. Without spoiling where it lands, what was yours, and what in your own life was it speaking to?
- 2.By the final stretch, did the novel leave you feeling more hopeful about people or more tender toward them? Describe the feeling you were sitting with when you closed it, no plot details needed.
On the table & to sip
To eat
Deli-counter chicken soup with fat egg noodles
A 1982 New York staple and the single most nurturing thing you can put in front of a reader. Make a big pot, let people ladle their own.
Build-your-own rye and pumpernickel sandwich board
Pastrami, Swiss, mustard, pickles, and a vegetarian pile of roasted peppers and egg salad. Low-effort, very Manhattan lunch hour, easy to eat while talking.
Warm cinnamon coffee cake with a crumb top
The sort of thing an office of thirty-nine editors would fight over at four in the afternoon. Bake ahead, warm it before guests arrive.
To sip
Endless pot of diner coffee with real cream (no alcohol)
Bottomless, slightly too strong, exactly what a poetry journal runs on. Non-alcoholic and the backbone of the night.
Honey and lemon hot toddy
A gentle whiskey warmer for a 1982 winter in the city, served in mugs so nobody feels like they are at a cocktail party.
Cheap red wine in juice glasses
The editorial-meeting pour: unfussy, generous, poured without ceremony.
Run of show
7:00
Soup on, lamps low
Guests arrive to coffee and the smell of the coffee cake. No seating chart, no agenda in sight.
7:15
Name stories
Run the two warm-ups over bowls of soup. Everybody talks before anyone has to be clever.
7:40
The poem you kept
Invite anyone who brought a poem, lyric, or line to read it aloud. Keep it optional and keep it short.
8:00
The journal and its people
Move into the theme questions. Let tangents run; this is the warm middle of the night.
8:40
Cake and the tender part
Serve the coffee cake and move to the two deeper questions. Remind people to stay vague about the ending.
9:10
Scorecards and seconds
Fill in scorecards aloud, pick the next book, send leftovers home in containers.
Host tips
- Say out loud at the start that nobody needs to have finished, and mean it. Sort late readers to one end of the couch for the deep questions.
- Keep the food self-serve on a sideboard so the conversation never stops for hosting duties.
- Have three or four short poems printed and face-down in a bowl for anyone who wants to read something but did not bring one.
Playlist
Soft-lit early-eighties New York on a rainy evening: piano, warm vocals, a little saxophone, nothing that makes you raise your voice.
- 01 The Moon and St. Christopher - Mary Chapin Carpenter
- 02 New York City Serenade - Bruce Springsteen
- 03 Fast Car - Tracy Chapman
- 04 Chelsea Morning - Joni Mitchell
- 05 Harlem Nocturne - Illinois Jacquet
- 06 Still Crazy After All These Years - Paul Simon
- 07 Autumn in New York - Billie Holiday
- 08 Everybody's Talkin' - Bill Withers
Trivia
- 1.Which bestselling debut novel did Bonnie Garmus publish before Peck & Peck? (Lessons in Chemistry.)
- 2.Peck & Peck is Garmus's second novel. In what year was it published? (2026.)
- 3.In what city and year is Peck & Peck set? (New York City, 1982.)
- 4.How many editors work at the Peck & Peck journal? (Thirty-nine.)
- 5.What is the main character's first name, and what was he named after? (Batter, named after his parents' dog.)
- 6.What unusual skill gets Batter hired at the journal? (An ear for poetry.)
- 7.Garmus worked for years in which profession before becoming a novelist? (Advertising, as a copywriter and creative director.)
- 8.Garmus's debut was adapted into a streaming series starring which actress? (Brie Larson.)
Bookmarks
Print, cut, and tuck one at every seat, a small keepsake from the night.
“Thirty-nine editors, one warm lamp, and a poem worth saving.”
Peck & Peck
Bonnie Garmus
bookclubnight.com
“Keep the useless gift. Someone will need it by spring.”
Peck & Peck
Bonnie Garmus
bookclubnight.com
“Coffee gone cold, the right line finally found.”
Peck & Peck
Bonnie Garmus
bookclubnight.com
Rate the book
Comfort factor☆☆☆☆☆
Characters you would feed☆☆☆☆☆
Warmth of the humor☆☆☆☆☆
How held you felt☆☆☆☆☆
Would reread on a rainy day☆☆☆☆☆
One word for how this book left me feeling: ______________________
The moment I would reread tonight: ______________________
Who in my life I want to hand this to: ______________________
That's a wrap
Thank you for coming
We hope the company was good and the conversation even better. Until the next chapter.