What are good book club discussion questions for Skylark?

Spoiler-free questions to get the conversation going: Before we say anything smart: where were you physically when you did most of your reading of this one, and did the setting of your chair match the mood of the book?; Was there a sentence of McLain's you had to stop and read twice, just because of how it sounded? Bring it to the table and read it out loud, no analysis required; Skylark is full of yearning for somewhere or someone just out of reach. Where were you when you first felt that particular ache, and did the book stir it back up or soothe it?; McLain writes women who are reaching for a bigger life than the one handed to them. Which moment of reaching made you feel protective, and which made you feel a little envious?; The title promises flight. When you were reading, did the book feel more like taking off or more like coming home? Did that change as you went?.

Cozy night

SkylarkBook club questions, food & host guide

Paula McLain

Picked by

GMA Book Club

A cozy book club night for Skylark by Paula McLain. Includes 8 spoiler-free discussion questions, food and drink pairings, a playlist, and a host guide, ready to print and share.

A club that loves beautiful sentences, slow emotional unfolding, and conversations that drift into real life

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Paula McLain, known for her immersive historical novels about remarkable women, returns with Skylark, a lyrical story that rewards slow, feeling-forward reading. It is the kind of book that makes a room go quiet and then makes everyone want to talk about their own lives.

Why it works for clubs

McLain writes interior, emotionally rich characters, so everyone comes with different feelings about the same scene
Themes of longing, reinvention, and belonging invite personal stories, not just literary analysis
The prose is gorgeous enough that people will want to read favorite passages aloud
Historical atmosphere gives the night an easy visual and sensory theme

Themes & mood

Lyrical Longing Historical Tender Atmospheric

Browse all themes →

Reading level

Moderate

Warm-up questions

1 Before we say anything smart: where were you physically when you did most of your reading of this one, and did the setting of your chair match the mood of the book?
2 Was there a sentence of McLain's you had to stop and read twice, just because of how it sounded? Bring it to the table and read it out loud, no analysis required.

Digging in

1 Skylark is full of yearning for somewhere or someone just out of reach. Where were you when you first felt that particular ache, and did the book stir it back up or soothe it?
2 McLain writes women who are reaching for a bigger life than the one handed to them. Which moment of reaching made you feel protective, and which made you feel a little envious?
3 The title promises flight. When you were reading, did the book feel more like taking off or more like coming home? Did that change as you went?
4 This is a book about being seen, sometimes by the wrong person at the wrong time. Who in your own life saw you clearly at a moment when you needed it, and did reading this bring them to mind?

Going deep

1 By the time you closed the book, had your feelings about what the main character wanted shifted from where they started? Describe the turn in your own chest rather than the plot that caused it.
2 McLain tends to let her characters pay for their freedom. Sitting with the whole book now, does it leave you feeling that the cost was worth paying, and would you have had the nerve?

On the table

Slow-cooked chicken and root vegetable pot pie, one big dish, spoons not slices

A period-feeling, hearth-and-home dish that fills the room with smell before anyone talks. Make it the morning of, reheat, serve in bowls on laps.

Warm buttermilk scones with honey butter and plum jam

Simple baking that nods to the book's old-world, homespun texture, and gives everyone something to hold while listening. Store-bought jam is completely allowed.

Spiced apple and brown-sugar crumble with cold cream poured over

The unfussy indulgent ending to a nurturing meal, and a warm counterpoint for the deeper half of the discussion. One pan, one spoon, zero plating stress.

To sip

Honey and lemon hot toddy

Whiskey, honey, lemon, hot water, a clove or two. Warm in the hands, loosens the quieter readers, fits the book's windblown, old-fashioned comfort.

Mulled cider with orange peel and cinnamon

Set it on low and let it perfume the house all evening. Smells like the book's rural, seasonal world and needs no attention once it is on.

Milk and honey chamomile tea, poured from a real pot No alcohol

Non-alcoholic, gentle, and genuinely soothing for a night built on feelings rather than debate. Put the pot on the table so people serve themselves.

Soft strings, fingerpicked guitar, and unhurried voices, the sound of a lamp-lit room with rain outside

Tap a track to play it. Full songs play when you're signed into Spotify.