Book Club Night Kit
The Book Of Possibility
Jim Curtis
Cozy night
A gentle, big-hearted invitation to imagine wider than your circumstances, The Book of Possibility reads like a long talk with someone who believes in you. It is the rare pick that leaves a room feeling lighter than when it started.
Soup, Cookies, and a Little More Possibility
Come read Jim Curtis's The Book of Possibility with us, then sit by the warm stove and talk about the lives we are still imagining. Wear something soft, bring nothing, stay as long as you like.
Reading level: Easy
Best for: A club that likes books which spark real conversation about their own lives, and that would rather feel something together than dissect a plot.
Discussion
Warm-up
- 1.Where did you do most of your reading of this one, and did the book start to take on the mood of that spot?
- 2.Was this a book you read in one long sitting or a few pages at a time before bed? What did that pacing do for you?
Digging in
- 1.Was there a page where you felt your shoulders drop a little? Read us a line or two from around there if you can find it.
- 2.The book keeps circling the idea that more is available to us than we assume. Where in your own life do you quietly suspect that is true?
- 3.Did anything in here feel like permission? Something you had been waiting for someone to say out loud before you let yourself want it?
- 4.Curtis writes with a lot of warmth toward the reader. Did that land as comforting for you, or did you find yourself wanting to push back? No wrong answer here.
Going deep
- 1.Think of a possibility you set down years ago and have not picked up since. Reading this, did you feel any pull toward it, or did you feel peace about having let it go?
- 2.By the time you closed the book, had your definition of a good life shifted even slightly? Tell us the before and the after without giving away how the book gets you there.
On the table & to sip
To eat
A big pot of chicken and wild rice soup with crusty bread
The book has the feel of being fed by someone who cares about you, and a ladle-your-own pot keeps the whole night low-effort and unhurried.
Brown butter chocolate chip cookies, served warm
Simple, generous, and a little indulgent. Pull a tray out mid-discussion so the room smells like possibility rather than obligation.
Honey, sharp cheddar, and apple slices on one shared board
Sweet-plus-sturdy, and it echoes the book's blend of open-hearted hope and practical grounding. Fifteen minutes of assembly, no cooking.
To sip
Honey-vanilla chamomile tea, brewed by the potful (no alcohol)
Warm, forgiving, endlessly refillable. Set out mugs and let people wander back for more between questions.
Spiced apple cider on the stove (no alcohol)
Cinnamon sticks and orange peel, kept on low all evening so the house smells like an invitation. Pours equally well for everyone.
Hot buttered rum
The grown-up nightcap version of comfort, for the part of the evening when the conversation turns personal and nobody wants to leave.
Run of show
7:00
Door open, soup on
No greeting line, no agenda. Cider on the stove, mugs out, people serve themselves and settle in wherever they like.
7:20
Warm-up circle
Ask the two warm-up questions while everyone eats. Nobody has to have finished the book to answer these.
7:45
Read a line aloud
Invite anyone who marked a passage to read it. Let silences sit. This is the heart of a cozy night.
8:05
Theme questions
Work through three or four, not all of them. Cookies come out of the oven in the middle of this block on purpose.
8:35
The quiet questions
Dim the lights a notch, pour the nightcaps, and move to the two deep questions. Let people pass if they want to.
9:05
Scorecards and soft landing
Hand out scorecards and bookmarks, take the next pick by vote, and let the night trail off rather than end.
Host tips
- Say up front that unfinished readers are welcome and there is no quiz. This book rewards a room where nobody is bracing.
- Keep one question in your back pocket and let a good tangent run. Cozy nights are measured in tangents, not questions covered.
- Have sticky tabs in a bowl by the door so people can mark passages as they think of them during the evening, then send folks home with leftover cookies.
Playlist
Soft, unhurried acoustic and piano, the sound of lamplight and a second cup of tea. Keep it low enough that nobody has to raise their voice.
- 01 Holocene - Bon Iver
- 02 The Gift - Ludovico Einaudi
- 03 First Day of My Life - Bright Eyes
- 04 Gymnopedie No. 1 - Erik Satie
- 05 Saturn - Sleeping at Last
- 06 Harvest Moon - Neil Young
- 07 Re: Stacks - Bon Iver
- 08 Landslide - Fleetwood Mac
Trivia
- 1.What broad genre does The Book of Possibility sit in? (Inspirational and personal development nonfiction, the hopeful end of the self-help shelf.)
- 2.Is the title's key word (possibility) a noun about what exists, or about what could exist? (What could exist. Possibility names the not-yet, which is exactly the book's subject.)
- 3.Books built around short, standalone reflections are often called what kind of reading? (Companion or bedside reading, meant to be picked up a few pages at a time.)
- 4.What is the traditional publishing term for the brief endorsements printed on a book's back cover? (Blurbs.)
- 5.Books of encouragement like this one are frequently shelved beside what other nonfiction category in stores? (Memoir, since both lean on lived experience to make a point.)
- 6.What do you call a short introductory line placed at the head of a chapter, common in books of this style? (An epigraph.)
- 7.Hope, agency, and reframing limits are all examples of what element of a nonfiction book? (Its themes.)
- 8.When a nonfiction author addresses the reader directly as you, what is that mode called? (Second person address.)
Bookmarks
Print, cut, and tuck one at every seat, a small keepsake from the night.
“Keep the kettle on. The wider life can wait an hour.”
The Book Of Possibility
Jim Curtis
bookclubnight.com
“Something you set down is still yours to pick up.”
The Book Of Possibility
Jim Curtis
bookclubnight.com
“Read slowly. Possibility does not mind being kept waiting.”
The Book Of Possibility
Jim Curtis
bookclubnight.com
Rate the book
Warmth☆☆☆☆☆
Did it move me☆☆☆☆☆
Comfort reread value☆☆☆☆☆
Sentences worth marking☆☆☆☆☆
Would I hand it to a friend☆☆☆☆☆
One word for how this book left me: ______________________
The line I keep thinking about: ______________________
Someone I want to give 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.