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Peck & Peck
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25 copies available
U.S. only
The number one bestselling author of global sensation Lessons in Chemistry returns with an irresistible, delightful, and tender story about a young man whose life turns upside down when he is hired by the most prestigious, secretive, and dysfunctional poetry journal in the world: the renowned Peck & Peck of New York City.
Batter Gray is worried about his future. Even when he was eleven, his classmates seemed to have settled on a goal: doctor, lawyer, broker, engineer. Good jobs that automatically command respect, security, 401Ks. Now Batter is in his early twenties, living in New York City, and he wants something different; something that alienates some readers and bores most. Poetry. And yet—to him and exactly thirty-nine editors at a company called Peck & Peck—poetry not only represents the power of humanity but holds the key to its survival.
Batter is named after his mother’s heroic dog. An identical twin who lost his brother at birth, he finds himself confronted by the everyday dualities that make up life: right vs. wrong, truth vs. lies, rejection vs. acceptance. It’s almost as if his dead brother is a reminder: there are always two sides to every story.
No, wait. Make that three.
Batter Gray is worried about his future. Even when he was eleven, his classmates seemed to have settled on a goal: doctor, lawyer, broker, engineer. Good jobs that automatically command respect, security, 401Ks. Now Batter is in his early twenties, living in New York City, and he wants something different; something that alienates some readers and bores most. Poetry. And yet—to him and exactly thirty-nine editors at a company called Peck & Peck—poetry not only represents the power of humanity but holds the key to its survival.
Batter is named after his mother’s heroic dog. An identical twin who lost his brother at birth, he finds himself confronted by the everyday dualities that make up life: right vs. wrong, truth vs. lies, rejection vs. acceptance. It’s almost as if his dead brother is a reminder: there are always two sides to every story.
No, wait. Make that three.
Kindle Edition
Expected publication October 13, 2026
About the author
Bonnie Garmus
6 books15.1k followersBonnie Garmus is a copywriter and creative director who’s worked widely in the fields of technology, medicine, and education. She’s an open-water swimmer, a rower, and mother to two pretty amazing daughters. Born in California and most recently from Seattle, she currently lives in London with her husband and her dog, 99.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
Want to Read
April 5, 2026A new book by Lessons in Chemistry author, Bonnie Garmus? I'm there!
Want to Read
March 22, 2026literally beyond excited for the next book from bonnie garmus' genius mind — this time about a young man working at the most prestigious publishing house in nyc: peck & peck 🤭📝
Want to Read
March 23, 2026My most anticipated release of the year!! I will read literally anything Bonnie Garmus writes.
I listened to a podcast interview she did about this book, and I'm super intrigued...
I listened to a podcast interview she did about this book, and I'm super intrigued...
June 16, 2026
I loved it! I don’t know if I like it better than Lessons, but it’s just as good for different reasons. I found it humorous yet profound, and everyone should read it.
Want to Read
April 2, 2026I have eagerly been awaiting more Garmus novels since Lessons in Chemistry! October, you cannot come soon enough :)
June 6, 2026
I very much looked forward to reading this second novel by Bonnie Garmus. Lessons in Chemistry was an amazing reading surprise. This second novel disappointed me. The first half of the novel is very slow, a bit tedious, but I persisted. Much more activity in the second half, but it wasn’t enough to overcome my initial reaction.
June 5, 2026
This book is a masterpiece. I love Batter.
Read
April 9, 2026i really liked this! wasn’t expecting it to be as funny as LIC but it was a breath of fresh air.
Review of advance copy
There is a particular kind of novel that wants to be read aloud, ideally at a kitchen table with strong coffee and someone willing to laugh in the right places. Peck & Peck by Bonnie Garmus is precisely that book. Four years after Lessons in Chemistry turned a chemist named Elizabeth Zott into a household saint, Garmus returns with a story about a young man who wants to spend his life on the least practical art form ever invented. She writes about poetry the way she once wrote about cooking: as a stand-in for everything that matters and almost nothing the modern world will pay for.
The Setup: A Boy, a Dog, and a Quarterly That Hates You
Batter Gray is a Yuba City kid raised by Rainey, a type designer who treats Helvetica as a moral statement, and John, a community college historian who carries every televised tragedy like a private bruise. Batter is an identical twin minus the twin. He is also named after a dog his mother insists was a heart-stopping hero. By his early twenties he has fled to New York, lied to his parents about a print shop job, and somehow talked his way into Peck & Peck, a famously secretive poetry quarterly run out of a triangle of Manhattan real estate that looks like a greenhouse and behaves like a cult.
What he actually does there, at first, is run three copiers in a converted bomb shelter. Above him, thirty-nine editors and one Editor in Chief argue about commas, eggs, and which young hopeful deserves a spot in the slim leather-bound quarterly that arrives, every issue, wrapped in the image of a single glowing quail egg.
Voice and Style: Garmus Doesn't Sound Like Anyone Else
This is where the novel earns its keep. The voice in Peck & Peck by Bonnie Garmus is a first-person, slightly older Batter looking back on the year that changed everything, and the result reads less like a novel than a long, funny, anxious confession told over a bar. Garmus writes sentences that ricochet between joke and grief inside a single paragraph. A line about why parents never want a poet for a son sits beside a line about a stillborn brother, and somehow neither feels engineered.
Dialogue as Architecture
Her dialogue is the real flex. Conversations between Batter and his mother are running ten-rounders of digression. Rainey can begin with the failure of school punctuality, detour through Christopher Columbus, the etymology of "discover," the ergonomics of Macy's at Herald Square, and arrive at a chastisement about your posture without losing her thread. It is exhausting in the best way. Garmus has clearly grown more confident in the comic monologue since Lessons in Chemistry. She lets her characters talk longer and trusts the reader to keep up.
What Works Beautifully
Five things this novel does better than almost any literary comedy on the shelves right now:
Rainey Gray is one of the year's great mothers. She is opinionated, secretly wounded, frequently absurd, and never sentimentalized. Her relationship with grief, which the book unpacks slowly, is the emotional engine of the whole thing.
The Peck & Peck offices themselves are practically a character. The Aviary, the marble staircase, the alphabetic topiaries, the pneumatic chute system that hurls cylinders past the basement at the speed of a small bull. Garmus has built a literary New York fever dream and then sketched it with such tactile detail you can almost smell the toner.
The 1980s setting is handled with restraint. No nostalgia karaoke, no laundry list of references. Just the right amount of IBM Selectrics, payphone messages, and AZT-era worry to make the period feel lived in.
The workplace satire is sharp without being mean. Salton Peck, the tyrannical Editor in Chief, is funny in a way that does not let him off the hook morally.
There is a love story that genuinely earns its swoons, and you will not see its full shape until late in the book.
Where the Novel Hits a Few Speed Bumps
In the interest of honesty, Peck & Peck by Bonnie Garmus is not flawless, and pretending otherwise would do Garmus a disservice. The book occasionally suffers from the same condition as its protagonist: it has trouble committing to one thing at a time. Several issues stand out for a reader who already loves Garmus and wants this to be even better than it is.
The middle section sags. Once Batter is settled into the copy room and the office politics get rolling, the plot enters a long holding pattern in which similar comic beats repeat. A leaner edit by perhaps fifty pages would have sharpened the ending.
Some of the side editors blur together. Peck & Peck employs forty editors by design, but in narrative practice that is too many. A few feel sketched rather than fully drawn.
Rainey's monologues, much as I loved them, occasionally tip from charming digression into authorial soapbox. Garmus has things to say about typography, history, women's medicine, and American hypocrisy, and Rainey is the willing megaphone.
The mystery elements teased in the opening lines, including the question of why Batter ends up Prisoner 83A0956, are dangled early and resolved very late. The payoff is strong, but the wait stretches a beat too long.
None of this sinks the book. It just keeps it from the genuine knockout that Lessons in Chemistry turned out to be.
The Beating Heart: Identity, Duality, and Earning a Name
What lifts Peck & Peck by Bonnie Garmus above its workplace comedy bones is the quiet conviction that names matter, that they are a kind of inheritance you either live up to or unlive your way out of. Batter spends the book trying to understand what his name actually means. The truth he uncovers, when it lands, reframes everything we have read. It is a novel about a young man searching for permission to take poetry seriously, but underneath that it is a novel about the parents who shape us through omission as much as instruction, and about the strange comfort of being one half of a pair that history erased before you arrived.
A Study in Doubles
The motif of doubles runs through every layer of the novel. Twin protagonists. Twin Peck brothers. Twin desks pushed back to back. Twin lions outside the New York Public Library. Right versus wrong. Truth versus lie. Garmus uses the architecture of duality without ever calling attention to it, and that restraint is its own quiet triumph.
Who Should Read This Book
This one will land especially hard for readers who:
Loved Lessons in Chemistry but want something slightly stranger and more melancholy.
Have ever worked at a place that took itself far too seriously.
Care about poetry, typography, or the dignity of small, unprofitable obsessions.
Believe a well-written mother can carry an entire novel.
Final Thoughts
Garmus has written a second novel that does not chase the success of her first. It is smaller in plot, looser in shape, and richer in voice. There are moments in Peck & Peck by Bonnie Garmus where the prose is so loose and so happy with itself you can almost hear the author laughing in the next room, and there are other moments, especially anywhere Rainey opens her mouth or anywhere a quail egg is mentioned, where the book quietly breaks your heart. It does not entirely cohere. It does not have to. Like the quarterly at its center, this novel is interested in originality, beauty, and substance, and it lands two of those three without breaking a sweat.
The Setup: A Boy, a Dog, and a Quarterly That Hates You
Batter Gray is a Yuba City kid raised by Rainey, a type designer who treats Helvetica as a moral statement, and John, a community college historian who carries every televised tragedy like a private bruise. Batter is an identical twin minus the twin. He is also named after a dog his mother insists was a heart-stopping hero. By his early twenties he has fled to New York, lied to his parents about a print shop job, and somehow talked his way into Peck & Peck, a famously secretive poetry quarterly run out of a triangle of Manhattan real estate that looks like a greenhouse and behaves like a cult.
What he actually does there, at first, is run three copiers in a converted bomb shelter. Above him, thirty-nine editors and one Editor in Chief argue about commas, eggs, and which young hopeful deserves a spot in the slim leather-bound quarterly that arrives, every issue, wrapped in the image of a single glowing quail egg.
Voice and Style: Garmus Doesn't Sound Like Anyone Else
This is where the novel earns its keep. The voice in Peck & Peck by Bonnie Garmus is a first-person, slightly older Batter looking back on the year that changed everything, and the result reads less like a novel than a long, funny, anxious confession told over a bar. Garmus writes sentences that ricochet between joke and grief inside a single paragraph. A line about why parents never want a poet for a son sits beside a line about a stillborn brother, and somehow neither feels engineered.
Dialogue as Architecture
Her dialogue is the real flex. Conversations between Batter and his mother are running ten-rounders of digression. Rainey can begin with the failure of school punctuality, detour through Christopher Columbus, the etymology of "discover," the ergonomics of Macy's at Herald Square, and arrive at a chastisement about your posture without losing her thread. It is exhausting in the best way. Garmus has clearly grown more confident in the comic monologue since Lessons in Chemistry. She lets her characters talk longer and trusts the reader to keep up.
What Works Beautifully
Five things this novel does better than almost any literary comedy on the shelves right now:
Rainey Gray is one of the year's great mothers. She is opinionated, secretly wounded, frequently absurd, and never sentimentalized. Her relationship with grief, which the book unpacks slowly, is the emotional engine of the whole thing.
The Peck & Peck offices themselves are practically a character. The Aviary, the marble staircase, the alphabetic topiaries, the pneumatic chute system that hurls cylinders past the basement at the speed of a small bull. Garmus has built a literary New York fever dream and then sketched it with such tactile detail you can almost smell the toner.
The 1980s setting is handled with restraint. No nostalgia karaoke, no laundry list of references. Just the right amount of IBM Selectrics, payphone messages, and AZT-era worry to make the period feel lived in.
The workplace satire is sharp without being mean. Salton Peck, the tyrannical Editor in Chief, is funny in a way that does not let him off the hook morally.
There is a love story that genuinely earns its swoons, and you will not see its full shape until late in the book.
Where the Novel Hits a Few Speed Bumps
In the interest of honesty, Peck & Peck by Bonnie Garmus is not flawless, and pretending otherwise would do Garmus a disservice. The book occasionally suffers from the same condition as its protagonist: it has trouble committing to one thing at a time. Several issues stand out for a reader who already loves Garmus and wants this to be even better than it is.
The middle section sags. Once Batter is settled into the copy room and the office politics get rolling, the plot enters a long holding pattern in which similar comic beats repeat. A leaner edit by perhaps fifty pages would have sharpened the ending.
Some of the side editors blur together. Peck & Peck employs forty editors by design, but in narrative practice that is too many. A few feel sketched rather than fully drawn.
Rainey's monologues, much as I loved them, occasionally tip from charming digression into authorial soapbox. Garmus has things to say about typography, history, women's medicine, and American hypocrisy, and Rainey is the willing megaphone.
The mystery elements teased in the opening lines, including the question of why Batter ends up Prisoner 83A0956, are dangled early and resolved very late. The payoff is strong, but the wait stretches a beat too long.
None of this sinks the book. It just keeps it from the genuine knockout that Lessons in Chemistry turned out to be.
The Beating Heart: Identity, Duality, and Earning a Name
What lifts Peck & Peck by Bonnie Garmus above its workplace comedy bones is the quiet conviction that names matter, that they are a kind of inheritance you either live up to or unlive your way out of. Batter spends the book trying to understand what his name actually means. The truth he uncovers, when it lands, reframes everything we have read. It is a novel about a young man searching for permission to take poetry seriously, but underneath that it is a novel about the parents who shape us through omission as much as instruction, and about the strange comfort of being one half of a pair that history erased before you arrived.
A Study in Doubles
The motif of doubles runs through every layer of the novel. Twin protagonists. Twin Peck brothers. Twin desks pushed back to back. Twin lions outside the New York Public Library. Right versus wrong. Truth versus lie. Garmus uses the architecture of duality without ever calling attention to it, and that restraint is its own quiet triumph.
Who Should Read This Book
This one will land especially hard for readers who:
Loved Lessons in Chemistry but want something slightly stranger and more melancholy.
Have ever worked at a place that took itself far too seriously.
Care about poetry, typography, or the dignity of small, unprofitable obsessions.
Believe a well-written mother can carry an entire novel.
Final Thoughts
Garmus has written a second novel that does not chase the success of her first. It is smaller in plot, looser in shape, and richer in voice. There are moments in Peck & Peck by Bonnie Garmus where the prose is so loose and so happy with itself you can almost hear the author laughing in the next room, and there are other moments, especially anywhere Rainey opens her mouth or anywhere a quail egg is mentioned, where the book quietly breaks your heart. It does not entirely cohere. It does not have to. Like the quarterly at its center, this novel is interested in originality, beauty, and substance, and it lands two of those three without breaking a sweat.
Review of advance copy received from Edelweiss+
In this novel we have a young man, Batter Gray, who is in his early 20’s and doesn’t know what to do with his life. The reason is that he only cares about poetry, he loves to read it, analyse it, save it - he writes a little but never shows it to anyone.
After some starts and stops he lands a job, albeit in the copy room, of Peck and Peck a prestigious old firm that reviews poetry. They publish a quarterly that showcases new poets.
Batter quickly finds that there are some very unhappy people working at this firm, most of it due to Salton Peck, the Editor and Chief of Peck and Peck. He is obnoxious, self righteous, screams at everyone and generally makes life miserable for all. He is one of the last of the Peck twins to run the company - I had trouble believing that any editors or other staff would work for this person, for this company. He even admits to hating poetry!
The novel follows Batter Gray as he goes through week after week working with no hope of promotion in sight. To say any more would ruin the plot.
Some of my CONS:
The novel moves at a glacial pace, there wasn’t much going until the last 20% of the book.
Batter’s mother is a typesetting designer, something I knew nothing about. The discussions about all things “typesetting” went on throughout the book with every conversation between Batter and his mom.
I was looking forward to reading some poetry but there are very few included in the novel. There are however many references to poets and how to write poetry, the types of poetry, etc.
PROS:
There was some humor in the novel - between Batter and some of the other employees which was great.
The ending wrapped up quickly and made for a feeling of “oh good, things will turn out o.k.”
The story of Batter’s namesake, a dog, was a fun addition - his mother insists that the dog was a hero and her stories are great to read.
I have sat on this review because I wanted to be fair and honest - so for me this book was a solid 3*. I would definitely recommend it as there is some great writing here. I’m wondering if this book would be better on audio with the many different characters???
I received an ARC of this novel from the publishers through Edelweiss. It was my pleasure to read and review this novel.
After some starts and stops he lands a job, albeit in the copy room, of Peck and Peck a prestigious old firm that reviews poetry. They publish a quarterly that showcases new poets.
Batter quickly finds that there are some very unhappy people working at this firm, most of it due to Salton Peck, the Editor and Chief of Peck and Peck. He is obnoxious, self righteous, screams at everyone and generally makes life miserable for all. He is one of the last of the Peck twins to run the company - I had trouble believing that any editors or other staff would work for this person, for this company. He even admits to hating poetry!
The novel follows Batter Gray as he goes through week after week working with no hope of promotion in sight. To say any more would ruin the plot.
Some of my CONS:
The novel moves at a glacial pace, there wasn’t much going until the last 20% of the book.
Batter’s mother is a typesetting designer, something I knew nothing about. The discussions about all things “typesetting” went on throughout the book with every conversation between Batter and his mom.
I was looking forward to reading some poetry but there are very few included in the novel. There are however many references to poets and how to write poetry, the types of poetry, etc.
PROS:
There was some humor in the novel - between Batter and some of the other employees which was great.
The ending wrapped up quickly and made for a feeling of “oh good, things will turn out o.k.”
The story of Batter’s namesake, a dog, was a fun addition - his mother insists that the dog was a hero and her stories are great to read.
I have sat on this review because I wanted to be fair and honest - so for me this book was a solid 3*. I would definitely recommend it as there is some great writing here. I’m wondering if this book would be better on audio with the many different characters???
I received an ARC of this novel from the publishers through Edelweiss. It was my pleasure to read and review this novel.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Have you ever read a novel that exhausted you? That overstimulated you? That your heart begged to keep reading while your brain desperately asked to stop? One you read eagerly to find out what happens next, wondering how it will all end, while at the same time never wanting it to end?
For me, that novel is Peck & Peck, the sophomore novel of Bonnie Garmus. I was captivated from the first page. The story was so full of life and energy and incredibly witty and self deprecating dialogue, so full of larger than life characters, that at times I felt overwhelmed, like I had too much of a good thing, and had to step back for a few days. Typically when I enjoy a book this much, I want to read it straight through, but Peck & Peck left my nerves exhausted in the best way.
Batter Gray has lived a reasonably blissful life, despite losing his twin brother before they were born. His parents are loving and doting and incredibly intelligent. His mother in particular shares many heroic and amazingly entertaining stories about a scruffy dog named Batter (the namesake of human Batter) which follow Batter through childhood and into adulthood.
Still, Batter is in college with little to no idea of what he'd like to do with his life. He knows he wants to make his parents proud and he knows that his one true love and obsession in life is poetry. Not knowing how he could possibly turn poetry into a sufficient living, he picks up and drops many majors during his college years.
After college Batter continues to work a tapestry of retail and restaurant jobs while his friends confidently move forward in their chosen careers. Fortunately, Batter's luck changes when he stumbles into a position at Peck & Peck, the preeminent poetry publication in the country. What follows is some rule breaking (okay, and maybe some law breaking as well), missteps, crises of character, and one of the most toxic work environments I've ever read about.
At times Peck & Peck felt overly long and redundant, however, while it didn't live up to the author's debut, it was a smart, well written, intricately plotted, and absurdly entertaining novel.
For me, that novel is Peck & Peck, the sophomore novel of Bonnie Garmus. I was captivated from the first page. The story was so full of life and energy and incredibly witty and self deprecating dialogue, so full of larger than life characters, that at times I felt overwhelmed, like I had too much of a good thing, and had to step back for a few days. Typically when I enjoy a book this much, I want to read it straight through, but Peck & Peck left my nerves exhausted in the best way.
Batter Gray has lived a reasonably blissful life, despite losing his twin brother before they were born. His parents are loving and doting and incredibly intelligent. His mother in particular shares many heroic and amazingly entertaining stories about a scruffy dog named Batter (the namesake of human Batter) which follow Batter through childhood and into adulthood.
Still, Batter is in college with little to no idea of what he'd like to do with his life. He knows he wants to make his parents proud and he knows that his one true love and obsession in life is poetry. Not knowing how he could possibly turn poetry into a sufficient living, he picks up and drops many majors during his college years.
After college Batter continues to work a tapestry of retail and restaurant jobs while his friends confidently move forward in their chosen careers. Fortunately, Batter's luck changes when he stumbles into a position at Peck & Peck, the preeminent poetry publication in the country. What follows is some rule breaking (okay, and maybe some law breaking as well), missteps, crises of character, and one of the most toxic work environments I've ever read about.
At times Peck & Peck felt overly long and redundant, however, while it didn't live up to the author's debut, it was a smart, well written, intricately plotted, and absurdly entertaining novel.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Received ARC from NetGalley and publisher Scribner in exchange for an honest review.
This was a mixed read for me. There were definitely things I enjoyed, but it never came close to capturing the magic I felt reading Lessons in Chemistry.
The biggest strength of the book was its characters. Batter was easily my favorite part of the story. He felt genuine, thoughtful, and easy to root for, and I found myself most invested whenever he was on the page. The quirky cast surrounding him also helped give the book a lot of personality.
I also enjoyed the setting and atmosphere. Peck & Peck itself felt unique and memorable, and Bonnie Garmus clearly put a lot of care into creating this strange, colorful world. The problem for me was that the atmosphere often felt more important than the actual story. There were long stretches where it seemed like the book was content to exist in its own quirky environments rather than move the plot forward.
Unfortunately, the pacing was a major issue. The first 60% felt like a slog. I kept waiting for something to happen, and much of that early section was simply slow and, at times, boring. Once things finally started coming together, my interest picked up considerably.
I did appreciate that the story wrapped up its loose ends, but the resolution felt a little too fantastical for me. After spending so much time in a story that felt grounded in its characters, the ending pushed beyond what I was willing to buy into.
Overall, I can see why some readers will love this one, especially if they enjoy eccentric characters and immersive atmospheres. For me, Batter carried the book, but the slow pacing and overly fanciful ending kept it from being a favorite.
This was a mixed read for me. There were definitely things I enjoyed, but it never came close to capturing the magic I felt reading Lessons in Chemistry.
The biggest strength of the book was its characters. Batter was easily my favorite part of the story. He felt genuine, thoughtful, and easy to root for, and I found myself most invested whenever he was on the page. The quirky cast surrounding him also helped give the book a lot of personality.
I also enjoyed the setting and atmosphere. Peck & Peck itself felt unique and memorable, and Bonnie Garmus clearly put a lot of care into creating this strange, colorful world. The problem for me was that the atmosphere often felt more important than the actual story. There were long stretches where it seemed like the book was content to exist in its own quirky environments rather than move the plot forward.
Unfortunately, the pacing was a major issue. The first 60% felt like a slog. I kept waiting for something to happen, and much of that early section was simply slow and, at times, boring. Once things finally started coming together, my interest picked up considerably.
I did appreciate that the story wrapped up its loose ends, but the resolution felt a little too fantastical for me. After spending so much time in a story that felt grounded in its characters, the ending pushed beyond what I was willing to buy into.
Overall, I can see why some readers will love this one, especially if they enjoy eccentric characters and immersive atmospheres. For me, Batter carried the book, but the slow pacing and overly fanciful ending kept it from being a favorite.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
This was an interesting and thoughtful story. The characters are wonderful and so lushly written. The setting lends itself to fantasy as it is beyond imagination. Garmus even found a way to make a copy room sound cozy. The story itself is unlike anything I've read and I found it interesting. For me, it took about 2/3 before I thought the story picked up. I was concerned that I wasn't going to keep on reading, as I found the beginning slow, but the characters really kept me going. I'm sure that I won't be the only reader who says that poetry isn't really their jam. A lot of name-dropping of poets and talk about different poet structure was wasted on me and, honestly, I became rather bored rather quickly with the on and on and on of the publishing of Peck & Peck.
There's a pointed section within that gives commentary on the idea of AI (of course, it's not specified that's what it is but us modern day readers got the nod) and a courtroom scene that was highly reminiscent of one of the best scenes in My Cousin Vinny. That particular scene was probably my favorite in the book. I actually found all the details on type set fascinating and enjoyed them more than the details about poetry. I never thought I'd find myself reading a book and Googling the history of different fonts, but here we are.
Nonetheless, it was a lovely story. Bonnie Garmus had once again delivered a heart-warming story with characters you want to hold on to and a dog that sets the bar impossibly high for any canine who may cross your path.
Pass along to all readers.
There's a pointed section within that gives commentary on the idea of AI (of course, it's not specified that's what it is but us modern day readers got the nod) and a courtroom scene that was highly reminiscent of one of the best scenes in My Cousin Vinny. That particular scene was probably my favorite in the book. I actually found all the details on type set fascinating and enjoyed them more than the details about poetry. I never thought I'd find myself reading a book and Googling the history of different fonts, but here we are.
Nonetheless, it was a lovely story. Bonnie Garmus had once again delivered a heart-warming story with characters you want to hold on to and a dog that sets the bar impossibly high for any canine who may cross your path.
Pass along to all readers.
Review of advance copy received from Edelweiss+
Peck & Peck is a gem of a story with so many vivid characters.
Both quirky, delightful and propulsive at times, but also full of so much knowledge about poetry, typeface, and writers in general.
Batter Gray is down and out juggling multiple hourly wage jobs when he discovers the esteemed Peck & Peck, a well-known yet flailing quarterly poetry publication. Poetry has been central throughout Batter’s life and with a little determination & luck he stumbles into a job there as the copy boy.
Generations of Pecks have run the company and the current one, Salton, while being harsh and at many times irate with his editors, he sees something in Batter.
Hijinks unfold, past sibling rivalries come to head, secret family connections arise, new found loves bloom and Batter rises to the occasion through it all.
I LOVED this book and I loved spending time in the minds of these characters wondering who was truly good and right. I especially loved immersing myself in the offices of Peck & Peck with the aviary, hanging typeface letters, secret doors and bomb shelter copy room.
Releasing in the fall, this should be at the top of your TBR.
Both quirky, delightful and propulsive at times, but also full of so much knowledge about poetry, typeface, and writers in general.
Batter Gray is down and out juggling multiple hourly wage jobs when he discovers the esteemed Peck & Peck, a well-known yet flailing quarterly poetry publication. Poetry has been central throughout Batter’s life and with a little determination & luck he stumbles into a job there as the copy boy.
Generations of Pecks have run the company and the current one, Salton, while being harsh and at many times irate with his editors, he sees something in Batter.
Hijinks unfold, past sibling rivalries come to head, secret family connections arise, new found loves bloom and Batter rises to the occasion through it all.
I LOVED this book and I loved spending time in the minds of these characters wondering who was truly good and right. I especially loved immersing myself in the offices of Peck & Peck with the aviary, hanging typeface letters, secret doors and bomb shelter copy room.
Releasing in the fall, this should be at the top of your TBR.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Thank you to NetGalley and Scribner for the eARC for review.
Peck and Peck is about Batter Gray's life in poetry. From an early age Batter learns to love poetry. His dream is to become a poet. But his family constantly dissuades him from wanting to make his passion into a career because he'll never be able to make money as a poet. Batter tries a rolodex of different majors, and finally lands on pre-law. He moves to New York City after graduation but doesn't go into law. Instead, he finds a job at the esteemed poetry publication Peck and Peck, which is run by generations of Peck family twins. This is a dream job for Batter, even though he has to start at the bottom as the copy boy. He hopes to be able to become an Editor one day. But everything is not as it seems. Through a cringeworthy comedy of errors, Batter soon finds himself in a heap of trouble that keeps growing and growing.
Peck and Peck is a different sort of book than Garmus's debut novel, Lessons in Chemistry. It was just ok for me. It was written well with a bunch of crazy, quirky characters, but it didn't have the heart that I loved with Lessons in Chemistry. It reminded me of The Goldfinch's (Donna Tart) plot, where the main character keeps landing himself in hot water while doing stupid stuff. I wanted to yell at Batter and knock some common sense into him. After a while all the trouble he kept getting himself into seemed a bit redundant.
Garmus spends a lot of time setting up Batter's backstory and history and that bogged the book down for me a bit.
3 stars
Peck and Peck is about Batter Gray's life in poetry. From an early age Batter learns to love poetry. His dream is to become a poet. But his family constantly dissuades him from wanting to make his passion into a career because he'll never be able to make money as a poet. Batter tries a rolodex of different majors, and finally lands on pre-law. He moves to New York City after graduation but doesn't go into law. Instead, he finds a job at the esteemed poetry publication Peck and Peck, which is run by generations of Peck family twins. This is a dream job for Batter, even though he has to start at the bottom as the copy boy. He hopes to be able to become an Editor one day. But everything is not as it seems. Through a cringeworthy comedy of errors, Batter soon finds himself in a heap of trouble that keeps growing and growing.
Peck and Peck is a different sort of book than Garmus's debut novel, Lessons in Chemistry. It was just ok for me. It was written well with a bunch of crazy, quirky characters, but it didn't have the heart that I loved with Lessons in Chemistry. It reminded me of The Goldfinch's (Donna Tart) plot, where the main character keeps landing himself in hot water while doing stupid stuff. I wanted to yell at Batter and knock some common sense into him. After a while all the trouble he kept getting himself into seemed a bit redundant.
Garmus spends a lot of time setting up Batter's backstory and history and that bogged the book down for me a bit.
3 stars
Review of advance copy received from Edelweiss+
2.5 stars- I had been so excited to read this in light of the popularity of "Lessons in Chemistry" and the overall premise of this new sophomore novel. However, I found it to be difficult to follow (so many twins!), bland storyline (what was the point?) , and incredibly slow moving. The occasional humor sprinkled throughout the novel were definite bright spots and the way Garmus concluded the novel was finally interesting and creative.
Thank you to Scribner for the opportunity to read this in advance. I received this from Edelweiss + for an honest review.
Thank you to Scribner for the opportunity to read this in advance. I received this from Edelweiss + for an honest review.
Review of advance copy received from Edelweiss+
While many people find poetry boring or do not understand it (I am one of those), Bonnie Garmus does a beautiful job describing the love that one can have for it. She takes the tedious subject of typography and brings it to life, and once again, she has given a dog way more smart than the average dog. All of this is used with a purpose to create a heartfelt story.
June 22, 2026
This book is DELICIOUS! Oh my. The WHOLE TIME I was reading it, I wore a huge grin. There are so many great parts, put together into a PERFECT read. Such fun characters you want to befriend them , love them, hate them, BE THEM. Laughter, shock, tears, joy. All of it. DARE I SAY BETTER THAN LESSONS.. ???? You bet I do!!!!
Chapter 81. First line. Perfect quote.
Chapter 81. First line. Perfect quote.
May 25, 2026
It’s the 1980’s and Batter Grey can’t avoid his mother’s outlandish stories or his insatiable love for poetry. He can’t even decide on a major for college, and still ends up with his dream job…maybe?
What transpires is a smart, laugh-out-loud tale of words, rivalry, fire and a bit of crime.
What transpires is a smart, laugh-out-loud tale of words, rivalry, fire and a bit of crime.
Review of advance copy
I thoroughly enjoyed this. LOL'd a lot. Garmus is the queen of quirky characters and story quirk. It was absolutely delightful. As a lover of language and poetry, the storyline was joyous. Great tone.
Review of advance copy received from Edelweiss+
Different from her first novel but still filled with quirky enjoyable characters. Gave me a new appreciation for poetry.
May 20, 2026
thank you, bonnie
June 6, 2026
“Life is full of judgment, but that doesn’t mean the judges are always right.”
Please excuse me while I nurse this book hangover for the next 5-10 business days.
Please excuse me while I nurse this book hangover for the next 5-10 business days.
June 15, 2026
What a gift it was to read (devour) Peck and Peck! I’m at a loss for words right now, but hope to write a proper review soon.
Currently Reading
June 18, 2026I received a paperback copy today from the publisher Simon & Schuster.
June 21, 2026
This book drove me crazy
May 28, 2026
Bonnie Garmus is at it again!!! This was such a unique novel. I've honestly never read anything like it. I feel like poetry can be polarizing and this book definitely explored that idea. The MC is obsessed with the genre, but no one in his life can understand why. This book has a lot of fun character antics and in a way, it's giving Only Murders in the Building level of quirky. Absolute delight.
Thank you to Edelweiss for the ARC copy.
Thank you to Edelweiss for the ARC copy.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Thank you to Netgalley for the advance reader's copy!
All Batter Gray has ever wanted to do is share the beauty and wonder of poetry with the world. Not write it, or teach about it, but open everyone's eyes to the importance of it. When he stumbles into an opportunity to work for the prestigious poetry journal Peck & Peck, he thinks his dream is about to come true.....but the reality is something else.
Garmus shines at setting the scene in 1980's New York, and detailing the delightful chaos of Peck & Peck's operations. The building is a Wonka-esque fantasy land, with vivid colors, fantastical decor, seemingly endless corridors and lots of secrets. The large cast of characters are unique and memorable, especially Batter's mother and her rambling conversations. And Batter's namesake, her heroic and much-mourned pet dog. The quirky, humorous tone reminded me of classic John Irving novels like 'The World According to Garp' and 'The Hotel New Hampshire'.
I'm not sure this one will have the widespread appeal of 'Lessons In Chemistry', though, as the emphasis on poetry is extreme. I have a degree in English Literature and have worked in libraries for decades and even I didn't recognize some of the poets that were name-dropped, or the terminology that was thrown about.
All Batter Gray has ever wanted to do is share the beauty and wonder of poetry with the world. Not write it, or teach about it, but open everyone's eyes to the importance of it. When he stumbles into an opportunity to work for the prestigious poetry journal Peck & Peck, he thinks his dream is about to come true.....but the reality is something else.
Garmus shines at setting the scene in 1980's New York, and detailing the delightful chaos of Peck & Peck's operations. The building is a Wonka-esque fantasy land, with vivid colors, fantastical decor, seemingly endless corridors and lots of secrets. The large cast of characters are unique and memorable, especially Batter's mother and her rambling conversations. And Batter's namesake, her heroic and much-mourned pet dog. The quirky, humorous tone reminded me of classic John Irving novels like 'The World According to Garp' and 'The Hotel New Hampshire'.
I'm not sure this one will have the widespread appeal of 'Lessons In Chemistry', though, as the emphasis on poetry is extreme. I have a degree in English Literature and have worked in libraries for decades and even I didn't recognize some of the poets that were name-dropped, or the terminology that was thrown about.
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