Can’t Wait Wednesday #202: Peck & Peck by Bonnie Garmus

Can’t Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings, to spotlight and discuss the books we’re excited about that we have yet to read. Generally they’re books that have yet to be released. It’s based on Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by the Jill at Breaking the Spine. So let me introduce you my Can’t Wait Wednesday #202 pick. Click on the book’s cover to add it to your Goodreads shelf (opens in a new window).

Peck & Peck by Bonnie Garmus book cover — Expected Publication: October 13, 2026 by Scribner / Simon & Schuster Audio.
Length: 432 pages / ~9 hours.
Narrator: Seth Numrich.
Genre: Coming of Age

From The Publisher:

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.

Why I Can’t Wait To Read Peck & Peck:

I really enjoyed the author’s previous book Lessons In Chemistry and have been awaiting her next novel. The synopsis has left me very intrigued and I can’t wait to start this one.