"The Scarlet Letter" Book Club Guide

The Scarlet Letter book club meeting led to an interesting and deep conversation surrounding the plot and topics brought up in this book by Nathaniel Hawthorn. Set in the Puritan Massachusetts Bay Company in the mid-1600’s, the theme allowed for the exposure to a different era and the question of, “What would you have done?”

Book clubs are a great excuse to get together and chat about ideas. Authors often challenge our thinking and give us reason to pause and consider many ideas. We may not always love each book, but there is often at least one thing that we can take away from our time reading and discussing it. If you are interested in learning how to get a book club started, click HERE for a step-by-step guide.

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TABLE SETTING

A simple gathering of whites, brass, and eucalyptus was the right balance of decor and minimalism.

1600’s FOOD EXPERIENCE

We decided to add some time period appropriate dessert to this book club gathering. It was difficult to find recipes and found that they were quite limited. Our assumption is that this is because sweet treats were not as common in the 1600s as they are today.

Two recipes were found online and both turned out to be delicious. These “knot cookies” were easy to make and the subtle anise flavoring was perfect.

The other treat was “Granny’s Gingerbread Cake,” which we enjoyed plain and without the caramel sauce that the recipe called for. It was plenty sweet as the recipe calls for quite a bit of molasses.

Whether both these desserts were completely period-appropriate or not, we aren’t sure. Either way, they were quite tasty and very different than our usual book club snacks.

THE SCARLET LETTER DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

Click HERE for a free printable discussion guide for The Scarlet Letter book club meeting.

MOVIE NIGHT

Many of the books that this high school teen girl book club have read were made into movies. The Scarlet Letter is no exception. However, due to the movie choices available and the “updating” done to those movies for dramatic effect, we decided to skip a movie night for this book.

There are a few options out there though if your group is interested in following up the book with the movie.