The Great Gatsby Book Club

I LOVE The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald! I first read the novel as an undergrad at OU and I had a wonderful professor who shared his passion for the "Great American novel." I teach the book in my sophomore English class and the students tease me about how much I get into the story. I've also been in love with Leonardo DiCaprio since I was six and discovered him on Growing Pains. Needless to say, I've been extremely pumped for the release of Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby. In preparation for the movie release, I hosted April's book club and picked the classic novel (which many had not read or didn't remember too well from a boring high school class). I love to theme my book clubs around the book and since everyone knew how much I love this one, I wanted to do it right! I pulled food from the book and researched popular foods of the 1920s, gathered some decor, went thrifting, and got a little crafty. This is what I came up with:

As guests entered, I had a red carpet leading from the front door to the kitchen, the 1974 version of the movie playing on the television (on mute), and 1920s music playing. On the table there was a mimosa bar set up. Obviously Gatsby's party-goers drink A LOT of champagne, so I wanted to incorporate that. I also made chalkboard champagne glasses and everyone wrote their name on the glass.

After everyone arrived and had mimosa in hand, we ate. I had the food on the counters, which were covered in gold tablecloths, and each dish was identified with a gold food tag in art deco font. We had shrimp cocktail, which would have fit it at any of Jay's parties. I served them in mismatched tea cups to incorporate Daisy and Gatsby's awkward reunion during tea at Nick's.

 Two of the few specific foods mentioned to be served at one of Gatsby's parties are pastry pigs and spiced ham. I chose to do regular pastry pigs (or "pigs in a blanket") and a spiced ham appetizer in wonton wrappers.  A very popular 1920s dish was deviled eggs, which also happen to be one of my specialties. I flagged them as "Deviled West Eggs" and "Deviled East Eggs" to pull in the two land formations so symbolic to the novel.

 I also had a loaded potato bar, using red potatoes, sour cream, and cheese. I used crystal martini glasses to hold the toppings to class it up a bit. Also featured was one of the framed quotes I had mixed in with the decor. In this case, the last line of the novel.

 For dessert, I served pistachio pie. Apparently, pudding and gelatin were very popular desserts in the 20s..who knew? Other decor included a magazine article from the time discussing "The Cost of a Well-Dressed Flapper," copies of the novel, gold silverware, white square plates, and film frames with quotes, like the one pictured below ("That's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool").

The framed quotes were simply printed out in 1920s-looking font from a Word document and put into frames that I either had (like the film ones) or that I picked up at the thrift store for less than $1.00 a piece.

The mismatched teacups were also purchased at the thrift store for about fifty cents a piece. These held the cocktail sauce at the bottom and then I set the shrimp right on top.

I purchased the champagne glasses at the dollar store and used chalkboard spray paint to chalkboard the bases. I used two coats of the spray paint on each glass.

All of the other party supplies can be easily found at a dollar store or party supply store. I purchased the red carpet, gold silverware, white plates, gold design napkins, and gold tablecloths at Party City.

I had a wonderful time preparing for this book club and sharing the novel with my friends!