Episode 186 - The Long Afterlife of The Scarlet Letter

Book Cougars Podcast: Two Middle-Aged Women on the Hunt for a Good Read

Welcome to Episode 186! We chat about what we’re currently reading (How to Take Smart Notes by Sönke Ahrens and Come with Me by Erin Flanagan) and books we’ve finished ( Morning in This Broken World by Katrina Kittle, Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann, and Devil in the Grove by Gilbert King). We also discuss our third quarter readalong pick, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, which means SCARLET SUMMER is in full swing! In Biblio Adventures, we Zoomed in from the Concord Free Public Library for a lively discussion with listeners of The Scarlet Letter that left us with great insights, lots of food for thought, and high anticipation for the other two novels we’ll read for Scarlet Summer: Hester by Laurie Lico Albanese and The Invisible Hour by Alice Hoffman. Our day in Concord began with a fantastic tour of The Old Manse, the house Nathaniel and Sophia Hawthorne rented and lived in as newlyweds (and from which they were evicted for not paying rent). Later in the day, we had a walk around the outside of The Wayside, a house the Hawthornes purchased some years later. It’s not currently open for visitors, but it was fun to peek in the window and then walk a path down the block to Orchard House, Louise May Alcott’s Home (which we visited in 2018). No visit to Concord is complete without a browse at The Concord Bookshop and a stop to pay respects at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery where Hawthorne and other famous 19th-century writers were laid to rest on Author’s Ridge. Our Biblio Adventure to Concord, Massachusetts was a near-perfect day. Our guest for this episode is Charles Baraw, Professor of American Literature and President of the Nathaniel Hawthorne Society, who joined us to talk about The Scarlet Letter and its long afterlife. We mention a lot of books and recap other Biblio Adventures in this episode. These are all listed in the show notes which you can find here, https://www.bookcougars.com/blog-1/2023/episode186 Happy Listening!