The Book Trotter Book Club, a group of Lakewood and M-Streets ladies, traveled back in time as they visited Long Island during the roaring '20s. The club read F. Scott Fitzgerald’s "The Great Gatsby" as its June book selection.

To get in the mood for the book discussion on July 1 at Times Ten Cellars, the Book Trotters began the evening by voting on a current movie-trivia question: ‘who played Gatsby better?” Was it DiCaprio in this year’s release or Redford in 1974?  

We love you, Leonardo, and we think you did a magnificent job, but this particular group of ladies has spent too many years romantically involved with Redford to forget the way we were. Redford won hands-down.

Marilyn Hansen led the discussion and asked several thought-provoking questions.

Since some literary authorities regard "The Great Gatsby" as one of the ten greatest novels of the 20th century, Marilyn asked what the Book Trotters thought.

Most agreed that they enjoyed the story immensely and loved the brilliant, singing sentences, but would probably not choose it as one of the ten greatest books.

In the novel, Gatsby was pursuing “The American Dream,” his dream. The ladies concurred that the American Dream means different things to different people, but opportunity, independence, freedom and the pursuit of happiness top the list.

What was served at the meeting? Party food of the twenties—pigs-in-a-blanket, deviled eggs, potato chips, salted nuts and pineapple upside down cake.

The Book Trotters were joined by new member, Debbie Simurda, and special guest, Rose-Mary Rumbley.