Made to Last Forever: A Family. A House. A Nation.

Book Club Discussion

Pick and Choose the Questions for Your Book Club

In Made to Last Forever, do you relate to any of the main characters? Do you know people who remind you of a main character? Do events at different ages effect how we think or act? Are innate traits stronger than environmental influences? Were Jonas and Lydia different from their siblings because of their nature or their environmental influences?

Does birth order effect the dynamics of a family? Are you an only child, first child, middle child, baby of the family? Are expectations, tasks and responsibilities today the same as they were in the past? Why did they practice primogeniture, the first son receiving the land and perhaps the house? Was it fair?

Jonathan took Grace away from everything she knew, including family. In the 1600s many English didn’t travel outside of their areas. There would be no markets, fairs, churches, or Grace’s possessions in the New World. Jonathan didn’t even know how to farm. Do you know people who live in those conditions? How would you deal with it?

The Puritans left England because they couldn’t practice religion the way they believed. In the New World, the Puritans banished anyone who didn’t practice as they did. Was this right? Do we form groups around religions and other beliefs? Do the groups of one belief treat others differently? Has this improved? How does today’s world “banish” or deal with people who are different?

Made to Last Forever identifies several times where history seems to repeat itself. How was Covid like the Plague? Name other events that repeated themselves. Discuss them and why they repeat. By understanding history’s impact what is our response to an event that appears to be repeating itself from past history?

Omens and superstitions were a way of life for the Puritans. If things went badly, they were sure God was upset with them. If things went well, they believed they had pleased God. Their many days of thanksgiving and days of humiliation were based on this. How did that effect their lives and their routines and rituals. The black lacquer jug was an omen for Grace. The Fairbanks House has a black jug similar to the one described. Earthquakes and comets were omens of illness or a bad fate. Farming, an occupation of everyone, was based on phases of the moon and other signs. They covered the windows and mirrors as a person was dying. Do we have omens, rituals, or superstitions? What about sports figures who have pre-event routines and superstitions? Old shoes were found in the chimney bricks at the Fairbanks House and hex marks are on the mantel and by the doors.

Jonas wanted to make his own life decisions, go to sea, go to Hammersmith, marry who he loved, and ultimately leave Dedham. Why were his parents so against that? Was Jonas leaving the family by following his own ambitions? Did you follow your parent’s plans for you?

Jonas, seventeen years older than Lydia, married her instead of her older sisters. Are large differences in ages in marriages a thing of the past? What are the pros and cons of marrying an age peer or someone much younger or older?

Christmas was banned about the same time Susan died. How did this effect Grace? What would happen today if the government banned the celebration of Christmas or another important holiday? How long did it take to start celebrating Christmas in the USA after the ban?

At the end of the book, Jonathan is dying. He already made his will. What influenced Jonathan in making his will? Was his will representative of other wills at that time? His land was given early, but total value of inheritance was similar with three sons and his daughter, Mary. Why did Mary get a suit of clothes on top of her inheritance? Why did Sarah, a granddaughter, receive a cow?

What might have happened to Jonas if he had not returned to his father’s deathbed? Might he have the same life struggles as his father who didn’t get to his father’s bedside in time. Is it important to connect with family members before their death?

Has anyone in the group gone to the Fairbanks House the oldest frame house in America built in 1637 in Dedham, MA? Discuss what it would be like to live without indoor water, electricity, or cooling. Why were the ceilings so low?

If you could talk with any of the main characters or others, what would you ask or say to them?

The author is available for internet visits to book clubs which buy five or more books.

Book Club Planning Ideas

Take your book club back to the 1600s.

Call each other Goody or Goodman (+ last name.) If a minister’s wife is among the group, defer to her as Mistress, and the minister as Mister, the most important members of the group.

Wear an apron, a staple for women of that time. It was used for so many things: wiping hands, brows and kid’s noses. Carrying hot vessels or produce from garden into the house, a quick dusting for an object. etc. Or a “pocket” a pouch tied to the waist to carry small things, knitting, small Bible, etc. Like a purse.

Food Considerations

Apples were a very important produce for the colonists. They used them in cooking to sweeten, as cider, small and hard ale. They did drink wine and rum. They had barrels of apple cider vinegar to use to clean, cook, for medicine and healing, etc.

Serve an apple pie or individual apple tarts, dried apples or other dried fruits, and nuts.

Bread was a staple for their diet. This would be a heavy artisan round loaf. They were English, they’d use butter or clotted cream

Meat was precious, particularly that of domestic animals. The colonists only brought young animals over from England. Those had to mature and reproduce for herds before using them for meat. They used game in their pottage, a thick ground grain-based gruel.

Cheese was called “white meat,” it was used instead of animal protein. They made their own cheese or traded for it with a neighbor. Cheese is made from the curds of “curds and whey” You can find curds in many grocery stores, usually in their specialty packaged cheese areas.
A cheese tray with crackers could represent this.

Crackers of a firmer kind could represent the hard tack they ate on the voyages, especially when supplies got low. Honey was common.

Herbs were important for cooking, health, medicine, household use, and covering odors (such as bodies waiting to be buried). They repelled mosquitoes (uncommon in England) and filled cloth bags for a softer sleeping pad. Make an herb butter by mixing a favorite herb with softened butter. Serve it with crackers. Serve herbed cheeses or teas.