A Pop-up Book Talk

Brooklyn & Long Island by Colm Toibin

For readers who’ve read both novels relating the story of Eilish Lacey.

A conversation. Come join us.

THURSDAY | OCTOBER 22 | 7 PM

203-488-8702

Brian Larney is haunted by hooks and good old fashioned song-craft from Black Rock, Connecticut. His music ranges from the simply beautiful to the complex and artistic. He has previously performed in the Sunday Afternoon Concert Series, here at WWML. His latest music is rooted in the pop writers of the mid to late 1960’s as well as the alt-folk artists of today.

Concert is free; all welcome. Registration not necessary.

Please join us for our other concerts in the Fall Series:

November 1: Anne Marie Menta Trio (rescheduled from September 27)
November 15: Mixed Company of Yale
December 20: Flying Fish

Art reception:
Saturday, October 17, 2026
3 to 5 pm.
All welcome. No registration.

Several authors and illustrators will be in attendance! Books available for sale and signing via Breakwater Books.

Exhibit open during library hours through November 1, 2026

Starring Gene Kelly, Donald O'Connor, and Debbie Reynolds.

When Hollywood's silent era gives way to talkies, a dashing screen idol and a gifted newcomer navigate romance, rivalry, and the comic chaos of reinventing the movies. Classical musical, Comedy, Romance. 1 hrs, 43 mins. Rated G.

Free, all welcome. No registration necessary. Light refreshments provided. Sponsored by the Friends of the Library.

FREE Baby Sign Language Class for Families

Tuesday, October 13th 11-11:30AM

Limited spots! Register online:

https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/ev/reg/94z8y3e

The Library will be closed on Monday, October 12, reopening Tuesday, October 13 at 10 am.

Our usual weekend hours remain unchanged: Saturdays 10 am to 5 pm and Sundays 1 pm to 4 pm.

Visit the library catalog anytime: https://st.catalog.lionlibraries.org/

Explore our digital offerings (ebooks, audiobooks, and more): https://www.wwml.org/resources#resources-digital

READING THE CLASSICS

with Mark Schenker

Mark Schenker returns to the Willoughby Wallace Library to mark the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence with four great works of American literature.

• LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI by Mark Twain

  Wed | Oct 7 | 2 pm

• THE SONG OF SOLOMON by Toni Morrison

  Wed | Oct 28 | 2 pm

• HOUSEKEEPING by Marilynne Robinson

  Wed | Nov 18 | 2 pm

Call to register 203-488-8702

American Journeys

Mark Schenker, retired senior associate dean of Yale College, returns to WWML to present four works of American literature in recognition of this year's 250th anniversary of our nation's Declaration of Independence. These books, by women and men, include fiction and nonfiction and range from the mid-19 to late 20th century. 

They span America from Nantucket to Idaho, the Mississippi River Basin, from New Orleans to Minnesota, and a personal quest from a city in Michigan to rural Pennsylvania and Virginia. 

These journeys, some historical, some fictional, remind us that our country began with the Puritans' "errand into the wilderness" and continued for centuries with the Manifest Destiny of expansion to the West and with the complex relationship of the North and South. 

The series begins with Ahab's mythic quest in Moby Dick and ends with Housekeeping's poignant story of two sisters lost in America more than 100 years later. 

Starring Andrew Scott, Brendan Fraser, and Kerry Condon.

In the tense 72 hours before D-Day, General Dwight D. Eisenhower and Captain James Stagg face an impossible choice--launch the most dangerous seaborne invasion in history or risk losing the war altogether. Drama, Thriller, History. 1 hrs, 40 mins. PG-13

Free, all welcome. No registration necessary. Light refreshments provided. Sponsored by the Friends of the Library.

COLLAGE & CRAFTS CLUB

Saturday | September 26th | 3pm-4pm

Free. All supplies included. All welcome. No experience necessary.
Hosted by Dorothy. For more information, call the library 203-488-8702 or email dlevine@wwml.org.

STONY CREEK FORUM

GISH JEN

Author of Bad Bad Girl

IN CONVERSATION…

…about her work, about fiction and memoir and the relationship between the two, and about Bad Bad Girl.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 7 PM

Copies of the new, paperback edition of the book will be available for sale and signing. Courtesy of Breakwater Books, Guilford.

Refreshments will be served.

L.A. TIMES 15 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR • TIME "100 BEST" • RUPAUL'S BOOK CLUB PICK • An engrossing, blisteringly funny-sad autobiographical novel tracing a tumultuous mother-daughter relationship.

“A transcendent work of art.” —Boston Globe

“Gish Jen has written the multigenerational mother-daughter epic of our new century.” —Junot Díaz

“Heart-piercingly personal. . . . Suffused with love.” —Los Angeles Times

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Gish Jen's work has been included in The Best American Short Stories five times, including in The Best American Short Stories of the Century. A fellow of both the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, she has received NEA, Guggenheim, and Radcliffe fellowships, a Lannan Literary Award, and a five-year Mildred and Harold Strauss Living Award. Her short work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, The New York Times, and many anthologies; she has taught at Harvard University, NYU Shanghai, and other universities.

Bad Bad Girl is her sixth novel; her other books include two collections of short stories and two works of non-fiction, including publication of her Massey Lectures in the History of American Civilization at Harvard University.

ABOUT THE BOOK

My mother had died, but still I heard her voice. . .

Gish’s mother, Loo Shu-hsin, is born in 1924 to a wealthy Shanghai family whose girls are expected to restrain themselves. Her beloved nursemaid—far closer to her than her real mother—is torn from her even as she is constantly reprimanded: “Bad bad girl! You don’t know how to talk!” Sent to a modern Catholic school by her progressive father, she receives not only an English name—Agnes—but a first-rate education. To his delight, she excels. But proud as he is, he can only sigh, “Too bad. If you were a boy, you could accomplish a lot.” Agnes finds solace in books and in 1947 announces her intention to pursue a PhD in America. As the Communist revolution looms, she sets sail—never to return.

Lonely and adrift in New York, she begins dating Jen Chao-pe, an engineering student. They do their best to block out the increasingly dire plight of their families back home and successfully establish a new American life: Marriage! A house in the suburbs! A number one son! By the time Gish is born, though, the news from China is proving inescapable; their marriage is foundering; and Agnes, confronted with a strong-willed, outspoken daughter distinctly reminiscent of herself, is repeating the refrain—“Bad bad girl!”—as she recapitulates the harshness of her own childhood.

Spanning continents, generations, and cultures, Bad Bad Girl is a novel only Gish Jen could have written: genre-bending, courageous, wise, and as incisive as it is compassionate.

Bad Bad Girl is shocking, illuminating and in places truly heartbreaking. When a book contains all of that, does it really matter which category it falls into?”—The London Times

Source: Penguin Random House & Gishjen.com

Starring Steve Martin, Mary Steenburgen, Dianne Wiest. Four Buckman siblings attempt to raise their children - each in their own different style - and deal with the joys and sorrows that the process brings. Coming-of-Age, Comedy, Drama. 2 hrs, 4 mins. PG-13

Free, all welcome. No registration necessary. Light refreshments provided. Sponsored by the Friends of the Library.

THE MOSES GUNN/NORMAN MARSHALL PLAY COMPANY

PRESENTS A STAGED READING OF

GOD OF CARNAGE

A PLAY BY YASMINA REZA

• Winner Tony Award, Best Play

• Winner Lawrence Olivier Award, Best Comedy Play

  THU | SEP 17 | 7:00 PM

  “A study in the tension between civilized surface and savage instinct, this play is itself a satisfyingly primitive entertainment with an intellectual veneer.”

  —Ben Brantley, The New York Times

  REGISTER ONLINE

  OR CALL 203-488-8702

The Moses Gunn/Norman Marshall Play Company’s core group of actors constitute a professional ensemble with credits ranging from the West End and Broadway to television and film to regional theater. Based in Guilford, the company brings rich, quality play readings to the Connecticut shoreline.

For more information, visit the company website here.

About the Play. “This internationally acclaimed comedy takes you deep into the most dangerous place on Earth: parenthood. What happens when two sets of parents meet up to deal with the unruly behavior of their children? A calm and rational debate between grown-ups about the need to teach kids how to behave properly? Or a hysterical night of name-calling, tantrums and tears before bedtime? Boys will be boys, but the adults are worse – much worse. Tony and Olivier Award-winning God of Carnage is a comedy of manners, without the manners.”

About the Playwright. Yasmina Reza is a French playwright and novelist, based in Paris, whose works have all been multi-award-winning, critical and popular international successes.

Her plays, Conversations After a Burial, The Passage of Winter, Art, The Unexpected Man, Life x 3 and A Spanish Play, God of Carnage, How You Talk the Game and Bella Figura have been produced worldwide and translated into thirty-five languages.

In 1995, Art premiered in Paris and went on to win the Molière Award for Best Author. Since then it has been produced world-wide and translated and performed in over 30 languages. The London production received the 1996-97 Laurence Olivier Award and Evening Standard Award and the Tony award in 1998 in New York.

Her new play, God of Carnage, opened on 8 December 2006 at the Schauspielhaus in Zurich, directed by Jürgen Gosch, received the Viennese Nestroy-Theatreprize for the best German-language performance of the season. In Paris on 25 January 2008 at the Théâtre Antoine, Yasmina Reza directed the play with Isabelle Huppert.

In London, God of Carnage, translated by Christopher Hampton opened on 25 March 2008 with Ralph Finnes, Tamsin Greig, Janet McTeer and Ken Stott. In New York, the play opened in February 2009, directed either by Matthew Markus with Jeff Daniels, James Gandolfini, Marcia Gay Harden and Hope Davis. For the second time, Yasmina Reza won the Tony award. Her adaptation of the play for Roman Polanski movie “Carnage” won the Cesar of best script.

Source

READING THE CLASSICS

with Mark Schenker

Mark Schenker returns to the Willoughby Wallace Library to mark the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence with four great works of American literature.

• MOBY DICK by Herman Melville

  Wed | Sep 16 | 2 pm

• LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI by Mark Twain

  Wed | Oct 7 | 2 pm

• THE SONG OF SOLOMON by Toni Morrison

  Wed | Oct 28 | 2 pm

• HOUSEKEEPING by Marilynne Robinson

  Wed | Nov 18 | 2 pm

Call to register 203-488-8702

American Journeys

Mark Schenker, retired senior associate dean of Yale College, returns to WWML to present four works of American literature in recognition of this year's 250th anniversary of our nation's Declaration of Independence. These books, by women and men, include fiction and nonfiction and range from the mid-19 to late 20th century. 

They span America from Nantucket to Idaho, the Mississippi River Basin, from New Orleans to Minnesota, and a personal quest from a city in Michigan to rural Pennsylvania and Virginia. 

These journeys, some historical, some fictional, remind us that our country began with the Puritans' "errand into the wilderness" and continued for centuries with the Manifest Destiny of expansion to the West and with the complex relationship of the North and South. 

The series begins with Ahab's mythic quest in Moby Dick and ends with Housekeeping's poignant story of two sisters lost in America more than 100 years later. 

Aaron Tessler, Polymer Clay + Alex Wetmore, Collage

Art reception:
Sunday, September 13, 2026
4 to 6 pm.
All welcome. No registration.

Exhibit open during library hours: Friday, September 11 to October 5, 2026

STONY CREEK FORUM | CONVERSATIONS ONLINE

OMER BARTOV

PROFESSOR OF HOLOCAUST & GENOCIDE STUDIES, BROWN UNIVERSITY

Author of Israel: What Went Wrong? (2026)

in conversation with

PETER BEINART

WRITER, JOURNALIST, EDITOR-AT-LARGE OF JEWISH CURRENTS

Author of Being Jewish After The Destruction Of Gaza (2025)

THURSDAY | SEPTEMBER 10 | 7 PM | VIA ZOOM

CALL 203-488-8702

“Its goal is not to condemn Zionism but to explain its evolution from a dream to a nightmare ... Anyone seeking an explanation of Israel’s 'fall from grace' will find no better guide than this perceptive, sophisticated, erudite, elegantly written and strikingly fair-minded book.” The Guardian

OMER BARTOV’S ESSAYS IN THE NEW YORK TIMES

About Omer Bartov

Omer Bartov is the Dean’s Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Brown University and the author of many books, including Anatomy of a Genocide: The Life and Death of a Town Called Buczacz, which won the National Jewish Book Award, Tales from the Borderlands: Making and Unmaking the Galician Past and Genocide, the Holocaust, and Israel–Palestine: First-Person History in Times of Crisis.

Professor Bartov was born on a kibbutz, grew up in Tel Aviv and served in the Israel Defence Forces during the Yom Kippur War. He went on to become an expert on the German army and the Holocaust, before turning his attention to his native country.

In Israel: What Went Wrong?, Bartov explores the transformation of Zionism from a movement of Jewish emancipation and liberation into a state ideology of ethno-nationalism, exclusion and violent domination of Palestinians. He traces the process whereby Israel – whose establishment in 1948 received international support in the aftermath of the Holocaust – now faces accusations of war crimes and genocide.

What are the implications of Israel’s near total impunity for the post-1945 regime of international law? And how do we understand the widespread support for these policies by Israel’s Jewish citizens?

The result is a searing and urgent critique that addresses today’s debates over Zionism, genocide, and the future of Israel with rigour and depth.

Source: Penguin / Macmillan

About Peter Beinart

Peter Beinart is Professor of Journalism and Political Science at the City University of New York. He is also a Contributing Opinion Writer at The New York Times and Editor-at-Large of Jewish Currents He writes the Beinart Notebook newsletter on Substack.Com

He is the author of Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza, published by Knopf in 2025.

Beinart graduated from Yale University, winning a Rhodes scholarship for graduate study at Oxford University. After graduating from University College, Oxford, Beinart became The New Republic's managing editor in 1995. He became senior editor in 1997, and from 1999 to 2006 served as the magazine’s Editor.

PETER BEINART: Online conversation at the Willoughby Wallace Library, April 2025.

WILLOUGHBY BOOK & MOVIE TALK

BROOKLYN by Colm Toibin

• Costa Novel Award 2009 — Winner

• International Dublin Literary Award 2011— Shortlisted

• Man Booker Prize 2009 — Longlisted

BAFTA Award for Outstanding British Film

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 4

Film screening: 5 pm

Discussion (and refreshments): 7 pm

Call to register & reserve a copy of the book &/or dvd

203-488-8702

About the book

“America is peopled, for the most part, by the descendants of immigrants who had the resolve, the daring and the detachment to leave behind the places and people they had formerly known. But Eilis isn’t such a person; detachment isn’t part of her makeup. It has been thrust on her by women who are as attached to home and family as she is … In tracking the experience, at the remove of half a century, of a girl as unsophisticated and simple as Eilis — a girl who permits herself no extremes of temperament, who accords herself no right to self-assertion — Tóibín exercises sustained subtlety and touching respect. He shows no condescension for Eilis’s passivity but records her cautious adventures matter-of-factly, as if she were writing them herself in her journal.”—The New York Review of Books

About the film

“Many American families cherish faded memories of the Old Neighborhood and the Old Country, places that help supply both a sense of identity and a story of progress — complementary answers to the question “Where do we come from?”

“Brooklyn,” a lovely film based on the even lovelier novel by Colm Toibin, feels like an answer to that question. Set in its titular borough and in a small Irish town in the early 1950s, it is both sharply observed and gently nostalgic.” —The New York Times

WILDLIFE SERIES I : THE BOBCAT

Connecticut’s Secretive Wild Cat

A Presentation by

PAUL COLBURN, wildlife conservationist

THU | AUG 27 | 3 PM

Open to all | 203.488.8702

Paul Colburn is a graduate of the Connecticut Master Wildlife Conservationist Program (MWCP) and a certified Master Wildlife Conservationist (MWC). A dedicated advocate for wildlife, Paul is passionate about sharing his knowledge and is particularly focused on teaching the basics of living responsibly with wildlife. He has given over 500 wildlife presentations for a wide variety of public and private organizations in all corners of the state and beyond. Paul is a graduate of Wesleyan University and served honorably in the United States Army.

Summer Reading Program Finale

Friday August 21st 4pm-6pm

Join us in celebrating the end of our summer programming with games, crafts, glitter tattoos, geodes, a time capsule and more!

Free & open to all | Registration encouraged

Note: this is an outside event and will be postponed in the case of inclement weather

Attend a summer reading event and enter a raffle to win an “Unearth a Story” prize pack!

WILLOUGHBY BOOK TALK

CO-SPONSORED BY THE BRANFORD LAND TRUST

Is A River Alive?

by Robert Macfarlane

Award-winning author of Underland: A Deep Time Journey

THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 7 PM

Call to register | 203-488-8702

A New York Times Bestseller

Winner of the 2026 Sigurd F. Olson Nature Writing Award
Winner of the 2026 Nautilus Book Award
Shortlisted for the Wainwright Prize
Special Jury Citation for the Banff Mountain Books Prize

Named a Best Book of the Year by The New Yorker, Economist, Guardian, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Kirkus Reviews, and Publishers Weekly • A Time Must-Read Book • One of NPR’s "Books We Love" • A Washington Post Notable Work of Nonfiction

ABOUT THE BOOK

From the best-selling author of Underland and "the great nature writer…of this generation" (Wall Street Journal), a revelatory book that transforms how we imagine rivers—and life itself.

Macfarlane takes readers on three unforgettable journeys teeming with extraordinary people, stories, and places: to the miraculous cloud-forests and mountain streams of Ecuador, to the wounded creeks and lagoons of India, and to the spectacular wild rivers of Canada—imperiled respectively by mining, pollution, and dams. Braiding these journeys is the life story of the fragile chalk stream a mile from Macfarlane’s house, a stream who flows through his own years and days.

At its heart is a single, transformative idea: that rivers are not mere matter for human use, but living beings – who should be recognized as such in both imagination and law. Is a River Alive? takes the reader on an exhilarating exploration of the past, present and futures of this ancient, urgent concept.

The book flows first to northern Ecuador, where a miraculous cloud-forest and its rivers are threatened by goldmining.

Then, to the wounded rivers, creeks and lagoons of southern India, where a desperate battle to save the lives of these waterbodies is under way.

And finally, to north-eastern Quebec, where a spectacular wild river – the Mutehekau or Magpie – is being defended from death by damming in a river-rights campaign.

At once Macfarlane’s most personal and most political book to date, Is a River Alive? will open hearts, spark debates and lead us to the revelation that our fate flows with that of rivers – and always has.

Source

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Robert Macfarlane is the bestselling author of an award-winning trilogy of books about landscape and the human heart: Mountains of the Mind, The Wild Places, and The Old Ways. He is also the author of Landmarks and Holloway. His work has been translated into a dozen languages and is published in more than 20 countries, and his books have been widely adapted for TV, film, and radio by the BBC, among others. Macfarlane has contributed to Harper’s Magazine, Granta, The Observer (London), the Times Literary Supplement (London), and the London Review of Books. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2012, and is currently a Fellow in English of Emmanuel College, Cambridge.

Source

Join friends and neighbors, children and adults; all who have been inspired by the village and the islands. View the art, enjoy light refreshments. All welcome, no registration necessary.

Exhibit on display now through September 5, 2026 during library hours.

Make a Dinosaur Scene and Beach-themed Snow Globe

Join us for a morning of crafts!

Saturday, August 15th at 11am

Limited supplies. Call to register: 203-488-8702

Attend a summer reading event and enter a raffle to win an “Unearth a Story” prize pack!

Oozing Oobleck with the whitney water center

Tuesday, August 11th at 11am

Ages 6 and up! Registration encouraged: 203-488-8702

Attend a summer reading program and enter a raffle to win an “Unearth a Story” prize pack!

Dinosaur Bath Bombs

Sunday, August 9th at 2pm

Limited Spots! Call to register: 203-488-8702

Attend a summer reading event and enter a raffle to win an “Unearth a Story” prize pack!

We apologize, this program has been cancelled.

DIY Craft Workshop

Wednesday, August 5th at 2pm

Make your own dinosaur feet and create your own puzzle

Free and all supplies included

Limited spots! Call to register: 203-488-8702

Attend a summer reading event and enter a raffle to win an “Unearth a Story” prize pack!

Learn about Fossilized Shells & Make an Ornament

Sunday, August 2nd at 2pm

Limited spots! Call to register: 203-488-8702

Attend a summer reading event and enter a raffle to win an “Unearth a story” prize pack!

Sherrie Parenteau
Solo Exhibition, Paintings

Artist talk:
Friday, July 31, 2026
4 pm
All welcome; no registration required.

Exhibit:
July 10 to August 4, 2026
Keyes Gallery
Exhibit open during library hours

Sherrie Parenteau is a professional artist and mother of two based in Sterling, CT. Parenteau obtained her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts in 2009. This exhibit features a collection of both new and familiar works, bringing together pieces from different stages of her artistic journey.

STONY CREEK FORUM | Amy Bloom

Blunt Instrument: A Mystery

THURSDAY, JULY 30, 7 PM

Join us for an evening with New York Times best-selling author Amy Bloom for a conversation about the writing life, her work, and her recent foray into crime fiction. Amy will read from her new novel, Blunt Instrument.

Book-signing and refreshments.

SOLD OUT!

AMY BLOOM is the author of four novels: White Houses, Lucky Us, Away, and Love Invents Us; and three collections of short stories: Where the God Of Love Hangs Out, Come to Me (finalist for the National Book Award), and A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You (finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award). Her most recent nonfiction book is the widely acclaimed New York Times bestselling memoir, In Love. She has written for magazines such as The New Yorker, New York Magazine, The New York Times Magazine, Vogue, Elle, The Atlantic, Slate, and Salon. She has won a National Magazine Award for Fiction. Her first book of nonfiction, Normal: Transsexual CEOs, Crossdressing Cops and Hermaphrodites with Attitudes, is a staple of university sociology and biology courses.

Amy Bloom’s short stories have appeared in Best American Short Stories, Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards, and numerous anthologies here and abroad. Her work has been translated into seventeen languages.

She has written many pilot scripts, for cable and network, and she created, wrote and ran the excellent, short-lived series State of Mind, starring Lili Taylor.

Amy resides in Connecticut and recently retired as Wesleyan University’s Shapiro-Silverberg Professor of Creative Writing, while continuing to work as a psychotherapist and a novelist.

Source

Paint a Pot and Plant a Seed

Wednesday, July 29th at 4:30pm

Limited spots! Call to register: 203-488-8702

Attend a summer reading program & enter a raffle to win an “Unearth a Story” prize pack!