Please note: this film is being shown on the SECOND Friday of the month.

An eccentric lottery winner who lives alone on a remote island tries to make his fantasies come true by getting his favorite musicians to perform at his home. Starring Tom Basden, Tim Key, and Sian Clifford.

1 hr 39 min | Rated PG-13 | Comedy, Drama

All welcome—doors open at 6:50 pm. Light refreshments provided by the Friends of WWML.

Dense, intricate, astonishing.

Rashmi Talpade’s exhibitions of photo-collages is at the Keyes Gallery from August 29 to September 22.

Join her at the library for an Artist’s Talk to hear about her work, her art, the inspiration and the process.

ARTIST’S TALK

RASHMI TALPADE

Thursday, September 11, 7 pm

ABOUT THE ARTIST

RASHMI TALPADE is an American artist residing in Wallingford for almost 35 years.

While her art career has covered various formats since graduating from art

school, her recent works are more focused on public art for which she has

received numerous grants and fellowships from the Connecticut Office of the Arts

and the National Endowment of the Arts. Rashmi has exhibited and done projects

all across Connecticut as well as New York, Massachusetts and New Mexico. Her

works are in the collection of the New Britain Museum of American Art and the

Roopankar Museum of Modern Art in India.

Rashmi’s urban themed collages explore environmental challenges faced by our

planet, where industrial relics merge with nature’s relentless march across

manmade waste. Her photo-collages, created by assembling hundreds of

fragments of her own collection of photographs, reflect our world in seemingly

ordinary objects. It is a narrative of our previous and current successes that, while

coexisting together, differ in many different ways. We are in the center of a

turbulent time in our history, where change is increasingly infiltrating lives of

young and old. Viewers are invited to engage with the works or they would miss

the details that reveal the optical play of visual depth and challenging

perspectives. It is also critical for viewers to stand back and maintain a necessary

distance to understand how the collages multiply spatially to create a complete

image.

The exhibition has four garden themes photo-collages, sized 40”x30”, which are

on loan from Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital (YNHCH). They were created

during Rashmi's art residency at YNHCH and was part of an Arts for Healing

program “Our Hearts Grow Wild”. The program was designed to foster resiliency

in youth and their families through therapeutic interventions and creative arts

experiences, to improve coping with their healthcare journey. The collages used

garden themed photographs, depicting the four different seasons, which were

collected from Yale’s hospital community and the patients and their families.

These photographs were then used by the patients to create the collages under

the artist’s guidance.

www.artofrashmi.net

CPR TRAINING CLASS

TUE | SEPT 9 | 7 PM

REGISTRATION REQUIRED. THIS FREE CLASS IS LIMITED TO 12 PARTICIPANTS.

Third repeat session due to high interest.

Call to register

203.488.8702

Meet the artist at her opening reception: Sunday, September 7 from 4 to 6 pm.
No registration necessary; all welcome.

View the exhibit of photo-collages now through September 22 during library hours: Monday to Thursday: 10 am to 8 pm; Friday: 10 am to 5 pm; Saturday: 10 am to 2 pm; and Sunday 1 pm to 4 pm.

Join her at the library for an Artist’s Talk to hear about her work, her art, the inspiration and the process: Thursday, September 11 at 7 pm.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

RASHMI TALPADE is an American artist residing in Wallingford for almost 35 years. While her art career has covered various formats since graduating from art school, her recent works are more focused on public art for which she has received numerous grants and fellowships from the Connecticut Office of the Arts and the National Endowment of the Arts. Rashmi has exhibited and done projects all across Connecticut as well as New York, Massachusetts and New Mexico. Her works are in the collection of the New Britain Museum of American Art and the Roopankar Museum of Modern Art in India.

Rashmi’s urban themed collages explore environmental challenges faced by our planet, where industrial relics merge with nature’s relentless march across manmade waste. Her photo-collages, created by assembling hundreds of fragments of her own collection of photographs, reflect our world in seemingly ordinary objects. It is a narrative of our previous and current successes that, while coexisting together, differ in many different ways. We are in the center of a turbulent time in our history, where change is increasingly infiltrating lives of young and old. Viewers are invited to engage with the works or they would miss the details that reveal the optical play of visual depth and challenging perspectives. It is also critical for viewers to stand back and maintain a necessary distance to understand how the collages multiply spatially to create a complete image.

The exhibition has four garden themes photo-collages, sized 40”x30”, which are on loan from Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital (YNHCH). They were created during Rashmi's art residency at YNHCH and was part of an Arts for Healing program “Our Hearts Grow Wild”. The program was designed to foster resiliency in youth and their families through therapeutic interventions and creative arts experiences, to improve coping with their healthcare journey. The collages used garden themed photographs, depicting the four different seasons, which were collected from Yale’s hospital community and the patients and their families. These photographs were then used by the patients to create the collages under the artist’s guidance.

Visit Rashmi’s website to learn more about her and her process: www.artofrashmi.net

Amy Bloom will be at the library to talk about her new book.

I’ll Be Right Here: A Novel

A reading, conversation, Q&A

Thursday, September 4, 7 pm

Call to register: 203-488-8702

Copies of the book will be available for purchase at the event.

About the Book

A sweeping, intimate novel about an unconventional and irresistible family, in prose “so finely wrought it shimmers” (Los Angeles Times)—from the New York Times bestselling author of In Love, White Houses, and Away

“Amy Bloom is at the height of her powers in this epic tale.”—J. Courtney Sullivan, author of The Cliffs

Immigrating alone from Paris to New York after the crucible of World War II, young Gazala becomes friends with two spirited sisters, Anne and Alma. When Gazala’s lost, beloved brother, Samir, joins her in Manhattan, this contentious, inseparable foursome makes their way into the twenty-first century, becoming the beating heart of a multigenerational found family.

The passing years are marked by the business of everyday existence and the inevitable surprises of erupting passions, of great and small waves of joy and despair, from the beginning of life to its end. Gazala and Samir make a home together, Anne leaves her husband for his sister, and Anne’s restless daughter grows up to raise a child on her own and to join a throuple, becoming who she wants to be. Through it all, amid the tumult of these decades, the four friends and their best beloveds stand by one another, protecting, annoying, and celebrating themselves, steadfastly unapologetic about their desires and the unorthodox family they have created. As the next generation falls in and out of love, experiencing triumphs, mistakes and disappointments, the central pillars of their lives are the four indomitable elders they call the “Greats.”

In I’ll Be Right Here, Amy Bloom embraces the complexity and richness of humanity and the lawlessness of love, bringing her trademark voice, wry humor, and compassionate eye to the many, often mysterious ways we live as we love, and hope to be loved in return.

Source; Penguin Random House

About the Author

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 first book of nonfiction, Normal: Transsexual CEOs, Crossdressing Cops and Hermaphrodites with Attitudes, is a staple of university sociology and biology courses. Her most recent book is the widely acclaimed New York Times bestselling memoir, In Love. She has written for magazines such as The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Vogue, Elle, The Atlantic, Slate, and Salon, and her work has been translated into fifteen languages. She is the Director of the Shapiro Center at Wesleyan University.

REGISTRATION REQUIRED. THIS FREE CLASS IS LIMITED TO 12 PARTICIPANTS.

(This is the same class that was offered in June, just another session due to high interest.)

WILLOUGHBY BOOK TALK

CO-SPONSORED BY THE BRANFORD LAND TRUST

AS PART OF ITS ‘SALT MARSH CELEBRATION’ EVENT SERIES

The Outermost House: A Year of Life

on the Great Beach of Cape Cod

by Henry Beston

The Outermost House: A Year of Life on the Great Beach of Cape Cod by Henry Beston is a seminal work of American nature writing that chronicles a year spent living on the dunes of Cape Cod between the Atlantic and the Nauset salt marsh. Published in 1928, it helped inspire the creation of the Cape Cod National Seashore.

[T]he classic book about Cape Cod, "written with simplicity, sympathy, and beauty" (New York Herald Tribune).

A chronicle of a solitary year spent on a Cape Cod beach, The Outermost House has long been recognized as a classic of American nature writing. Henry Beston had originally planned to spend just two weeks in his seaside home, but was so possessed by the mysterious beauty of his surroundings that he found he "could not go."

Instead, he sat down to try and capture in words the wonders of the magical landscape he found himself in thrall to: the migrations of seabirds, the rhythms of the tide, the windblown dunes, and the scatter of stars in the changing summer sky. Beston argued that, "The world today is sick to its thin blood for the lack of elemental things, for fire before the hands, for water, for air, for the dear earth itself underfoot." Seventy-five years after they were first published, Beston's words are more true than ever.

[Source: MacMillan Publishers]

This book talk is presented in collaboration with the Branford Land Trust as it launches its Jarvis Creek Farm Salt Marsh Migration and Restoration Project. In celebration of the salt marsh it is sponsoring a series of free, fun & educational activities for all ages to learn about the importance of salt marshes. For more info: branfordlandtrust.org

The History of the Railroad System in Southeast Connecticut

Presented by Keith Barker

Tuesday, August 19, 4 pm

Event Seven of a year-long series to mark the publication of the book, Flesh & Stone.

Join us for a WATCH PARTY! We’ll have snacks and drinks—all are welcome, including kids! Costumes encouraged. Please note the time change; the film will start promptly at 6 pm!

A bedridden boy's grandfather reads him the story of a farmboy-turned-pirate who encounters numerous obstacles, enemies and allies in his quest to be reunited with his true love. Starring Cary Elwes, Mandy Patinkin, and Robin Wright.

1 hr 37 min | Rated PG | Adventure, Comedy, Family

All welcome. Light refreshments provided by the Friends of WWML.

Willoughby Writers Group

A gathering of local writers working in fiction and nonfiction.

First and third Thursdays of the month.

Membership is limited. Please call for details.

If you’re interested in joining the group or need more information, please contact Rabia.

rali@wwml.org / 203.483.8702

Part of our Summer Reading Program: Color Our World!
Attendees will be entered into a drawing for a prize pack.

Painting with food? YES! Please register, space and supplies are limited.

Sponsored by the Friends of WWML

Part of our Summer Reading Program: Color Our World!
Attendees will be entered into a drawing for a prize pack.

Join us to “Color Our World” for the birds too! Please register, space and supplies are limited.

Sponsored by the Friends of WWML

Meet the artists at their opening reception and awards presentation: Sunday, August 3 from 4 to 6 pm. Works include watercolor, photography, mixed media, and more, created by children and adult artists.

No registration necessary; all welcome.

View the exhibit during library hours: Monday to Thursday: 10 am to 8 pm; Friday: 10 am to 5 pm; Saturday: 10 am to 2 pm; and Sunday 1 pm to 4 pm.

When intelligence agent Kathryn Woodhouse is suspected of betraying the nation, her husband - also a legendary agent - faces the ultimate test of whether to be loyal to his marriage, or his country. Starring Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender.

1 hr 33 min | Rated R | Spy drama, Mystery

All welcome—doors open at 6:50 pm. Light refreshments provided by the Friends of WWML.

Part of our Summer Reading Program: Color Our World!
Attendees will be entered into a drawing for a prize pack.

Learn how to upcycle scraps of paper into new full sheets of paper! Press flowers and then make art or cool designs with them.

Please register so we know to expect you, but walk ins are welcome!

Sponsored by the Friends of WWML

Stony Creek in the Age of Granite

Presented by former First Selectman & Stony Creek resident, Unk DaRos

Thursday, July 24, 7 pm

Event Six of a year-long series to mark the publication of the book, Flesh & Stone.

Part of our Summer Reading Program: Color Our World!
Attendees will be entered into a drawing for a prize pack.

Become a queen or king of summer! Use fresh flowers to weave your very own crown. Supplies are limited, so PLEASE register. Best for ages 8 and up.

Sponsored by the Friends of WWML

Part of our Summer Reading Program: Color Our World!
Attendees will be entered into a drawing for a prize pack.

We’ll read Flower Talk: How Plants Use Color to Communicate, dissect a flower along with scientist/local author Sara Levine, and create your own paper flower craft.

Books will be available for purchase at the event.

Sponsored by the Friends of WWML

A bored photographer recovering from a broken leg passes the time by watching his neighbors and begins to suspect one of them of murder. Starring James Stewart and Grace Kelly.

1 hr 52 min | Rated PG | Thriller, Suspense

All welcome—doors open at 6:50 pm. Light refreshments provided by the Friends of WWML.

Part of our Summer Reading Program: Color Our World!
Attendees will be entered into a drawing for a prize pack.

Please register so we know to expect you!

Sponsored by the Friends of WWML

Willoughby Writers Group

A gathering of local writers working in fiction and nonfiction.

First and third Thursdays of the month.

Membership is limited. Please call for details.

If you’re interested in joining the group or need more information, please contact Rabia.

rali@wwml.org / 203.483.8702

For ages 8 and up! Please register; space is limited.

Take a closer look what you’ll be making…

Due to the July 4th holiday, there is NO first Friday film screening in July. Please join us the following Friday…

When a solitary writer adopts and bonds with a Great Dane that belonged to a late friend, she begins to come to terms with her past and her own creative inner life. Starring Naomi Watts and Bill Murray.

1 hr 59 min | Rated R | Comedy, Drama

All welcome—doors open at 6:50 pm. Light refreshments provided by the Friends of WWML.

Part of our Summer Reading Program: Color Our World!
Attendees will be entered into a drawing for a prize pack.

Please register so we know to expect you, but walk ins are welcome!

Sponsored by the Friends of WWML

WILLOUGHBY BOOK TALK

PROPHET SONG BY PAUL LYNCH

WINNER OF THE BOOKER PRIZE 2023

THURSDAY, JULY 10, 7 PM

Call to register: 203-488-8702

“If there was ever a crucial book for our current times, it’s Paul Lynch’s Prophet Song . . . A brilliant, haunting novel.”—Guardian (UK)

About the book

On a dark, wet evening in Dublin, scientist and mother-of-four Eilish Stack answers her front door to find two officers from Ireland’s newly formed secret police on her step. They have arrived to interrogate her husband, a trade unionist.

Ireland is falling apart, caught in the grip of a government turning towards tyranny. As the life she knows and the ones she loves disappear before her eyes, Eilish must contend with the dystopian logic of her new, unraveling country. How far will she go to save her family? And what—or who—is she willing to leave behind?

The winner of the Booker Prize 2023, Prophet Song presents a terrifying and shocking vision of a country sliding into authoritarianism and a deeply human portrait of a mother’s fight to hold her family together.

About the author

Paul Lynch is the Booker Prize-winning author of five internationally acclaimed novels. Widely celebrated for his lyrical style and emotional intensity, Lynch’s novels explore universal themes of the human condition, often drawing comparisons to literary greats such as William Faulkner, Cormac McCarthy, Seamus Heaney, and Samuel Beckett.

His most recent novel, Prophet Song, won the 2023 Booker Prize, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize and the Prix des Libraires Best Foreign Novel. It has been described as “a prophetic masterpiece” by The Washington Post and “soul-shattering” by the Booker Prize jury. The novel has also been shortlisted for several major international awards, including the Dublin Literary Award, Italy’s Strega European Prize, and the Kirkus Prize in the United States.

Born in Limerick in 1977 and raised in Co Donegal, Lynch now lives in Dublin. In 2024, he was appointed Distinguished Writing Fellow at Maynooth University where he teaches on the creative writing programme. The same year, he was elected to Aosdána, the Irish academy of artists who have made exceptional contributions to the creative arts. In 2025, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters by University of Limerick for his "remarkable contributions to literature". His novels have been translated into over 40 languages.

Reviews

“A prophetic masterpiece.”—Washington Post

“Many, many lines and passages of great beauty and power . . . Lynch is extraordinarily good at the bureaucratic intricacies of the descent into chaos . . . Prophet Song is less interested in ‘Could it happen here?’ than in the follow-up ‘Would you know when to leave?”—New York Times

“A triumph of emotional storytelling, bracing and brave . . . Readers will find it soul-shattering and true, and will not soon forget its warnings.”—Esi Edugyan, Chair of the Booker Prize 2023 Judges

“Gripping . . . As Eilish’s circumstances deteriorate, Lynch’s dense, lyrical prose barrels down on you relentlessly. As you read, you feel precious time slipping away, the inexorable future rushing toward you. He eschews quotation marks and paragraph breaks, and the result is a chaotic, disorienting whirlwind that amplifies the furious action of the narrative and plants you firmly in Eilish’s weary, fractured mind.”—Boston Globe

“An exceptionally gifted writer, Lynch brings a compelling lyricism to [Eilish’s] fears and despair while he marshals the details marking the collapse of democracy and the norms of daily life. His tonal control, psychological acuity, empathy, and bleakness recall Cormac McCarthy’s The Road (2006) . . . Captivating, frightening, and a singular achievement.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“A disquieting novel from an exceptional writer.”—Shelf Awareness (starred review)

“Irish writer Lynch (Beyond the Sea, 2020) conveys the creeping horror of a fascist catastrophe in a gorgeous and relentless stream of consciousness illuminating the terrible vulnerability of our loved ones, our daily lives, and social coherence. Eilish muses over the fragility of the body, its rhythms and flows, diseases and defenses. The body politic is just as assailable. A Booker Prize finalist, Lynch’s hypnotic and crushing novel tracks the malignant decimation of an open society, a bleak and tragic process we enact and suffer from over and over again.”—Booklist (starred review)

“Lynch’s dystopian novel is at once so particularly Irish yet so universally familiar that it deserves the overused modifier ‘Kafkaesque.’”—Los Angeles Times, 10 Books to Read in December

“Gripping and terrifying, [Prophet Song] is set in the very near future, immersing readers in depictions of international conflict set on a familiar stage. This book is recommended for lovers of history, lovers of beautiful writing, and readers who engage with political news daily.” —Forbes, 30 Greatest Dystopian Books Of All Time

“A story mirroring today’s headlines.”—PBS NewsHour

“Harrowing . . . The lesson for readers is not necessarily to wake up to signs of totalitarianism knocking at our doors, but to empathize with those for whom it has already called.”—NPR

“Thunderously powerful.”—Times Literary Supplement

Source: https://groveatlantic.com/book/prophet-song/

https://www.paullynchwriter.com/

Part of our Summer Reading Program: Color Our World!
All ages are invited!
Attendees will be entered into a drawing for a prize pack.

Please register so we know to expect you, but walk ins are welcome!

Sponsored by the Friends of WWML

Part of our Summer Reading Program: Color Our World!
All kids are invited—express your creativity for yourself or a special friend!
Attendees will be entered into a drawing for a prize pack.

All supplies provided. Please register so we know to expect you, but walk ins are welcome!

Sponsored by the Friends of WWML

Part of our Summer Reading Program: Color Our World! All kids invited!
Attendees will be entered into a drawing for a prize pack.

Please register so we know to expect you, but walk ins are welcome!

Sponsored by the Friends of WWML