Share Your Opinions About Good And Bad Books; New Accounts of Hartford Memories

Read any good books lately, or any awful ones? If you’d like to share your opinions about good and bad books, you can do so on Wednesday, Dec. 21, at 7 p.m., at a free program at Prosser Public Library, 1 Tunxis Ave., Bloomfield.

Readers are welcome to talk about favorite books, great discussion books, books to avoid or anything else relating to books. 860-243-9721, ext. 3558, or prosserlibrary.info or clennig@libraryconnection.info.

Short Shorts

The Institute Library, 847 Chapel St., New Haven, will be the scene for a “Listen Here” program on Tuesday, Dec. 20, at 7 p.m., that will present short fiction performed by members of the New Haven Theater Company, followed by a half-hour “talk back” with the New Haven Review.

The stories to be dramatized are Margaret Atwood’s “Happy Endings;” Langston Hughes’s “Thank You, Ma’am;” Ernest Hemingway’s “A Clean Well-Lighted Place;” and Amy Hempel’s “The Afterlife.” The event is free but donations accepted. Registration: 203-562-4045 or institutelibrary.org.

Hartford History Book

“Hartford Through Time” (America Through Time, $22.99) is a collection of 90 images of street scenes of early 20th-century Hartford, made from glass plate negatives in the Hartford History Center’s collection at Hartford Public Library, with matching contemporary color photographs by Hartford News editor Andy Hart and captions by Hartford historian Wilson H. Faude. The book juxtaposes scenes of horse-drawn wagons and early automobiles with modern-day life in Hartford. It is available at the downtown library, 500 Main St., Hartford, and its nine branches or online.

Proceeds from its sales help support the preservation of the image archive from the final years of the Hartford Times from 1950 to 1976, which are stored at The Hartford History Center, as well as Center collections, exhibits and programs. 860-695-6297 or hhc.hplct.org

North End Memories

Dennis Sullivan, who grew up in Hartford’s North End, has published a memoir with photos of life in the city from 1943 to 1963 titled “Irving Street & Other Hartford Memories.”

Sullivan’s recollections include chapters about St. Joseph Cathedral School, the 1944 Circus Fire, Christmas Italiano, the Alan Freed rock and roll show at the State Theater, sandlot baseball, Weaver High School, the aborted teen gang war between Weaver and Hall high schools in 1955, the Lenox Theater, Johnny Egan, Bobby Countryman and Weaver’s powerhouse basketball teams from 1954-1957, End Times and Exodus out of the city. There are special sections about where celebrities, such as Charles Nelson Reilly, Norman Lear, Totie Fields, Louie Nye and Marietta Canty once lived in the North End, and on Albany Avenue businesses in 1955, as well as other local history.

“Irving Street & Other Hartford Memories” (Diggy Pod, $15 plus $3.50 for shipping), is available from records.and.things@snet.net.

South End Story

F. Mark Granato, of Wethersfield, a former journalist and communication executive who now writes novels that explore “what if” scenarios, has published a new book, “This Boy” (CreateSpace, $19.99). It tells the story of Danny Logan, who grows up in Hartford’s South End in the 1960s, falls for a wealthy young woman who lives at the Connecticut shoreline and then becomes a reporter and editor during the racial unrest and Vietnam conflict in the ’60s and ’70s. fmgranato@aol.com.

Lamb At The Garde

Connecticut novelist Wally Lamb has published a new novel, “I’ll Take You There” (Harper, $25.99). The story follows Felix Funicello, who was a 10-year-old in Lamb’s 2009 Christmas novella “Wishin’ and Hopin'” and in the new book is a professor who runs a movie club in New London’s Garde Arts Center, which is said to be haunted by theatrical ghosts, including a silent film era director. The novel has various formats: hardcover, audio and e-books and an interactive app designed by Metabook.

On Sunday, Dec. 18, The Garde, 325 State St., New London, will host a book launch at 3 p.m. with an appearance by Lamb, a short film about him, a discussion of the app and live music. Tickets are $26. wallylamb.net/events and gardearts.org.

Authors & Artisans Pop-Ups

Book Club Bookstore & More, 100 Main St., in the Broad Brook section of East Windsor, will present an Authors & Artisans Pop-Up Shop on Sunday, Dec. 18, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Comic book artist Jim Taylor, Martha Reingold, author of (Jewish Wry), and Thirty6SignsStudio will visit the book store. 860-623-5100 or bookclubct.com.

‘Little Women’ Discussion

On Tuesday, Dec. 20, at 6 p.m., Hartford History Center at Hartford Public Library, 500 Main St., Hartford, will hold a free discussion, called a tertullia, of Louisa May Alcott’s classic novel “Little Women,” which was published in 1868 and has since inspired six film adaptations and many TV, stage and musical versions. Participants are encouraged to bring their own copies of the book and to share stories, memories and interpretations of the book at the event. hplct.org or 860-695-6300.