James Patterson, Author Festival Among Book Events

With more than 300 million copies of his books in print and more than 10 million e-books sold, James Patterson has been called the world’s best-selling author. On Wednesday, June 17, at 7:30 p.m., at Immanuel Congregational Church, 10 Woodland St., Hartford, The Mark Twain House & Museum in Hartford will present Patterson in conversation with WNPR’s Ray Hardman, a benefit event for the Twain House.

The wildly popular author of thrillers for adults, including the Alex Cross, Women’s Murder Club and Michael Bennett series, also is the current top best-selling author of young adult and middle grade books. Patterson’s enthusiastic support of reading includes donating hundreds of thousands of books to American schools and troops stationed overseas and establishing the James Patterson Pageturner Awards, the website ReadKiddoRead.com and College Book Bucks scholarships.

Tickets are $60, or $175 for a VIP pre-event reception with Patterson at the Town and County Club, 22 Woodland St., Hartford, premium seating and a pre-signed copy of one of his books. Parking is free in the Twain House and church lots. Reservations: 860-280-3130.Information: marktwainhouse.org.

Local Author Festival

The Avon Free Public Library Local Author Festival begins Saturday, June 20, at 2 p.m. at the library, 281 Country Club Road, Avon, with a talk by author, detective and death investigator for Vermont’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, Archer Mayor, who writes the best-selling series of police procedural novels featuring Det. Joe Gunther.

The festival continues through Aug. 24 on Tuesday evenings with programs about Avon, YA/Teen books, poetry and essays, fiction, returning authors and children’s books and a July 30 appearance by author James Frey.

Information: 860-673-9712, ext. 235.

Nook Farm Author Talk

The Harriet Beecher Stowe Center and Mark Twain House & Museum will present a free Nook Farm Talk with Jane Allen Petrick, author of “Hidden in Plain Sight: The Other People in Norman Rockwell’s America” (Informed Decisions Publishing, $18.95) on Wednesday, June 17, at 7 p.m., at the Stowe Center, 77 Forest St., Hartford.

In the book, Petrick shows that Rockwell’s iconic drawings, which celebrated American life in the mid-20th century, often included hitherto overlooked Asian, African, and Native Americans, drawn with empathy and dignity.

Petrick, who grew up in Connecticut, is the author of several books and was a columnist for Knight Ridder Newswire and a contributor to publications including the New York Times, the Denver Post and the Washington Post.

Information: HarrietBeecherStowe.org. Reservations: Info@StoweCenter.org or 860-522-9258, ext. 317.

Rose Garden Reading

The annual Rose Garden Reading Under the Tent of poetry, sponsored by the Friends & Enemies of Wallace Stevens, will take place Saturday, June 20, at 1 p.m. as part of Rose Weekend at Elizabeth Park, on the Hartford/West Hartford line. The free events are sponsored by The Elizabeth Park Conservancy and The City of Hartford.

Connecticut-based poets Alison D. Moncrief Bromage and David Cappella will read. Bromage is a writing tutor at Yale University whose work has appeared in The Paris Review, Denver Quarterly, Barrow Street, Copper Nickel and other journals. Cappella is a poet and professor of English at Central Connecticut State University where he teaches creative writing and literature. He is the co-author of two poetry textbooks and the prize-winning chapbook, “Gobbo: A Solitaire’s Opera” (Bright Hill Press, $8)

From 3 to 5 p.m. in the park, West Hartford’s Poet Laureate, Christine Beck, will host a Community Read-in of garden poems. Participants will read either an original poem about gardens, flowers or spring or one from the anthology, “Where Flowers Bloom: Poems of Elizabeth Park” (Grayson Books, $15), edited by Ginny Lowe Connors.

Information: JforJames@aol.com, 860-508-2810 or connpoetry@comcast.net.

Authors At R.J. Julia

R. J. Julia Booksellers, 768 Boston Post Road, Madison, will present free talks by authors. The programs begin at 7 p.m. and reservations are required: 203-245-3959 or rjjulia.com .

On Tuesday, June 16, Dione Longley and Buck Zaidel, authors of “Heroes for All Time: CT Civil War Soldiers Tell Their Stories” (Wesleyan University Press, $40), will speak. Their book offers excerpts from soldiers’ letters and diaries and hundreds of period photographs. Longley has served as the director of the Middlesex County Historical Society. Zaidel collects objects and images related to Union soldiers’ daily lives.

On Thursday, June 18, best-selling author Elin Hilderbrand will talk about her 15th novel, “The Rumor” (Little Brown and Co., $28), in which two longtime friends who are combatting a rumor that has deep implications.

On Friday, June 19, Paul G. Tremblay will visit the bookstore to discuss his psychological thriller, “A Head Full of Ghosts” (William Morrow, $25.99). In it, a suburban New England family decide to fight their teenage daughter’s schizophrenia with an exorcism and agree to let a TV reality show be made about it. Spoiler: This turns out to be a really bad idea. Tremblay is the author of the crime novels, “The Little Sleep” and “No Sleep Till Wonderland” and his essays and short fiction have appeared in the Los Angeles Times and numerous “year’s best” anthologies.

Beer Tasting And Book

The Book Club bookstore, 100 Main St., Broad Brook, will host a Happy Hour featuring Will Siss, author of “Connecticut Beer: A History of Nutmeg State Brewing” (Arcadia, $21.99)and a tasting of beers from Broad Brook Brewing Co. from 5 to 6 p.m. on Friday, June 19.

Reservations: 860-623-5100 or facebook.com/bookclubct.

“A Painting Sues for its Freedom”

Risa Sodi, an author who has taught about Jewish life in Italy, opera, film, modern literature and foreign language pedagogy at Yale University, will give a free talk titled “A Painting Sues for its Freedom: the Holocaust in Italy and a Renaissance Masterwork,” at the annual meeting of The Jewish Historical Society of Greater Hartford on Tuesday, June 16, at 7 p.m at the Mandell Jewish Community Center, 335 Bloomfield Ave., West Hartford. Her presentation will focus on the restitution of art that had been looted during the Holocaust.

Information: jhsgh.org or 860-727-6170.

Poetry Institute Program

Poet Brendan Walsh will read from his work on Thursday, June 18, at 7 p.m. at The Poetry Institute Library, 847 Chapel St., New Haven, following an open mike session.

Information: thepoetryinstitute.com .

Connecticut’s Native Peoples

Lucianne Lavin, an anthropologist and archaeologist who is director of research and collections at the Institute for American Indian Studies, in Washington, Connecticut, will give a free talk on the largely unknown history of the state’s native peoples on Tuesday, June 16, at 6:30 p.m., at Berlin-Peck Memorial Library, 234 Kensington Rd., Kensington.

Lavin’s talk will include research from her award-winning book, “Connecticut’s Indigenous Peoples: What Archaeology, History and Oral Traditions Teach Us About Their Communities and Cultures” (Yale University Press, $50). The Berlin Historical Society and Friends of Berlin-Peck Memorial Library are presenting Lavin’s talk and book signing, and a portion of book sales with support the Berlin Historical Society.

Information: 860-828-5114 or berlincthistorical.org