Programs
Please be aware that the following programs are subject to change as we continually review our safety guidelines regarding Covid-19.
Movie Matinee: The Power of the Dog
Monday, November 28 @ 1 pm
Severe, pale-eyed, handsome, Phil Burbank is brutally beguiling. All of Phil’s romance, power and fragility is trapped in the past and in the land.He is a cowboy as raw as his hides. The year is 1925. The Burbank brothers are wealthy ranchers in Montana. At the Red Mill restaurant on their way to market, the brothers meet Rose, the widowed proprietress, and her impressionable son Peter. Phil behaves so cruelly he drives them both to tears, reveling in their hurt and rousing his fellow cowhands to laughter — all except his brother George, who comforts Rose then returns to marry her. As Phil swings between fury and cunning, his taunting of Rose takes an eerie form — he hovers at the edges of her vision, whistling a tune she can no longer play. His mockery of her son is more overt, amplified by the cheering of Phil’s cowhand disciples. Then Phil appears to take the boy under his wing. Is this latest gesture a softening that leaves Phil exposed, or a plot twisting further into menace? R 2h 6m
Book Club
Thursday, December 1 @ 6:30 pm 
At this next meeting, we will discuss Gary Shteyngart’s 2021 novel, Our Country Friends.
In the rolling hills of upstate New York, a group of friends and friends-of-friends gather in a country house to wait out the pandemic. Over the next six months, new friendships and romances will take hold, while old betrayals will emerge, forcing each character to reevaluate whom they love and what matters most. The unlikely cast of characters includes a Russian-born novelist; his Russian-born psychiatrist wife; their precocious child obsessed with K-pop; a struggling Indian American writer; a wildly successful Korean American app developer; a global dandy with three passports; a Southern flamethrower of an essayist; and a movie star, the Actor, whose arrival upsets the equilibrium of this chosen family.
Both elegiac and very, very funny, Our Country Friends is the most ambitious book yet by the author of the beloved bestseller Super Sad True Love Story.
“A perfect novel for these times and all times, the single textual artifact from the pandemic era I would place in a time capsule as a representation of all that is good and true and beautiful about literature.”—Molly Young, The New York Times (Editors’ Choice)
Copies of this book are available at the front desk in the library. Registration is requested
Movie Matinee: Jerry & Marge Go Large 
Monday, December 5 @ 1 pm
This story is inspired by the remarkable true story of retiree Jerry Selbee, who discovers a mathematical loophole in the Massachusetts lottery and, with the help of his wife, Marge, wins millions and uses the money to revive their small Michigan town. PG -13 1h 30m.
Tech Help @ the Washington Senior Center
Monday, December 12 @ 11:30 am
Call or email Jessica @ 860-868-7586 or jzaccagnini@gunnlibrary.org
Need help navigating your smart phone or laptop? GML Librarian, Jessica will be at the Washington Senior Center to give half-hour personal sessions to help answer your questions! Whether you have a question about using your email, photos, apps, and more, we can help! Call the library or email Jessica to reserve a time slot.
Movie Matinee- Bowie: Moonage Daydream 
Monday, December 12 @ 1 pm
A cinematic odyssey exploring Bowie’s creative, spiritual and musical journey. From the visionary mind of Brett Morgen, Moonage Daydream features captivating, never-before-seen footage and performances spanning David Bowie’s 54-year career. The film includes 40 exclusively remastered Bowie songs and is the first film ever sanctioned by the Bowie Estate, with local access to the artists’ archives. PG-13 2h 14m.
Holiday Peace Poetry Reading
Thursday, December 15 from 7-8:30 pm
Virtual program via Zoom courtesy of Oliver Wolcott Library
Click here at 7 PM on December 15 to Zoom to the Event.
Celebrate the peace and hope of the holidays with our best local poets reading the finest work of the season. After many challenges in recent years, our laureates want to unite us to remember the true purpose of the holy day: peace, light, and love. Join in a community of joy and put aside your shopping lists for one night. A most valuable gift is right here, our time spent with each other, and it is free. Each poet will read a poem of their own or a classic by a favorite author.
Poets who will read include:
Rennie McQuilkin – CT Poet Laureate Emeritus; Ginny Connors – West Hartford poet laureate emerita; Robert Piazza – Litchfield poet laureate; Sandy Carlson – Woodbury poet laureate; Rick Magee – Bethel poet laureate; Barb Jennes – Ridgefield poet laureate; Karen Silk – Washington poet laureate; Joan Hoffman – Canton poet laureate; Deborah Rose – New Milford poet laureate; Jack Sheedy – Harwinton; Patricia Martin – Torrington; and Jim Kelleher – Goshen.
To Join by Phone: Dial: +1 646 876 9923 | Meeting ID: 857 2752 7458 | Passcode: 751401
Movie Matinee: The Woman King 
Monday, December 19 @ 1 pm
The Woman King is the remarkable story of the Agojie, the all-female unit of warriors who protected the African Kingdom of Dahomey in the 1800s with skills and a fierceness unlike anything the world has ever seen. Inspired by true events, The Woman King follows the emotionally epic journey of General Nanisca (Oscar®-winner Viola Davis) as she trains the next generation of recruits and readies them for battle against an enemy determined to destroy their way of life. Some things are worth fighting for…. PG-13 2h 15m.
Gunn Museum’s History Book Club 
Monday, January 9 @ 1 pm
In-person Program
The Gunn Memorial Library and Museum are excited to introduce a new monthly book club – History Book Club. History Book Club will meet the second Monday of the month at 1:00pm in the Wykeham Room at the Gunn Memorial Library. Participants will read nonfiction books on American history and meet to discuss. Museum Curator Amy Campanaro will facilitate the discussion and place historical topics in local context when appropriate.
Book Synopsis: To this landmark biography of our first president, Joseph J. Ellis brings the exacting scholarship, shrewd analysis, and lyric prose that have made him one of the premier historians of the Revolutionary era. Training his lens on a figure who sometimes seems as remote as his effigy on Mount Rushmore, Ellis assesses George Washington as a military and political leader and a man whose “statue-like solidity” concealed volcanic energies and emotions.
Here is the impetuous young officer whose miraculous survival in combat half-convinced him that he could not be killed. Here is the free-spending landowner whose debts to English merchants instilled him with a prickly resentment of imperial power. We see the general who lost more battles than he won and the reluctant president who tried to float above the partisan feuding of his cabinet. His Excellency is a magnificent work, indispensable to an understanding not only of its subject but also of the nation he brought into being.
Copies of this book are available at the front desk in the library. Registration is requested.
Retirement Planning Workshop
Tuesday, January 17 @ 6pm via Zoom 
Online Program
Father/Daughter Team of Lou and Jessica Pelletier will lead this virtual Interactive Comprehensive Retirement Planning Workshop.
Are you aware of the two new laws passed in 2020 (SECUREACT & COVID-19 CARES Act) and how they will impact you? Whether you have made your selection or not, learn about all the options that you have regarding your Social Security selection. Even if you have just made your selection, you have one year to change your mind!
If you are 59 1/2 or older, even if you are still working, should you keep your 401K/403B or transfer to an IRA? How do you take Income from your Assets in a volatile market? If you have life insurance, is your plan outdated? Learn what legal documents you should have in Retirement in addition to a Will.
