Virtual Programs
Book Discussion on Martha Hall Kelly’s Sunflower Sisters
Thursday, May 13 @ 6:30 pm 
Gunn Memorial Library and The Hickory Stick Bookshop will host Martha Hall Kelly in a virtual conversation with Joseph Montebello to discuss Kelly’s latest novel, Sunflower Sisters.
New York Times bestselling author Martha Hall Kelly tells the stunning story of Georgeanna Woolsey, a union nurse during the Civil War and ancestor to Lilac Girl’s Caroline Ferriday, in her final novel about the remarkable Ferriday and Woolsey women and how her calling leads her to cross paths with Jemma, a young enslaved girl who is sold off and conscripted into the army. Inspired by true accounts, Sunflower Sisters provides a vivid, detailed look at the Civil War experience, from the barbaric and inhumane plantations, to a war-torn New York City, to the horrors of the battlefield. It’s a sweeping story of women caught in a country on the brink of collapse, in a society grappling with nationalism and unthinkable racial cruelty, a story still so relevant today.
A native New Englander, Martha Hall Kelly is the NYT Bestselling author of Lilac Girls and Lost Roses. Her historical fiction stories of loss and love are remarkably relevant to today’s world of turmoil.
Joseph Montebello is a freelance writer. He is a longtime contributor to Litchfield Magazine and has written for The Litchfield County Times, Berkshire Style, Bedford Magazine, Rural Intelligence, Main Street, and AARP Magazine.. He has also written many profiles on people in the arts, including Dani Shapiro, Frank Delaney, Roxanna Robinson, Agnes Gund, Ann Leary, and Christine Baranski. He is the former Vice-President & Creative Director at HarperCollins Publishers, where he also had an imprint called HarperStyle.
Signed copies of Sunflower Sisters are available from The Hickory Stick Bookshop or call 860-868-0525
Register for this virtual event here.
Minor Memorial Library- An Afternoon with Ross King
Monday, May 17 @ 4pm
Minor Memorial will host award-winning and bestselling author Ross King for a virtual discussion. Ross will be zooming in live from his residence in London, as he reads from his latest book “ The Bookseller of Florence”, a rich, gripping history—a story of rivalry, new technology and the finest illuminated manuscripts known to history, all set against a Renaissance Florence backdrop.
Movies in the Park
Author Talk with Jan-Philip Sendker
Thursday, June 10 @ 6:30 pm 
Gunn Memorial Library and Hickory Stick Bookshop will host Jan-Philip Sendker to discuss his latest book, The Heart Remembers, the final volume in his series The Art of Hearing Heartbeats, the conclusion of the story about Burmese-American lawyer Julia Win that weaves lessons of hope, humor, tragedy, and familial ties that bind across time and place. Signed copies of the book will be available at the Hickory Stick.
