Programs
Please be aware that the following programs are subject to change as we continually review our safety guidelines regarding Covid-19.
Winter Reading Challenge
January 1- March 31, 2022
Looking for something fun to beat back the winter blues? Try our Winter Reading Challenge! Pick up a challenge bingo card at the library or download your challenge card here. Complete a set of challenges across, down, or diagonally for a chance to win one of three wonderfully curated gift baskets throughout the months of January, February, and March. Only one title is allowed per challenge and no repeats! Complete the entire challenge card and we will double your chances to win! We will have book lists and displays to help you decide what to read.
Starting January 3, you can also pick up a curbside kit filled with instructions, a challenge card, a bookmark and booklists!
Don’t forget to pick up a copy of The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner, our first book club selection of the year. The new book club will meet on January 27 @ 6:30 pm and will be offered both in person and online with a special guest appearance by the author!.
Reading is snow much fun!
Family Game Day
This program has been postponed until we can gather safely. 
Movie Matinee- On the Rocks
Monday, January 24 @ 1 pm
The story of a young mother who reconnects with her larger-than-life playboy father on an adventure through New York. In this comedy about aging, marriage, and the tenuous bond between parents and grown children, New York author and married mother-of-two Laura has become suspicious that her career-driven husband may be having an affair with a coworker, a speculation encouraged by her caddish, bon vivant father. R1h 36m.
Book Club: The Lost Apothecary
Thursday, January 27 @ 6:30 pm
Hybrid Program
Are you participating in our Winter Reading Challenge? One of the challenges is to read our first book club pick of the year, The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner. This dark and gripping tale convincingly weaves three heroines across two timelines into a story about poison, revenge, and a network of women helping each other through a world often stacked against them. Pick up a copy of this book today and join us either online or in person to discuss it. You will be treated to a special, virtual guest appearance by the author, too! If you haven’t already, be sure to pick up a Winter Reading Challenge card at the library.
Sarah Penner was born and raised in northeast Kansas and began writing seriously in 2015 after being inspired by Elizabeth Gilbert while on he Big Magic tour. Penner is an avid traveler and a graduate from the University of Kansas with a degree in finance. In early 2021, after thirteen years in corporate America, she left her day job and is now a full-time writer. She, her husband, and their miniature dachshund, Zoe, live in the Sunshine State.
Mugs & Minds: A Shepaug Libraries Collaboration
Saturday, January 29 @ 1 pm
In-Person at Burnham Library in Bridgewater
Gunn Library, Minor Memorial Library in Roxbury and Burnham Library in Bridgewater have teamed up to offer our larger community a series of thoughtful conversations on pertinent topics that affect our everyday lives. To kick off this series, Burnham Library will host a conversation on Information Literacy in the Digital Age with a leader in the field. Bring your favorite mug to fill with a warm beverage and join the conversation!
Region 12 Strategic Planning Community Forum
Sunday, January 30 from 1-3 pm
Online Program
The Region 12 Schools need your voice!
Region 12 Schools is committed to reflecting the values and needs of its community. The Region 12 Board of Education has just launched a planning process to produce a multi-year strategic plan. The first step is to solicit input and insights from our community. To that end, on Sunday, January 30, 2022, from 1-3 pm, Region 12 administrators will host a virtual community forum during which Region 12 community members will have an opportunity to discuss the strategic planning process and inform and shape decisions through focus groups. GML is happy to promote this event to encourage community-wide participation.
All community members are invited. Please register in advance to ensure we have enough facilitators and breakout rooms within the virtual platform. Those who register will receive the community forum link a few days before the program.
Movie Matinee- Stillwater
Monday, January 31 @ 1 pm
An American oil-rig roughneck travels to Marseille, France, to visit his estranged daughter, in prison for a murder she claims she didn’t commit. Confronted with language barriers, cultural differences and a complicated legal system, he soon builds a new life for himself as he makes it his personal mission to exonerate her. R 2h 19m.
Weekly Guided Meditation Series
Tuesdays in February @ 6:30 pm
In-Person Program
Stress has a way of seeping into every aspect of our lives and the effects it has on the body can wreak havoc on the overall state of our health. The practice of meditation helps us to retrain our brain’s response to stress and it helps our bodies to discharge that negative energy. Join Sheila Klapper, a certified Kripalu Yoga Instructor Tuesdays in February at 6:30 pm for a weekly meditation practice. Sheila will start the series by introducing how meditation and stress counteract one another and build each week on different areas of focus and different techniques to incorporate meditation into your daily life. This program will be offered in-person only and seating is limited.
Sheila Klapper has been doing meditation since the mid 70’s. She became a certified Kripalu Yoga Instruction in 2000. In addition, Sheila has completed a 2 year course of study with Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach sponsored by the Greater Good Science Center (University of Berkley California), Sounds True and the Awareness Training Institute (ATI). It is her great pleasure to inspire and support others in beginning and sustaining a personal practice.
Virtual Spirit Tasting with Litchfield Distillery
Thursday, February 10 @ 6:30 pm
Register here.
Nothing will warm you up on a cold winter night quite like a stiff glass of a quality spirit. Litchfield Distillery has a wide range of exceptionally distilled spirits, handcrafted from the highest quality, regionally harvested grains and fruit. The Gunn Memorial Library is happy to host virtual tasting with Litchfield Distillery. Register to reserve a tasting kit complete with five small sample bottles of Litchfield Distillery’s spectrum of spirits. Each kit also contains a small glass, tasting notes and information about the distillery. Batchers from the distillery will give a virtual tour of the premises and a guided tasting experience via Zoom. Registration is limited while supplies last.
Once you have registered, come to the front desk of the library with a valid form of identification to pick up your tasting kit. This program is limited to twenty people. You must be 21 or older to register.
Thank you to Litchfield Distillery for providing this program!
Winter Short Story Group Meeting
Tuesday, February 15 @ 6:30 pm
Online program 
Our short story group continues this winter with a slightly updated format. Join us online via Zoom for monthly meetings to discuss exemplary examples of the Short Story!
At our February meeting we will be discussing The Midnight Zone by Lauren Groff.
