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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260806T180000
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SUMMARY:Debra Curtis Author Talk and Signing at Bank Square Books
DESCRIPTION:Debra Curtis Author Talk and Signing at Bank Square Books in Mystic on Thursday\, August 6\, for an evening celebrating her emotionally powerful first novel\, Laws of Love and Logic. Curtis will discuss the inspiration behind the book in conversation with New York Times bestselling author Luanne Rice before signing copies for readers. \nPublished as part of Jenna Bush Hager’s Thousand Voices imprint\, Laws of Love and Logic explores the complicated bond between two sisters whose lives have been shaped by grief\, addiction\, first love\, and the difficult choices that define families. Spanning decades\, the novel weaves together themes of forgiveness\, science\, faith\, and resilience into a story that has already attracted attention as one of the imprint’s standout debut releases. \nBefore turning to fiction\, Curtis spent her career as a professor of cultural anthropology at Salve Regina University\, where she specialized in gender and sexuality. The Rhode Island author now lives with her husband and English bulldog\, Harry\, and brings years of insight into human relationships to her first novel. Joining her is Connecticut favorite Luanne Rice\, author of 39 novels including Last Night\, Last Day\, and The Shadow Box\, whose books have also been adapted for television. \nWhether you’re looking for your next book club pick\, enjoy meeting authors\, or simply love independent bookstores\, this free conversation offers a chance to hear two accomplished writers discuss storytelling\, family\, and the emotional threads that connect us. Guests who cannot attend in person may also order a signed and personalized copy of Laws of Love and Logic through Bank Square Books. \nEvent Details\nEvent: Debra Curtis Author Talk and Signing \nDate: Thursday\, August 6\, 2026 \nTime: 6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. \nLocation:\nBank Square Books\n80 Stonington Road\, Suite 8\nMystic\, CT 06355 \nAdmission: Free (RSVP requested) \nMore Information\nAttendees are encouraged to RSVP in advance. Signed and personalized copies of Laws of Love and Logic are also available to purchase for those unable to attend by using the Event Website link at the bottom of this page.
URL:https://thectbeacon.com/event/debra-curtis-author-talk-and-signing-at-bank-square-books/
LOCATION:Bank Square Books\, 80 Stonington Rd\, Mystic\, 06355\, United States
CATEGORIES:Bank Square Books
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260821T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260821T190000
DTSTAMP:20260820T200731Z
CREATED:20260820T200731Z
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SUMMARY:Mark Joseph Stelzner discusses Growth Machines
DESCRIPTION:Mark Joseph Stelzner discusses Growth Machines at Bank Square Books in Mystic on Friday\, August 21\, just three days after the book’s publication. \nThe free author talk and signing begins at 6 p.m. Stelzner\, an associate professor of economics at Connecticut College\, uses his new book to tackle a question almost everyone has experienced in one form or another: Why do we keep buying things we don’t really need\, even when getting more stuff doesn’t seem to make us happier? \nHis answer goes considerably beyond blaming advertising\, credit cards or a lack of self-control. Growth Machines argues that America’s economic system depends upon continually expanding consumption and has gradually helped condition people to find satisfaction in the act of consuming itself. \nWhy Do We Keep Buying?\nThink about the unopened books on a shelf. Clothes bought and barely worn. The perfectly functional phone replaced because a newer one appeared. \nStelzner argues that conventional economics doesn’t adequately explain behavior like this. \nPeople obviously work and spend money to meet genuine needs such as food and housing. But Growth Machines examines what happens after those needs have been satisfied. \nAccording to Stelzner\, consumption can become rewarding in itself. Buying something provides a temporary emotional payoff\, even when the object being purchased adds little lasting happiness to our lives. \nThe book then asks a larger question: What if that behavior isn’t merely an individual quirk? \nWhat if the economy needs it? \nAn Economy That Needs More\nAt the center of Growth Machines is Stelzner’s examination of what he calls “growthism\,” the assumption that an economy should continually become larger. \nIf economic growth depends heavily on consumer spending\, people can’t simply reach a comfortable level of material life and collectively decide they have enough. Businesses need customers to keep purchasing. New desires must emerge. Existing products must be replaced. \nStelzner traces how those economic pressures interact with human psychology\, status and social expectations. \nAcross 12 chapters\, he examines conspicuous consumption\, irrational economic behavior\, manipulation\, the potentially addictive qualities of consumption\, environmental consequences and the relationship between consumers and workers. \nThe final portion of the book turns toward another question: if endless consumption isn’t producing greater happiness\, what would an economy built around a different definition of prosperity look like? \nA New Book with a Local Connection\nThe Mystic appearance comes almost immediately after the book’s release. \nThe University of Chicago Press published the 296-page Growth Machines on August 18\, 2026\, making Friday’s Bank Square Books program one of the first opportunities for local readers to hear Stelzner discuss the finished book. \nThe subject also grows naturally from his academic work. \nStelzner joined Connecticut College in 2015 and is now an associate professor in the college’s Economics Department. His primary research has examined inequality and the political foundations of the economic system. \nHis work has explored labor laws and inequality\, antitrust policy\, wage discrimination\, private health care costs\, technological change\, slavery and capitalism\, and the economic history of the United States. \nMore recently\, that research expanded into the relationship between economic growth\, consumption and happiness. \nIn 2022\, he published research examining what economists call the Easterlin Paradox\, the observation that rising income and economic growth don’t necessarily produce corresponding long-term increases in happiness. \nGrowth Machines takes that problem beyond the academic journal and places consumption itself at the center of the discussion. \nFrom Inequality to the Shopping Cart\nStelzner’s background makes his approach to consumer behavior somewhat different from a traditional personal-finance critique. \nHe’s not primarily asking whether someone should have bought the $6 coffee or upgraded a television. \nHis research looks at the systems surrounding those decisions. \nPrevious work has examined how changes in labor law contributed to inequality during the Gilded Age\, how employers can exercise wage-setting power over workers and how political and institutional structures influence economic outcomes. \nWith Growth Machines\, the consumer becomes part of that larger economic structure. \nWe work to consume. Businesses depend on that consumption. Growth requires additional spending. Additional spending requires new wants. And satisfying those wants sends us back around the cycle. \nThe uncomfortable part of Stelzner’s argument is that people can participate willingly because buying something can genuinely feel good\, at least temporarily. \nThe Book Is Already Drawing Attention\nAlthough Growth Machines has only just been released\, it has attracted praise from several prominent scholars and writers examining capitalism\, inequality and economic growth. \nEconomist Thomas Piketty\, whose work has focused extensively on wealth and inequality\, described the book as a must-read examination of conspicuous consumption and the rise of growthism. \nHarvard historian Sven Beckert praised Stelzner’s exploration of how increasing consumption became connected to ideas about well-being and economic thought. \nOther early responses have focused on the book’s examination of the environmental consequences of an economy structured around continual expansion. \nThat gives Friday’s discussion several possible directions. Growth Machines isn’t simply about shopping habits. It touches economics\, psychology\, labor\, inequality\, environmental sustainability and a surprisingly personal question: \nHow much of what we want did we actually decide to want? \nAbout Mark Joseph Stelzner\nMark Joseph Stelzner is an associate professor of economics at Connecticut College in New London. \nHe earned his bachelor’s degree from Boston University\, a master’s degree from the University of Denver’s Josef Korbel School of International Studies and his doctorate from the University of Massachusetts. \nHis academic research specializes in inequality and the political underpinnings of economic systems. \nStelzner’s scholarship has appeared in publications including the Cambridge Journal of Economics\, The Review of Black Political Economy\, Journal of Happiness Studies\, Economic History Review and Labor History. His work has also received attention from publications and organizations including The Economist\, The Nation\, the Washington Center for Equitable Growth and the Center for American Progress. \nGrowth Machines is published by the University of Chicago Press. \nEvent Details\nEvent: Mark Joseph Stelzner: Growth Machines Author Talk and Signing\nDate: Friday\, August 21\, 2026\nTime: 6–7 p.m. \nAdmission: Free\nAuthor: Mark Joseph Stelzner\nBook: Growth Machines: On the Hollow Joys of Consumption in the Desert of Economic Life\nPublisher: University of Chicago Press\nPublication Date: August 18\, 2026 \nThe program includes a discussion of Growth Machines followed by a book signing with Stelzner. \nMore information is available at the Event Website link below. \n  \nFeatured image is an artistic representation inspired by the event and may not depict the actual people\, location\, or activities shown.
URL:https://thectbeacon.com/event/mark-joseph-stelzner-discusses-growth-machines/
LOCATION:Bank Square Books\, 80 Stonington Rd\, Mystic\, 06355\, United States
CATEGORIES:Bank Square Books
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SUMMARY:Carol Barrios Signs Her Debut Novel\, "Mahala"
DESCRIPTION:Carol Barrios Signs Her Debut Novel\, Mahala\, at Bank Square Books\, bringing a story rooted in her family history to Mystic on Saturday\, August 29\, when she signs copies of the book. The free weekend signing runs from noon to 4 p.m. It gives readers a chance to meet the Connecticut author behind a historical novel that begins more than a century ago on the Caribbean island of St. Vincent. \nAt its center is Mahala\, a young woman confronting a future that everyone around her seems to have already decided. \nA Woman Born Before Her Time\nMahala opens in St. Vincent in the British West Indies in 1900. \nIts title character occupies an unusual place within her own family. Adopted by her mother’s best friend but raised next door to her biological siblings\, Mahala grows up connected to two families of Indian descent navigating life in colonial Caribbean society. \nThe adults around her know what comes next. \nShe’ll leave school. Marry well. Run a household. Have children. \nMahala has other ideas. \nShe wants an education\, independence and the ability to decide what happens to her own life. \nEventually\, those ambitions force her toward a choice: remain in St. Vincent and accept an arranged marriage or leave her homeland and family behind for the possibilities of New York. \nFrom the Caribbean to New York\nMahala’s journey gives Barrios room to explore more than one place and period. \nThe novel moves from the restrictive expectations surrounding a young woman in the colonial Caribbean toward the possibilities and complications of life in America. \nNew York offers freedom\, but not an easy life. \nMahala ultimately becomes involved in efforts to improve conditions for women working in New York’s garment industry during the 1920s\, expanding her struggle for control over her own life into a concern for the lives of other women. \nThat gives the novel several layers at once: historical fiction\, immigration story\, coming-of-age novel and family saga. \nBut there’s another layer beneath all of them. \nMahala Was Her Grandmother\nBarrios didn’t invent the woman at the center of the story from nothing. \nMahala was inspired by her own grandmother. \nThat family connection gives the novel an unusual starting point. Barrios is using fiction to reach backward through generations\, imagining the private choices\, conflicts and emotions surrounding a woman whose life ultimately became part of her own family’s history. \nThe result explores questions that remain recognizable more than a century later. \nHow much does someone owe their family? \nWhen does tradition become a limitation? \nAnd what are you willing to leave behind for the chance to determine your own future? \nA Connecticut Author’s First Novel\nMahala is Barrios’ debut novel and was published in April 2026. \nCarol Marques Barrios is a graduate of the University of Connecticut\, where she earned both a Bachelor of Science in marketing and a Master of Business Administration. \nShe now lives in Fairfield\, Connecticut\, with her husband and three daughters. \nHer first novel takes her considerably farther from home\, geographically and historically\, while remaining connected to the family story that inspired it. \nSpend Part of Saturday With the Author\nSaturday’s Bank Square Books appearance isn’t a formal author talk with a single starting time. \nBarrios will be at the Mystic bookstore from noon to 4 p.m. for a weekend book signing\, giving readers a larger window to stop in\, meet her and have a copy of Mahala signed. \nThe event is free. \nReaders who can’t attend can also arrange to purchase a signed copy through Bank Square Books. \nFor everyone else\, the author behind Mahala will be in Mystic Saturday afternoon\, signing a story that began in her family generations before she sat down to write it. \nEvent Details\nEvent: Carol Barrios (Mahala) Weekend Book Signing\nDate: Saturday\, August 29\, 2026\nTime: Noon–4 p.m.\nLocation: Bank Square Books\nAddress: 80 Stonington Road\, Suite 8\, Mystic\, CT 06355\nAdmission: Free\nAuthor: Carol Marques Barrios\nBook: Mahala\nPublished: April 2026\nGenre: Historical fiction and family saga \nCarol Marques Barrios visits Bank Square Books for a four-hour signing of Mahala\, her debut historical novel inspired by her grandmother’s journey from the colonial Caribbean toward a life of her own choosing. \n  \nFeatured image is an artistic representation inspired by the event and may not depict the actual people\, location\, or activities shown.
URL:https://thectbeacon.com/event/carol-barrios-signs-her-debut-novel-mahala-at-bank-square-books/
LOCATION:Bank Square Books\, 80 Stonington Rd\, Mystic\, 06355\, United States
CATEGORIES:Bank Square Books
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://thectbeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Carol-Barrios-Signs-Her-Debut-Novel-Mahala-at-Bank-Square-Books.jpg
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