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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260919T170000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260919T190000
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SUMMARY:Don Winslow Brings Crime\, Corruption and The Final Score to Mystic & Noank Library Author Talk
DESCRIPTION:Don Winslow Brings Crime\, Corruption and The Final Score to Mystic & Noank Library Author Talk on Saturday\, Sept. 19\, when the bestselling crime novelist sits down with writer and longtime local arts journalist Rick Koster inside Snediker Yacht Restoration in Old Mystic. \nThe Mystic & Noank Library’s fifth annual Author Talk runs from 5 to 7 p.m.\, beginning with an hour-long reception featuring wine and hors d’oeuvres before Winslow and Koster take over the conversation at 6 p.m. Bank Square Books will also be there with copies of Winslow’s books available for purchase. \nThis isn’t simply a stop on a book tour. The $125-per-person evening is one of the library’s major annual fundraisers\, with proceeds helping support its programs and services. It also brings together an interesting combination: a crime writer who grew up in coastal Rhode Island\, a Connecticut journalist and novelist who has spent decades writing about this corner of New England\, and a working Old Mystic boat shop devoted to preserving vessels from another era. \nDon Winslow Took a Long Road to Crime Fiction\nBefore Don Winslow became a bestselling novelist\, he accumulated the kind of résumé that sounds suspiciously like research for one. \nThe son of a sailor and a librarian\, Winslow grew up in a small coastal community in Rhode Island. He left at 17 to study journalism at the University of Nebraska\, where he also earned a degree in African Studies. \nThen things got less conventional. \nWinslow traveled through southern Africa\, worked as a movie theater manager in New York and became a private investigator in Times Square. He earned a master’s degree in military history\, worked for a photographic safari company in Kenya\, led hiking expeditions in China and directed Shakespeare productions during summers in Oxford\, England. \nThrough all of it\, he was writing. \nHis first novel\, A Cool Breeze on the Underground\, introduced private investigator Neal Carey and earned an Edgar Award nomination. Investigative work later took Winslow and his family to California\, where they lived in hotels for nearly three years while he worked cases and served as a trial consultant. \nEventually\, a publishing and film deal for The Death and Life of Bobby Z allowed him to leave investigative work behind and write full time. \nThe detective work\, travel and years spent watching people in unusual circumstances left fingerprints all over the fiction that followed. \nFrom The Power of the Dog to City on Fire\nWinslow has written more than 20 novels\, but two sprawling crime sagas account for a large part of his reputation. \nThe Power of the Dog\, published in 2005\, opened an ambitious fictional chronicle of the drug trade and the decades-long conflict surrounding it. Winslow continued the story with The Cartel and The Border\, creating a trilogy stretching across roughly four decades of the war on drugs. \nThen he came back toward home. \nCity on Fire\, published in 2022\, begins another trilogy\, this time centered on Irish and Italian organized-crime families in Rhode Island. City of Dreams followed in 2023 and City in Ruins completed the trilogy in 2024. \nThe Rhode Island setting brings Winslow’s crime fiction back to the landscape where he grew up. It’s also likely to give Saturday’s Old Mystic audience something familiar beneath the gunfire and betrayals: coastal New England\, family loyalties\, neighborhood identities and communities where everybody seems separated by only a few degrees. \nWinslow’s books have also repeatedly attracted Hollywood. Savages became a 2012 Oliver Stone film\, while The Death and Life of Bobby Z was adapted for the screen earlier. His work has drawn interest over the years from filmmakers and actors including Michael Mann\, Martin Scorsese\, Ridley Scott\, Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio. \nSix Crimes\, Six Stories in The Final Score\nSaturday’s conversation arrives with a newer book on the table. \nThe Final Score trades the enormous canvas of Winslow’s trilogies for six shorter crime novellas. The stories stand independently\, but Winslow returns to familiar territory: criminals making calculations\, ordinary people being pushed into extraordinary choices\, corruption\, loyalty and the moment when somebody decides the risk is worth taking. \nThe title story begins with an irresistible premise for crime fiction: an impossible multimillion-dollar casino robbery. \nA legendary thief facing the possibility of spending the rest of his life behind bars sees precisely what everyone else sees. The score can’t be pulled off. \nThat’s what makes him want to do it. \nElsewhere\, a college-bound teenager delivering illegal alcohol finds his future threatened by a crooked police officer\, a customer and a phony guru. Two mobsters swap stories over breakfast in another tale\, while The North Wing puts an otherwise honest patrol officer between loyalty to his profession and loyalty to a troublesome cousin. \nThe shorter form changes the machinery. Winslow doesn’t have hundreds of pages to slowly tighten the screws. Characters have to arrive quickly\, choices have to matter almost immediately and the trapdoor beneath them can’t take forever to open. \nThose six stories\, along with the much larger novels that preceded them\, give Koster plenty to work with Saturday night. \nRick Koster Takes the Other Chair\nThe person asking the questions is a writer himself. \nRick Koster spent decades as an arts journalist and columnist at The Day in New London\, covering music\, books\, food and the cultural life of southeastern Connecticut. Before journalism\, he spent years playing rock music\, and he’s also the author of several books. \nHis fiction includes White Ghost Blues\, a supernatural story steeped in New Orleans music\, along with other novels and nonfiction. \nKoster has become a familiar interviewer for the Mystic & Noank Library’s annual event. He also sat across from bestselling Connecticut novelist Wally Lamb during the library’s 2025 fundraiser at Snediker. \nThat local connection should make Saturday’s conversation different from a generic promotional interview. Winslow grew up in coastal Rhode Island and later returned to the state as the setting for the City on Fire trilogy. Koster has spent much of his professional life documenting southeastern Connecticut and its arts community. \nThere’s plenty of common New England ground between them. \nA Book Talk Inside a Wooden Boat Shop\nThe setting might be the most unusual part of the evening. \nSnediker Yacht Restoration isn’t an event hall dressed to resemble a boat shop. It’s the real thing. \nThe Old Mystic company has spent more than 30 years building\, repairing and restoring classic wooden boats using traditional construction techniques. Its small crew collectively represents about 150 years of boatbuilding experience. \nThe projects vary dramatically. Some boats return to the water to race or cruise. Others are museum pieces that may never sail again. \nAmong Snediker’s recent restorations is The Kid\, the last surviving American Yacht Club One-Design Class Raceabout. Designed by B.B. Crowninshield and built by Rice Brothers in 1902\, the boat was originally constructed for yachtsman Oliver Harriman Jr. and later raced on Long Island Sound under owner Clifford D. Mallory as Cliphora. Following an extensive restoration at Snediker\, the century-old boat sailed again. \nFor an author fundraiser in Mystic\, it’s hard to imagine a setting more rooted in the character of the region: wooden hulls\, old boats and the smell and machinery of a working restoration shop rather than rows of seats in a hotel ballroom. \nThe library has made the location part of the tradition\, too. Its 2024 annual report notes that author and historian Hampton Sides appeared for a fundraiser at Snediker while promoting The Wide Wide Sea. Wally Lamb followed in 2025 with The River Is Waiting. \nNow Winslow becomes the fifth annual Author Talk’s featured writer. \nAn Evening That Supports the Library\nBefore the books take center stage\, the evening begins socially. \nDoors open for a reception from 5 to 6 p.m.\, with drinks and hors d’oeuvres included in admission. Bank Square Books will offer Winslow’s books for sale\, and the conversation with Koster follows from 6 to 7 p.m. \nThe library will also recognize its 2026 Volunteers of the Year\, Friends of the Library Co-Presidents Kathy Busse and Patricia Menno-Coveney\, for their service to the organization and community. \nMost importantly\, the night raises money. \nThe Mystic & Noank Library is a nonprofit organization\, and the Author Talk is part of its 2026 annual fundraising effort. Proceeds help sustain and expand the library’s programs and services. Tickets are limited\, and the library says it expects the event to sell out. \nSo\, yes\, there’s a bestselling crime writer in the middle of a wooden-boat restoration shop on Saturday night. \nBut there’s also a library behind him. \nMore information is available at the Event Website link below. \nTo purchase tickets\, click the Event Ticketing link below. \nDetails\nEvent: 5th Annual Author Talk with Don Winslow at Snediker Yacht Restoration\nDate: Saturday\, Sept. 19\, 2026\nTime: 5–7 p.m.\nReception: 5–6 p.m. with drinks and hors d’oeuvres\nAuthor Conversation: 6–7 p.m.\nFeatured Author: Don Winslow\nInterviewer: Rick Koster\nFeatured Book: The Final Score\nLocation: Snediker Yacht Restoration\nAddress: 35 Campground Road\, Old Mystic\, CT 06372\nAdmission: $125 per person\nAge Group: Adults\nBooks: Bank Square Books will have Winslow’s books available for purchase\nFundraiser: Proceeds support Mystic & Noank Library programs and services\nHonorees: 2026 Volunteers of the Year Kathy Busse and Patricia Menno-Coveney\, co-presidents of the Friends of the Mystic & Noank Library\nAvailability: Space is limited\, and the library expects the event to sell out\nContact: Chris Bradley\, 860-536-7721 \n  \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/don-winslow-brings-crime-corruption-and-the-final-score-to-mystic-noank-library-author-talk/
LOCATION:Snediker Yacht Restoration\, 35 Campground Rd\, Old Mystic\, 06355\, United States
CATEGORIES:Snediker Yacht Restoration
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260912T133000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260912T160000
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SUMMARY:Star Trek Trivia With Robb Pearlman at Mystic Seaport
DESCRIPTION:Star Trek Trivia with Robb Pearlman at Mystic Seaport Museum on Saturday\, September 12\, combining a conversation with one of the franchise’s most prolific pop-culture authors with a live trivia showdown built around more than 60 years of Star Trek. It’s part of From Sails to Stars: A STAR TREK 60th Anniversary Celebration held at the museum all day Saturday. \nThe program begins at 1:30 p.m. on the Performance Stage. It features Pearlman\, a #1 New York Times bestselling author\, editor\, and self-described pop culturalist whose long relationship with Star Trek has produced books ranging from affectionate parody to fitness guides\, children’s titles\, and explorations of the franchise’s characters and ideas. \nAfter the conversation\, Pearlman turns quizmaster\, testing the audience with questions drawn from his newly released Star Trek: The Ultimate Trivia Deck. \nRobb Pearlman Has Made a Career Out of Pop Culture\nPearlman’s bibliography stretches far beyond the final frontier. \nHe has written more than 80 books for adults and children and has worked professionally across writing\, editing\, art direction\, licensing and publishing. His projects have touched properties including The Office\, Marvel\, Scooby-Doo\, The Golden Girls\, Bob Ross\, I Love Lucy and The Princess Bride. \nHis publishing career has been similarly broad. Pearlman spent years at Rizzoli\, including time as associate publisher for Universe\, and has worked with major entertainment and publishing brands throughout his career. \nBut Star Trek has become one of his specialties. \nPearlman is a regular speaker at pop-culture conventions and has been part of Star Trek: The Cruise\, giving him a relationship with Trek fandom that extends well beyond simply writing licensed books. \nFrom Kirk and Spock to Body by Starfleet\nPearlman’s first Star Trek book\, 2014’s Fun with Kirk and Spock\, approached the franchise from an unexpected direction. \nIt borrowed the visual and linguistic simplicity of old Dick and Jane-style early readers and applied it to Kirk\, Spock and the frequently dangerous universe around them. \nThe joke worked because Pearlman understood both sides of it. \nHe told Publishers Weekly that he recognized an overlap between adults nostalgic for childhood books and fans who had grown up watching Star Trek\, often with their families. \nMore Trek projects followed. \nHis bibliography includes Star Trek: Redshirt’s Little Book of Doom\, Search for Spock: A Star Trek Book of Exploration\, The Wit and Wisdom of Star Trek\, Star Trek: Body by Starfleet\, Star Trek: Starfleet Is…\, Star Trek Discovery: The Book of Grudge\, The Star Trek Book of Friendship and Star Trek: The Girl Who Made the Stars. \nThat last title adapted the story Michael Burnham hears from her father in Star Trek: Discovery into a book written specifically for younger readers. \nPearlman’s Trek work has consequently covered parody\, humor\, fitness\, friendship\, children’s storytelling and franchise lore. \nSeptember’s Mystic appearance adds trivia to the list. \nThe Ultimate Trivia Deck Is Brand New\nThe timing of the event isn’t accidental. \nStar Trek: The Ultimate Trivia Deck was released on August 18\, 2026\, less than a month before Pearlman’s appearance in Mystic. \nThe officially licensed game contains 200 cards and 400 questions spanning more than 60 years of Star Trek. \nAnd this isn’t simply a trivia set devoted to Kirk\, Spock and the original Enterprise. \nThe questions reach across the franchise’s television series and movies\, from Star Trek: The Original Series and The Next Generation through newer installments including Strange New Worlds. \nQuestions are divided among four broad categories: Technology; Characters; Events and Anomalies; and Planets\, Places and Cultures. \nEach card contains two questions at different difficulty levels. Answer the easier question correctly and the player can attempt the harder one for additional points. \nThe formats also vary between straightforward questions and answers\, multiple choice and true-or-false. \nThat structure gives Pearlman plenty of material for the audience competition at Mystic Seaport. \nThink You Know Star Trek? Here’s the Test\nAfter the conversation portion of the program\, Pearlman will host a live trivia contest inspired by the new deck. \nThat changes the event from a conventional author appearance into something considerably more participatory. \nThe Museum is framing the challenge around finding the “ultimate Trekkie\,” so brushing up on only one corner of the franchise may not be enough. \nThe published trivia deck reaches across characters\, technology\, planets\, cultures and events from different eras of Trek. A fan who can explain the inner workings of the Enterprise-D may run into a question about Klingon history. Someone who knows every original-series episode may suddenly be dealing with a newer series. \nThat breadth is appropriate for a franchise celebrating its 60th anniversary in 2026. \nThe original Star Trek premiered on NBC on September 8\, 1966. Pearlman’s Mystic appearance comes just four days after the anniversary of that first broadcast. \nSixty Years of Star Trek\nWhat began as a television series struggling to survive in the ratings has become one of the most durable fictional universes in popular culture. \nGene Roddenberry’s original series lasted only three seasons\, but its afterlife proved much bigger than its initial run. \nMovies followed. Then The Next Generation\, Deep Space Nine\, Voyager and Enterprise. A new television era eventually brought Discovery\, Picard\, Lower Decks\, Prodigy and Strange New Worlds\, among other projects. \nThe franchise’s longevity has also produced something unusual for a trivia event: several generations of fans can arrive with completely different areas of expertise. \nOne person may have watched Kirk and Spock when the episodes originally aired. Another may have discovered Jean-Luc Picard in syndication. Younger fans may have entered the universe through Discovery\, Prodigy or Strange New Worlds. \nPearlman’s work has frequently played with exactly that multigenerational quality of Trek fandom. \nAt Mystic Seaport\, those generations get to compete. \nAn Author Talk That Doesn’t End With the Talk\nPearlman will also have books and copies of the trivia deck available for signing following the program. \nThat gives the afternoon a three-part structure: conversation\, competition and signing. \nIt also provides an opportunity to hear from someone who approaches licensed pop culture from both sides of publishing. \nPearlman isn’t only an author handed established characters and asked to write about them. His career has included acquiring\, editing\, developing and art directing projects based on major entertainment properties. \nThat makes the conversation potentially broader than Star Trek trivia alone. His career sits at the intersection of fandom and the publishing business that turns familiar fictional worlds into books\, games and other objects fans can take home. \nThen comes the part where somebody has to prove they actually know how many nacelles are on the Enterprise-D. \nA Different Kind of Voyage at Mystic Seaport\nThere’s also something pleasantly fitting about bringing Star Trek to Mystic Seaport Museum. \nOne institution preserves stories of people who ventured across oceans in wooden sailing ships. \nThe other imagined humanity taking that same impulse much farther. \nMystic Seaport’s historic vessels represent an era when leaving port could mean disappearing beyond reliable communication for months or years. Star Trek took exploration\, navigation\, unknown territory and life aboard a ship and transported those ideas into space. \nThe technologies could hardly be more different. \nThe basic fascination with going somewhere no one around you has seen remains surprisingly familiar. \nOn September 12\, the Museum’s Performance Stage trades square-riggers for starships for an afternoon. \nEvent Details\nEvent: Star Trek Conversation and Trivia with Robb Pearlman\nDate: Saturday\, September 12\, 2026\nTime: 1:30 p.m.\nLocation: Performance Stage at Mystic Seaport Museum\nAddress: 75 Greenmanville Avenue\, Mystic\, CT 06355\nGuest: Robb Pearlman\nProgram: Author conversation followed by a Star Trek trivia contest\nTrivia: Inspired by Star Trek: The Ultimate Trivia Deck\nBook Signing: Books and trivia decks will be available for signing\nNew Release: Star Trek: The Ultimate Trivia Deck\, released August 18\, 2026 \n  \n  \nFeatured image is an artistic representation inspired by the event and may not depict the actual people\, location\, or activities shown. \n  \n 
URL:https://thectbeacon.com/event/star-trek-trivia-with-robb-pearlman-at-mystic-seaport-museum/
LOCATION:Mystic Seaport\, 75 Greenmanville Ave\, Mystic\, CT\, \,06355-1946\,\, United States
CATEGORIES:Mystic Seaport
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260912T100000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260912T180000
DTSTAMP:20260910T231719Z
CREATED:20260905T031609Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260910T231719Z
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SUMMARY:From Sails to Stars: Mystic Seaport Celebrates 60 Years of Star Trek
DESCRIPTION:From Sails to Stars: Mystic Seaport Celebrates 60 Years of Star Trek on Saturday\, September 12\, for a full day connecting two very different eras of exploration: mariners navigating Earth’s oceans and the fictional crews who have spent six decades exploring the final frontier. \nThe celebration includes special planetarium programs\, guest speakers\, a space-themed photo opportunity\, and a screening of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Visitors are encouraged to arrive in costume or fan apparel as Mystic Seaport marks the 60th anniversary of a television series that turned ships\, captains\, navigation and exploration into a vision of humanity’s future. \nThe entire celebration is included with general Museum admission. \nStar Trek Turns 60\nThe original Star Trek premiered on NBC on September 8\, 1966\, making Mystic Seaport’s September 12 celebration almost exactly 60 years after American audiences first boarded the USS Enterprise. \nThe original series lasted only three seasons\, but its influence proved far greater than its initial ratings suggested. \nSyndication introduced Kirk\, Spock\, McCoy and the Enterprise to new audiences. Feature films followed. Then came Star Trek: The Next Generation\, Deep Space Nine\, Voyager and Enterprise\, followed by a new generation of series including Discovery\, Picard\, Lower Decks\, Prodigy and Strange New Worlds. \nSix decades later\, Star Trek has become one of popular culture’s most enduring visions of exploration. \nThat’s where Mystic Seaport Museum enters the story. \nFrom Sails to Stars\nAt first glance\, a Star Trek celebration might seem like an unusual fit for a museum filled with wooden ships\, maritime artifacts and stories of 19th-century sailors. \nThe Museum is leaning directly into that contrast. \nLong before electronic navigation and GPS\, mariners crossed oceans using the sky. \nCelestial navigation relies on observations of the sun\, moon\, planets and stars to determine a vessel’s position. A navigator using instruments such as a sextant could measure the altitude of a celestial body above the horizon and use that information\, along with accurate time and navigational tables\, to calculate a ship’s position. \nFor sailors far from land\, the night sky wasn’t simply something to look at. \nIt was part of the navigation system. \nThe Star Trek universe takes that ancient relationship between navigation and the heavens and pushes it into the future. Instead of sailors using stars to cross an ocean\, Starfleet crews travel between them. \nSpecial programs at Mystic Seaport Museum’s Treworgy Planetarium will explore that connection during the anniversary celebration. \nThe Wrath of Khan Meets Moby-Dick\nOne of the day’s highlights is a screening of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan\, the 1982 film widely regarded as one of the defining entries in the franchise. \nThe choice has a particularly strong connection to Mystic Seaport Museum. \nThe Wrath of Khan isn’t simply a science-fiction adventure. Its story deliberately draws on Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick. \nRicardo Montalbán’s Khan Noonien Singh becomes an Ahab-like figure\, allowing his desire for revenge against James T. Kirk to consume virtually everything else. The film makes its literary inspiration increasingly explicit as Khan’s pursuit of Kirk moves toward its conclusion. \nThat makes Mystic Seaport an unusually appropriate place to revisit the film. \nHerman Melville sailed aboard the whaleship Acushnet beginning in 1841\, experiences that became part of the maritime world behind Moby-Dick. That same year\, the whaleship Charles W. Morgan was launched from New Bedford. \nToday\, the Morgan survives at Mystic Seaport Museum as the world’s last remaining wooden whaleship from the American whaling fleet. \nA 19th-century novel about a captain pursuing a white whale eventually helped shape a 20th-century movie about a genetically engineered man pursuing a starship captain. \nFrom the deck of a whaleship to the bridge of the Enterprise\, the distance isn’t quite as great as it first appears. \nA Day for Star Trek Fans\nThe Museum is encouraging fans to become part of the celebration rather than simply watch it. \nVisitors can attend wearing Star Trek costumes and fan apparel\, although full-face masks are not permitted. \nA space-themed photo opportunity will provide another place to embrace the science-fiction side of the day\, while the planetarium and speaker programs dig deeper into the science\, history and culture connecting maritime and space exploration. \nSome portions of the celebration have limited capacity. \nThe Museum says seating for lectures and the film screening will be first-come\, first-served\, so visitors particularly interested in those programs should keep that in mind when planning the day. \nRobb Pearlman Brings Star Trek Trivia to the Performance Stage\nThe day’s programming also includes an appearance by #1 New York Times bestselling author and Trekspurt Robb Pearlman at 1:30 p.m. on the Performance Stage. \nPearlman has written more than 90 books\, including a substantial collection devoted to Star Trek. His Mystic program combines a conversation about his work with a live trivia competition inspired by his new Star Trek: The Ultimate Trivia Deck. \nHe’ll also have books and trivia decks available for signing. \nWe’re giving Pearlman’s appearance its own CT Beacon event page\, including more about his unusual career writing about Star Trek and what fans can expect from the trivia showdown. \nSee our complete guide: Star Trek Trivia With Robb Pearlman at Mystic Seaport Museum. \nExploration Before Starfleet\nThere’s a larger idea behind From Sails to Stars that fits Mystic Seaport particularly well. \nThe people represented throughout the Museum’s collections lived in a world in which the ocean could still contain enormous unknowns. \nSailors departed familiar shores without satellites\, radio communication or electronic charts. They relied on their ships\, instruments\, knowledge of the natural world and observations of the sky. \nStar Trek took that same human impulse and imagined where it might eventually lead. \nIts most famous opening wasn’t about conquering space. \nIt was about exploring it. \nThat makes the 60th anniversary more than an excuse to put Starfleet uniforms among the square-riggers. Mystic Seaport is using science fiction to look at something maritime history and Star Trek have shared from the beginning: the desire to find out what’s beyond the horizon. \nEvent Details\nEvent: From Sails to Stars: A STAR TREK 60th Anniversary Celebration\nDate: Saturday\, September 12\, 2026\nVenue: Mystic Seaport Museum\nAddress: 75 Greenmanville Avenue\, Mystic\, CT 06355\nProgramming: Guest speakers\, planetarium shows\, space-themed photo opportunity and film screening\nFilm: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan\nSpecial Program: Robb Pearlman conversation and Star Trek trivia at 1:30 p.m.\nCostumes: Star Trek costumes and fan apparel encouraged; full-face masks are not permitted\nAdmission: Included with general Museum admission\nCapacity: Screening and lectures have limited capacity; admission is first-come\, first-served \nMore information is available at the Event Website link below. \nTo purchase Museum admission\, click the Event Ticketing 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/from-sails-to-stars-mystic-seaport-celebrates-60-years-of-star-trek/
LOCATION:Mystic Seaport\, 75 Greenmanville Ave\, Mystic\, CT\, \,06355-1946\,\, United States
CATEGORIES:Mystic Seaport
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260829T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260829T160000
DTSTAMP:20260901T002809Z
CREATED:20260825T022604Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260901T002809Z
UID:10007268-1788004800-1788019200@thectbeacon.com
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
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DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260821T190000
DTSTAMP:20260820T200731Z
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LAST-MODIFIED:20260820T200731Z
UID:10007245-1787335200-1787338800@thectbeacon.com
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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