Author Susan Mara Bregman will give a presentation based on her new book, Along Route 1: Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts, on Wednesday, June 21 at 7PM via Zoom.

About The Book: Along Route 1 in Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts is an unapologetic combination of historic gravity, exuberant entertainment, unexpected juxtapositions, and wonderfully kitschy roadside attractions. New England road trippers will encounter roller coasters and candlepin bowling, lobster rolls and homemade pie, colonial-era taverns and granite fortifications. An orange dinosaur overlooks the highway in Massachusetts, a neon whale casts its glow in New Hampshire, and a statue in Maine memorializes a celebrity harbor seal. Motor courts once welcomed weary travelers, and drive-in theaters entertained vacationers on starlit summer nights. A geodesic dome is dedicated to the Maine wild blueberry, and a quirky museum documents the history of the state’s sardine industry. A club in Massachusetts showcased jazz greats, and a movie theater in Maine was named after a celebrated racehorse. Mile after mile, Route 1 tells a story about history, survival, loss, and change.

About The Author: Writer and photographer Susan Mara Bregman is the author of Arcadia Publishing’s New England Neon and New England Candlepin Bowling. A native New Yorker, she moved to Boston after graduating from college and never left. The remarkable photographs in this book came from historical societies, museums, libraries, universities, and private collections.

Register directly on Zoom HERE. This virtual event is a collaboration between several libraries.

NOTE: This program will be recorded. All registrants will receive the recording via email within 24 hours of the program

Author Maria Olia will discuss her brand new book, Massachusetts Off the Beaten Path, on Tuesday, June 20 at 7PM via Zoom.

About The Book: Discover some of Massachusetts’s unique offerings with this guide: Visit a wooden-boat shop that has been in business since 1793; admire the pressed-glass galleries at the Sandwich Glass Museum, or travel back in time at the nineteenth-century Old Sturbridge Village.

About The Author: Maria Olia is a travel writer and essayist. She has written extensively about Boston and New England and has authored several travel books on the region. Her articles and essays have appeared in the Boston Globe, Working Mother and the Christian Science Monitor, among other publications. Maria has lived in the Boston area since arriving as a college student to study at Northeastern University more than 30 years ago. She resides with her husband in Newton, just outside of Boston, where they raised their three sons and daughter. Maria has a passion for American history, Cape Cod beaches, the Boston Symphony and the Red Sox. She will always call Massachusetts home.

Register directly on Zoom HERE. This virtual event is a collaboration between several libraries.

NOTE: This program will be recorded. All registrants will receive the recording via email within 24 hours of the program. 

Massachusetts author and historian Alan Earls will present a slideshow and discussion on Wednesday, June 14 at 7PM via Zoom of some of the important milestones, architectural gems, and key figures in this story as well as an overview of just how richly endowed we are with libraries of all kinds today.

Highlights include Ben Franklin’s gift to found the first free public library in Franklin; the first library for industrial workers; the first children’s library; and the first tax-payer funded town and city libraries, as well as pioneering cataloging systems, philanthropists, architects, and more. 

Register directly on Zoom HERE. This virtual event is a collaboration between several libraries.

NOTE: This program will be recorded. All registrants will receive the recording via email within 24 hours of the program. 

Join us on Thursday, May 25 at 7PM via Zoom for a virtual visit with author Charlotte McConaghy, author of Migrations. We welcome readers to send in their questions for the author in advance to Jessica at jfitzhanso@chelmsfordlibrary.org. The conversation will be led by Meena Jain, Director of the Ashland Public Library in Ashland, MA.

Register directly on Zoom HERE. Presented by Chelmsford in partnership with the public libraries throughout Massachusetts.

About the book: A dark past. An impossible journey. The will to survive. How far you would you go for love? Franny Stone is determined to go to the end of the earth, following the last of the Arctic terns on what may be their final migration to Antarctica. As animal populations plummet and commercial fishing faces prohibition, Franny talks her way onto one of the few remaining boats heading south. But as she and the eccentric crew travel further from shore and safety, the dark secrets of Franny’s life begin to unspool. A daughter’s yearning search for her mother. An impulsive, passionate marriage. A shocking crime. Haunted by love and violence, Franny must confront what she is really running towards – and from.

About the author: Charlotte is an Australian author living in Sydney with her partner and son. She has a Masters Degree in Screenwriting from the Australian Film Television and Radio School, and a number of published SFF works in Australia. Her novel MIGRATIONS is her first foray into adult literary fiction, published in North America by Flatiron Books, and by Penguin Random House in Australia and the UK. It is being translated into over 20 languages, and adapted to film. Fueled by her love of nature and her interest in stories of fierce women, McConaghy’s newest novel, ONCE THERE WERE WOLVES, the New York Times Bestseller, is a romantic mystery about a biologist charged with reintroducing wolves to the Scottish Highlands in order to rewild the landscape and bring a forest back to life.

Learn the factors on Thursday, May 4 at 2PM via Zoom that make for happy houseplants, including light, water, and soil…and how to provide them. Common houseplant pests and diseases are also on the agenda, as well as how to treat them.

Led by Bonnie Power, a Massachusetts Master Gardener since 2016 and a serious outdoor/indoor gardener most of her life. Curious and research-oriented by nature, she has many horticultural interests and areas of expertise. Bonnie holds both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in Zoology, which informs her perspective on the management of garden insects; she is also an administrator for a “sick houseplant” group on Facebook. She spent the past year as manager of the MMGA Soil pH Testing team and while she has passed this on to a new manager, she continues as a member of the team. Bonnie also volunteers at Garden in the Woods, a Native Plant Trust botanical garden in Framingham, where she is a guide. She learned to grow vegetables as a child from her father, and flowers and houseplants from her mother. At home in Marlborough, Bonnie grows a variety of vegetables and ornamentals (with a bias for natives).

Register directly on Zoom HERE. This virtual event is a collaboration between several libraries.

NOTE: This program will NOT be recorded.