In addition to traditional book groups, GPL hosts many other gatherings and activities for adults of all ages. All are welcome!
MOST groups continue offering virtual access upon request. If you are uncomfortable or unable to attend the group in person, contact adultprograms@gpl.org to arrange for a zoom link to attend the group virtually! Please check the Calendar for individual dates and details.
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GPL Supper Club (NEW)
This group meets monthly to explore a different theme in food based on flavor, culture, or type of food! Dishes may be from your own recipe collection, a cookbook, or online. Bring a dish to share and enjoy the unique bond that forms over a shared meal and conversation!
September 7 - Exploring Spices
October 12 - Appetizers and Finger Foods
November 16 - Native American Foods
December 21 - Dishes with a Personal Story
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Let's Talk About...
Come together with a small group of members of the Groton Community to practice discussing challenging and often divisive topics. The goal of these conversations is not to debate or change one another's opinions, but to build understanding of one another and find ways to strengthen our community. Each month will feature a different topic.
September 5 - The Opportunity Gap
October 3 – Religious Freedom and Non-Discrimination
November 7 – Money in Politics
December 5 – Silence and Noise: Finding Still
ness in the Modern World
January 9 - Abortion
February 6 – Tribalism 101: Next Door Strangers
March 5 - Healthcare
April 2 – Guns and Responsibility
May 7 – Mental Health
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Spice Club
Each month will feature a different spice or spice mix from around the world. The spice kit will include a small amount of the spice, some recipes, and a bit of history or context around the spice's use around the world. There will also be additional resources from our collection listed for further exploration.
This is a passive program. GPL will provide the resources for you to explore. There is not, however, a live or virtual meeting connected
with this group at this time. Feel free to share about your experience via email to adultprograms@gpl.org or via our Facebook or Instagram accounts.Please check the Calendar for individual dates.
- September - Elderberry/Elderflower
- October - Bay Leaf
- November - Sage
- December - Nutmeg and Mace
- January - Rosemary
- February - Pomegranate
- March - Savory
- April - Sesame Seed
- May - Saffron
- June - Poppy Seed
Generously supported by the Groton Public Library Endowment Trust.
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GPL Knitting & Crochet Group
The knitting and crochet group meets weekly, on Thursday afternoons throughout the year, between 1:30 - 3:30pm. Other needlecrafts or handcrafts are welcome. This is an informal gathering. Feel free to come and go within the time period as your schedule allows. This is a time for self-directed work on our own projects with casual conversation, but members are willing to share tips and ideas.
Meetings are held in the library, usually in the Community Room on the lower level. In nice weather, the group may decide to meet outdoors, gathering in the garden behind the library. Check the Calendar for individual dates and any last-minute decisions about meeting location based upon the weather. Contact Susanne for more information.
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Trivia Tuesday
Answer weekly trivia questions with a different theme or focus each week! Please check the Calendar for individual dates.
Signing up for this event signs you up for the entire series and allows for the questions to be emailed to you.
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Plant Powered Group
Interested in exploring plant-based eating? Trying to include more fruits and vegetables in your diet? Want to expand your vegetarian or vegan options? Join a group of Groton area locals to discuss plant-based eating every other month. The group is welcoming of everyone, regardless of their place in the journey of plant-based eating.
Each month the group will focus on a different topic to guide discussion.
October 10, 2023- Special Guest Terry Walters will discuss and demonstrate recipes from her new book, Nourish: Plant-Based Recipes to Fee the Mind, Body, and Soul
December 12, 2023 - Taste and compare brands and styles of tofu! Discuss your favorite ways to use this versatile ingredient!
February 13 - Special Guest Alexa Joan Wajed demonstrates Middle Eastern Inspired Cooking via Zoom
Widely spanning from North Africa through Asia… each country in the Middle East has its own unique flavor, spices and ingredients. Coriander, turmeric, saffron, garlic, cinnamon, cardamon for starters. We’ll also explore sumac, Aleppo pepper, mint, cumin, Ras el Hanout and Za’atar to enhance our Middle Eastern inspired cuisine.
April 11 - TBD
June 13 - End of Year Celebration IN PERSON
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Foreign Film Favorites
Explore cultures from around the world through award-winning, internationally produced films. This is a great opportunity to gather with others to watch the film and then stick around for a lively discussion after!
September 26 Babette’s Feast, Denmark, 7.8, 1 hour 43 minutes
In a remote 19th-century Danish village, two sisters lead a rigid life centered around their father, the local minister, and their church. Both had opportunities to leave the village: one could have married a young army officer and the other, a French opera singer. Their father objected in each case, and they spent their lives caring for him. Many years later - their father is now deceased - they take in French refugee, Babette Hersant, who agrees to work as their servant. After winning the lottery, Babette wants to repay the sisters for their kindness and offers to cook a French meal for them and their friends on the 100th anniversary of their father's birth. It proves to be an eye-opening experience for everyone.
October 24 Kahaani, India, 8.1, 2 hours 2 minutes
Kolkata is abuzz with the preparations for the annual Durga Puja festival, as seven months pregnant Vidya Bagchi steps off the airplane from London. Her first stop is the local police station to file a missing person report. Weeks ago, her husband Arnab arrived in India for a job assignment. The first two weeks, they talked daily on the phone, and then without explanation, his calls stopped. Everywhere Vidya turns, no one can remember Arnab. There is no trace of him at the guest house or his workplace. But Vidya will not give up her search. Somewhere in Kolkata she will discover the dangerous truth.
November 28 Yi Yi, Taiwan, 8.1, 2 hours 53 minutes
Buttressed between two milestone events within their personal sphere, the lives of the Jians - husband and wife N.J. and Min-Min, teenage daughter Ting-Ting, and eight year old son Yang-Yang - and to a lesser extent that of their broader grouping of extended family and friends, are presented. The Jians live in an upscale apartment complex in Taipei along with Min-Min's mother, who has fallen into a coma, each family member who takes turns by her bedside to relay life's goings-on to her regardless of if she can hear them. While Min-Min has troubles with this on-going task, the other three use her as an unofficial sounding board for their issues, primarily in the realm of finding their place in current life and their role in her predicament. Yang-Yang still has a child's simple perspective of the world, such as the reason he has a penchant for taking photographs of the back of people's heads, that naiveté exactly the reason he is the target of bullying especially among a group of older girls, and by one of his teachers. Ting-Ting is acting as the unofficial intermediary in the complicated relationship between her best friend and next door neighbor Lili, and her boyfriend Fatty. It is made all the more difficult as Ting-Ting has feelings for Fatty herself. And N.J., a computer electronics engineer, is seen as the honest one among him and his partners, which is why he is chosen to deal with Japanese Mr. Ota in assessing if it worth the expensive but potentially lucrative risk of going into business with him. Concurrently, N.J., who uses Mr. Ota as a confidante of sorts in their emerging friendship, reunites and becomes reacquainted with childhood friend Sherry, married and now living in Chicago, she who could have been the one in his life if he ended up keeping their appointment thirty years ago. Min-Min's younger brother A-Di may face that same conundrum thirty years down the road as he just married Xiao-Yan partly for a very specific reason, while his old girlfriend Yunyun fumes on the sidelines.
December – No Meeting
January 30 Empties, Czech Republic, 7.2, 1 hour 44 minutes
A comic lovel story about a man who refuses to accept that old age is empty of love, meaning and value to society.
February 27 The Loneliness of a Long Distance Runner, 7.5, 1 hour 44 minutes
A rebellious youth, sentenced to a boy's reformatory for robbing a bakery, rises through the ranks of the institution through his prowess as a long distance runner. During his solitary runs, reveries of his life and times before his incarceration lead him to re-evaluate his privileged status as the Governor's prize runner.
March 26 The Concert, France 7.5, 1 hour 59 minutes
Thirty years ago, Andrei Simoniovich Filipov, the renowned conductor of the Bolshoi orchestra, was fired for hiring Jewish musicians. Now a mere cleaning man at the Bolshoi, he learns by accident that the Châtelet Theater in Paris invites the Bolshoi orchestra to play there. He decides to gather together his former musicians and to perform in Paris in the place of the current Bolshoi orchestra. As a solo violin player to accompany his old Jewish or Gypsy musicians he wants Anne-Marie Jacquet, a young virtuoso. If they all overcome the hardships ahead this very special concert will be a triumph.
April 30 Central Station, Brazil, 8.0, 1 hour 50 minutes
Dora, a dour old woman who hates customers and calls them 'trash,' works at a Rio de Janeiro central station writing and mailing letters for customers. Josue is a 9-year-old boy who never met his father. His mother is sending letters to his father through Dora. When she dies in a car accident, Dora takes Josue on a trip to find his father.
May 28 Ma Vie En Rose (My Life in Pink), 7.5, 1 hour 28 minutes
Ludovic is a transgender girl who is coming out. She talks of marrying her neighbor's son and can not understand why everyone is so surprised about it. Her family and neighbors struggle with her actions.
June 25 Whale Rider, New Zealand, 7.5, 1 hour 41 minutes
On the east coast of New Zealand, the Whangara people believe their presence there dates back a thousand years or more to a single ancestor, Paikea, who escaped death when his canoe capsized by riding to shore on the back of a whale. From then on, Whangara chiefs, always the first-born, always male, have been considered Paikea's direct descendants. Pai, an 11-year-old girl in a patriarchal New Zealand tribe, believes she is destined to be the new chief. But her grandfather Koro is bound by tradition to pick a male leader. Pai loves Koro more than anyone in the world, but she must fight him and a thousand years of tradition to fulfill her destiny.
Sponsored by the Groton Public Library Endowment Trust.
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Bodies in the Library (Mystery Writer's Group)
Are you writing a mystery? A thriller or suspense novel? Are you thinking about writing one? Join this group for helpful advice and encouragement from others who love all forms of mystery genre. Share your work in-progress and cheer on others.
The group meets every other Wednesday as a virtual meeting from 5:00 - 6:30pm.
Looking for the Spanish Conversation Group? It's under Lifelong Learning.