Weekly Updates from HPL

Special Notice

As temperatures drop, all HPL locations will serve as warming centers during severe cold. Please visit us at one of our locations to stay warm.

Click HERE for hours and locations.

We Want Your Input

We want to hear from you! Help shape our next Strategic Plan by taking this short survey. Tell us what would make the Library more useful, welcoming, and relevant to you.

It only takes a few minutes — your voice matters.

Take Our Survey

Freshly Added

The Wilderness

Angela Flournoy

Nation Bestseller | Finalist for the 2025 Kirkus Prize for Fiction | Longlisted for the 2025 National Book Award

"Flournoy has delivered a future classic--the kind of novel that generations to come will read to understand the nuances and peculiarities of this time."

—Harper's Bazaar

"Elegant and unsettling, this novel evades the expected at every turn."

—Kirkus Reviews

Find it HERE in our catalog

You Deserve to Be Rich: Master the Inner Game of Wealth and Claim Your Future

Rashad Bilal and Troy Millings

New York Times Bestseller

"With You Deserve to Be Rich, Troy Millings and Rashad Bilal from Earn Your Leisure offer a powerful blueprint to get started on your journey building generational wealth. Like me, Troy is a former teacher—and it shows in the clear, actionable, and spot-on advice he and Rashad deliver in these pages. This book will be a great step to achieving the life you’ve always dreamed about."

—Tiffany Aliche, aka The “Budgetnista,” New York Times bestselling author of Get Good with Money

Find it HERE in our catalog

This Saturday!

Create a holiday card, engage in sensory play with Cubs Learning Hub and enjoy a special presentation by the Hartford Stage at HPL’s Downtown Library this Saturday, during a fun family-friendly event. Light refreshments will be provided.

La Tertulia is a series co-hosted by Connecticut Public and HPL with support from Hartford Foundation for Public Giving and in collaboration with Cubs Learning Hub.

Registration is required.

Saturday, Dec. 13 | 10:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.

Downtown Library

Atrium

500 Main Street

Hartford Reads in Color

Join Nzima Hutchings, Visionary Chief Executive Founder, Director and T'challa Williams, Executive Co-Founder, Spokeswomen, event coordinator and Liaison of Harford's L.I.T., for their quarterly book discussion as they cover Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison.

Sunday, Dec. 14 | 1:00 - 2:30 p.m.

Virtual via Zoom

Solo Agers and Estate Planning

Are you a solo ager, or do you know someone who is? Meet us at Barbour Library for a discussion focused on solo agers hosted by Jill Kovalich, founder of the Solo Agers Connect, an informational website for solo agers and people aging alone, and estate planning attorney Robert A. Heinimann Jr., who will host a discussion focused on solo agers. They will discuss demographic shifts, population aging, legal essentials and the rise of solo agers in our communities during this interactive session.

Monday, Dec. 15 | 11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.

Barbour Library

261 Barbour Street

Family Holiday Concert

Our annual family holiday concert is back with the one and only Sam Pasco Band. The holiday magic is brewing, and we can't wait to dance, sing, and celebrate with you.

Wednesday, Dec. 17 | 10:00 a.m.

Downtown Library

Center for Contemporary Culture

500 Main Street

A Few More Days

Your new favorite app is waiting to be downloaded! Download the new and improved HPL app for a chance to win an iPad. To be entered into the drawing, you must download and log into the app between now and Monday, Dec. 15. Enter HERE.

Survey Results: Did you download the HPL app?

Yes: 50%

No: 21%

Going to now!: 29%

Winter Dreams Tickets

Hartford Symphony Orchestra’s Winter Dreams is here and you can get free tickets with your library card!

About:

Winter Dreams blends timeless beauty with bold reinvention. Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 1, Winter Dreams, evokes a snow-covered landscape through lush melodies and rich orchestration, capturing the magic and nostalgia of the season. Curtis Stewart’s Seasons of Change reimagines Vivaldi’s Four Seasons through a contemporary lens, weaving improvisation, electronics, and recorded voices to explore climate change and humanity’s evolving connection to nature.

Tickets are now available. The show runs from Friday, Dec. 12, to Sunday, Dec. 14.

Reserve Your Tickets

Holiday Crafts... CHECK!

We've got you covered this holiday season from your everyday crafts to masterpieces that can be repurposed as a gift. We've compiled a calendar of holiday crafts and you can check it out here!

Learn More Here

Learn More & Apply Here

We Want You!

Have you produced an EP or full-length album? Do you live and regularly perform in the Hartford region? The Beat is looking for the next group of artists to join the collection!

Submit your music and join other Hartford artists on HPL's streaming platform. A paid, $250, opportunity for artists accepted into The Beat.

Deadline: December 31, 2025.

Important Update: Boundless App Closing

The Boundless ebook app will shut down on December 15. Starting December 1, you won’t be able to check out new books or place holds on the Boundless ebook app —but any book borrowed before then can still be finished in the app.

What’s next?