MPL: Scaling Up

Fa la la la Landing in town

Author

Rebecca Appelbaum
December 09, 2025

Hello friends, and happy December to all!

We hope you had an excellent Thanksgiving (drama free) and have been staying warm through the recent cold snap. If you’re looking for a place to warm up, stop by. We may be a cooling station in the summer, but we’re also a warming station in the winter. Come down, grab a book, (check out our amazing book tree), and borrow a comfy chair while the weather does its thing. We’ll even turn on the fire upon request, so you’ll have a great place to cozy up while we tell you all about what’s coming.

While it’s still a couple weeks away, we wanted to let you all know about our upcoming holiday hours. We’ll be closing at 12pm on Wednesday, December 24th and remain closed through Friday, December 26th. We will be open normal hours on Saturday, December 27th.

Then, for New Years, we will be closing at 12pm on Wednesday, December 31st, and stay closed through Thursday, January 1st. We should be open normal hours on Friday, January 2nd. We’ll have another newsletter going out before the holiday with a reminder, but we wanted you to have a head’s up before we got there.

And speaking of reminders… the Copley Cats are coming this weekend! Join us on Saturday, December 13th for a holiday concert by this fan favorite, award winning group. Relax and enjoy a mix of festive favorites from yesterday and today from these award-winning, exquisite musicians. Doors open at 12:45pm for people to claim seating, and the concert will begin at 1pm, no registration required.

This program (as always) is FREE and open to the public courtesy of the Friends of the Millis Public Library.

A Novel Occasion 2026

Get your tickets now, Early Bird Pricing ends December 31, 2025!

It’s almost time for the return of one of the Friends biggest fundraisers of the year. We are thrilled to announce that tickets are on sale now for their sixth annual A Novel Occasion: a virtual live event, taking place on Saturday January 31, 2026 at 12pm ET. A Novel Occasion is an opportunity to meet with bestselling authors in a live, virtual setting. Listen to the 9 bestselling authors as they talk about their process, their stories, and their inspirations, and then go into an intimate roundtable with your top choices. Ask them questions, chat, and enjoy the chance to talk to each of them. Early bird pricing goes until the end of December, so pick up your tickets or get them for a book lover in your life. Purchase yours now~

And starting this year, the Friends have started a new VIP ticket! It includes everything in General Admission PLUS:

  • A guaranteed seat at your 1st choice author roundtable

  • Your 2nd choice author’s book added to your swag box

  • A standout VIP designation during the event

  • A luxuriously curated collection of exclusive VIP swag items

Tickets are limited, so claim your VIP experience while it lasts!

If you were looking to start a new book club, we have options for you! First, we just had a meeting of our Horror and Thriller Book Club, so now’s a great time to pick up our next book! Copies of “Bird Box” by Josh Malerman are available at the front desk of the library, so grab one before our next meeting on Monday, January 12th at 6:30pm if you’re looking to join an enthusiastic group of readers and sink your teeth into something new. No registration required.

Something is out there, something terrifying that must not be seen. One glimpse of it, and a person is driven to deadly violence. No one knows what it is or where it came from.

Five years after it began, a handful of scattered survivors remains, including Malorie and her two young children. Living in an abandoned house near the river, she has dreamed of fleeing to a place where they might be safe. Now that the boy and girl are four, it's time to go, but the journey ahead will be terrifying: twenty miles downriver in a rowboat—blindfolded—with nothing to rely on but her wits and the children's trained ears. One wrong choice and they will die. Something is following them all the while, but is it man, animal, or monster?

We’re also adding a new book club to our offerings! Starting on Friday, January 9th, at 2:30pm, join us for Free Read Friday! This will be another traditional book club where we’ll be exploring all types of stories from across all genres, and we’ll be set to meet the second Friday of each month. Feel free to come regardless of whether you’re prepared to discuss or just want to learn more about the book. There will be spoilers, so make sure you’re okay with points of the journey being revealed.

January's Free Read is "Careless People" by Facebook whistleblower Sarah Wynn Williams, and there are copies ready at the desk!

 “Careless People” is darkly funny and genuinely shocking: an ugly, detailed portrait of one of the most powerful companies in the world, according to the New York Times.

We’re also happy to announce that we’ve got another session of Board Game Night coming up on Thursday, December 18th at 6pm! If you’ve been looking for a chance to get out and meet new people or try something new, this is it! Whether you’re an old hand or an absolute novice, there’s a spot for you at our table. We’ll have a different featured game to play every month, but feel free to bring your own and teach us! Just let us know you’re on your way so we can plan accordingly— a game for 4 won’t work for 10 people after all. Register here, and we’ll be ready for you~

Are you ready for our next Teen Movie Night? Coming up on Friday, December 19th at 6pm, we welcome you to join us for another blast from the past with "Unaccompanied Minors". Sit back and relax, bring some friends, maybe a pillow, your comfy clothes, and we'll provide the snacks and entertainment.

No registration required, for kids grades 6-8th.

Five kids traveling without parents run wild in an airport when a blizzard leaves them stranded on Christmas Eve.

Running time: 90 min

Last but never least is Writer’s space. Join us right before the holiday for a loosely focused gathering of writers. Share ideas, frustrations, lyrics and triumphs. Free write or finish your masterpiece. We don't even care if you doodle nonsense. We just want to see you put pen/pencil/stylus/keyboard to page/paper/screen/program and have some light refreshments. We’re set to meet on Tuesday, December 23rd at 7pm, no registration required.

As always, there’s so much going on that won’t fit in our newsletter. To get the full list, check our our event calendar. It’s the first place we update when we’re ready to share our plans. We hope something in here sounds like your cup of tea (or cocoa), and we get to see you soon, but regardless, take care of yourselves.

Stay warm~

—Your Friendly Neighborhood Librarians