In the wake of the horrific slaughter at the Sandy Hook Elementary School last December, Americans are engaged in a highly emotional political and cultural battle over the rights and responsibilities of gun ownership.

On Thursday, Feb. 28, at 7 p.m. at the Mark Twain House & Museum Visitors' Center, 351 Farmington Ave., Hartford, the author of a book that seeks to put the controversy in context will give a free talk.

Craig Whitney, a former New York Times foreign correspondent and editor, will discuss "Living with Guns: A Liberal's Case for the 2nd Amendment" (Public Affairs, $28.99). He believes that guns are here to stay, and the way forward to reducing gun violence begins with understanding why it happens.

The moderator will be the COO of The Alliance for Nonprofit Growth & Opportunity (TANGO), Bob Margolis, who is politically conservative, a pistol permit instructor and a member of the Metacon Gun Club in Simsbury.

Information: 860-247-0998 or http://www.marktwainhouse.org.

You can read more about Whitney and his book at my blog, Under the Covers, at http://undercovers.hplct.org/ .

On Wednesday, March 6, at the Twain center, free the Nook Farm Book Club, sponsored by the center and the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, will present a reception at 5 p.m. and a talk at 5:30 p.m. The book to be discussed is "The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today" by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner. An exhibit related to the book, "The Gilded Age of Hartford," will open at the Twain Center on March 15.

The Gilded Age, an era that got its name from the book, was a time of great wealth and dire poverty, plutocracy and populism and corruption and reform, not unlike our own.

Registration: 860-522-9258, Ext. 317.

'Motown's First Superstar'

The authors@amistad series continues with a talk by Peter Benjaminson, author of "Mary Wells: The Tumultuous Life of Motown's First Superstar" (Chicago Review Press, $26.95), on Sunday, March 3, at 2 p.m. at the Windsor Art Center, 40 Mechanic St., Windsor. He will discuss the book with Erica Bryan, a student at the Hartt School of Music. Quilts by Hartford artisan Edjohnetta Miller will be on display.

The event is presented by the Amistad Center for Art & Culture at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art. Tickets are $5.

Attendees are urged to read the book and send questions to amistadcenter@wadsworthatheneum.org prior to the event to earn two free passes to the Atheneum. At the event, those who correctly answer trivia questions about the book will be entered in a drawing for tickets to an Amistad Center gala event.

Reservations are required: 860-838-4133 or amistadcenter@wadsworthatheneum.org.

Jodi Picoult In Woodbridge

Best-selling novelist Jodi Picoult, whose latest is "The Storyteller" (Atria, $28.99) will speak Friday, March 1, at 11 a.m. at the Jewish Community Center of Greater New Haven, 360 Amity Road, Woodbridge. The event is presented with R.J. Julia Booksellers of Madison.

The novel is the story of a baker mourning her mother's death who meets an elderly man in a support group. They become close and he confides a secret from his past and asks for a favor, raising complex moral issues and turning her life upside down.

Picoult, who lives in New Hampshire, has published 19 novels, including six No. 1 New York Times bestsellers.

Tickets are $35, which includes a copy of the book.

Reservations: 203-245-3959 or http://www.rjjulia.com.