Smerconish Book Club

Tue., Jan. 25, 7 p.m., $20, Bryn Mawr Film Institute, 824 W. Lancaster Ave., 610-527-9898, smerconish.com.

by Andrew Milner

[ reading/signing ]

It's a busy new year for Michael Smerconish: In addition to a new time slot at WPHT, the local talk radio stalwart has resurrected his Book Club. This winter he'll be bringing best-selling books — and their authors — to the Bryn Mawr Film Institute. First up, journalist Ted Gup, whose A Secret Gift (Penguin) describes a cache of letters written in the 1930s to his grandfather, who'd publicly offered financial support to Canton, Ohio, families hit by the Great Depression. Gup draws sharp contrasts between then and today's economic situation. "[The letters] reminded me of the difference between discomfort and misery," Gup says, "between the complaints of consumers forced to rein in their spending and the keening of parents whose children went hungry night after night."

Tue., Jan. 25, 7 p.m., $20, Bryn Mawr Film Institute, 824 W. Lancaster Ave., 610-527-9898, smerconish.com.