The Waukesha Reads program is winding down this week, but there are still many events to attend.
Local author Henry Zecher, who recently published a biography of one of the American theater’s great icons, William Gillette, highlights today’s schedule.
He will present his slide program at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Waukesha Public Library in the library’s Community Room.
This year’s Waukesha Reads is revolving around a mystery theme, as the program’s book is “The Hound of the Baskervilles” by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
Zecher’s book, “William Gillette, America’s Sherlock Holmes,” was published in March 2011 and it fits in with the theme of the Waukesha Reads program, as Gillette is best-remembered as the personification of Sherlock Holmes.
It was Gillette who brought Holmes to life and established the image of Holmes with the deerstalker cap, the bent briar pipe and the profile.
Waukesha Reads officially ends on Oct. 31 when the month-long Mystery Object Exhibit & Museum Mystery Challenge at the Waukesha County Museum wraps up.
The Night at the Museum, “The Eagle Diamond Caper,” mystery event at the Waukesha County Museum also takes place from 5:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
Other events relating to Waukesha Reads this weekend include The Beast of Baskervilles’ House of Horror from 7 p.m. to midnight on Friday and Saturday at the Freemanson’s Masonic Lodge on 317 South Street.
And on Sunday night, there will be a Sherlock Holmes Halloween Spooktacular event from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Waukesha Family YMCA on 320 E. Broadway. It is free for YMCA members and $15 for non-members. All are encouraged to wear costumes.