SQuire Rushnell’s latest book, Divine Alignment (2012, Simon & Schuster Inc.), is the fifth book in his Godwink series, the term he coined to describe how life’s un-coincidental coincidences all come together to create a purpose in our lives. Once again he rejects the idea that we are all “twigs floating down a river to destinations unknown.” Instead, he believes these coincidences, or godwinks, have divine underpinnings.

Excerpted from Bountiful: A History of the Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Society and the Livestock Show and Fair, by Susan Klein, with photographs by Alan Brigish (Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Society, 2012).

This excerpt is taken from chapter 9 which tells the story of the midway and how it came to play an integral part of the annual Island tradition.

“My favorite was the Scrambler! It was really fun!”

— Dylan Biggs, 7 years of age

Daily newspapers shuttered. Radio and TV networks swimming in red ink. Reporters and editors enduring widespread buyouts and layoffs.

This was the landscape of the news business that Boston University professor Christopher B. Daly confronted as he began researching the history of American journalism about eight years ago. It occurred to him that he just might end up having to write the obituary of American journalism.

Joyce Carol Oates published her first book in 1963. Since then she has published over 50 novels, as well as numerous volumes of short stories, poetry and nonfiction. She has won the National Book Award and been nominated three times for the Pulitzer Prize. She has also taught at Princeton since 1978, helping to start the careers of numerous young writers, or at least get a few undergraduates to pay more attention to their sentences.

Author Jill Iscol headlines the Speakeasy series on Wednesday, August 8, at the Granary Gallery, located on Old County Road in West Tisbury. The Speakeasy events are hosted by the Granary Gallery and State Road Restaurant, in collaboration with the West Tisbury Library Foundation, Inc., to benefit the library’s capital campaign.

Tex: A Book For Little Dreamers, is, in a way, about all of us. It’s about wanting what you don’t have, and dreaming about far-off places and a different life. It’s about a little boy who lives near the ocean and his dreams of having tall mountains to climb, wide open fields to

run through, dusty boots to stomp and a pony for a best friend.

Author Phyllis Meras and illustrator Robert Schwartz will be autographing copies of In Every Season: Memories of Martha’s Vineyard, on Thursday, August 9 from 6 to 7:30 p.m at the Island Alpaca Company, 1 Head of the Pond Road in Oak Bluffs. Refreshments will be served. Admission is free.

Ag Fair Book Release Party

The Agricultural Fair may be a week away, but those looking to get their historical groove going early are in luck. Tomorrow, August 8, from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. is the book release and signing party for Bountiful - A History of the Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Society and the Livestock Show and Fair by Susan Klein and photographer Alan Brigish.

How does one end up writing a book about a star child? For that matter, what is a star child?

Author Kay Goldstein was wondering the same thing a few years ago when she started writing the first pages of her newly released novel, Star Child, a process which caused her to delve into the depths of human experience.

Pulitzer prize-winning poet Jorie Graham has been coming to the Vineyard for thirty years. She often derives inspiration from the natural beauty of the Island.

“Perhaps my poems, if I am lucky, can awaken in [readers] a renewed relationship with the natural world which they can take with them into their lives...” she said.