Evening of Mystery and Scandal in Chilmark

Author Thomas Dresser will speak about his book Mystery on the Vineyard: Politics, Passion and Scandal on East Chop, a true story of the shocking 1940 murder of an elderly visitor to the Island, on Wednesday, Sept. 17 at 5:30 p.m. at the Chilmark Public Library.

Mr. Dresser has previously self-published five booklets featuring favorite New England haunts.

Read More

Elaine Pace Chronicles Lives Washed Ashore
Jack Shea

Why do some washashores to the Island stay ashore while others drift away?

The question had settled in Island author Elaine Pace’s mind for a couple of years. She spent a year talking with people who stayed and the result is Island Home, the stories of 14 pilgrims who visited, then chose to live on the Vineyard.

Subtitled Why People Come to Martha’s Vineyard and Why They Stay, the self-published book hits Island bookstores today. The book joins Island, a Memoir, Ms. Pace’s first book, published in 2005.

Read More

Sexing of Science: Author Discusses Maria Mitchell

On Tuesday, July 29, at 5 p.m. Prof. Renée Bergland as its next speaker in the Martha’s Vineyard Museum’s summer lecture series.

Dr. Bergland will speak on her book, Maria Mitchell and the Sexing of Science, a cultural biography of the 19th-century Nantucket astronomer. Maria Mitchell, a Nantucket native, apprenticed with her father, an amateur astronomer. For years she swept the Nantucket night with the telescope in her rooftop observatory. In 1847, Mitchell discovered a comet and was catapulted to international fame.

Read More

Striper Wars Writer Talks About New Threats to Fish

Striper Wars author Dick Russell talks about efforts to save a troubled fishery, on Wednesday, August 27, from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. at the Chilmark Public Library.

When populations of striped bass began plummeting in the early 1980s, author and fisherman Dick Russell was there to lead an Atlantic coast conservation campaign that resulted in one of the most remarkable wildlife comebacks in the history of fisheries.

Read More

Island Author Plays Political Football

Vineyard-born author A.F. Cook (known to many Islanders as the artist Anne Cook) recently published her first book, Democrats in the Red Zone: an Independent Voter’s Take on the Game of Political Perception. The book looks at the Democratic Party’s strategic failures through the lens of a football fan — specifically, a longtime New England Patriots fan.

Read More

Bass Talks Side Effects

Bass Talks Side Effects

Pulitzer Prize nominee Alison Bass will discuss her book Side Effects: A Prosecutor, a Whistleblower and a Bestselling Antidepressant on Trial, today, August 5, at 5 p.m. at the West Tisbury Free Public Library.

Side Effects is based on a true story of a landmark case that exposed greed, corruption and negligence in the pharmaceutical industry.

Read More

Readers: Clean the Beach, Get Deal on Bonobo Book

It’s a whole new, clean green spin on trashy books: on Saturday, August 30, Island author Mathea Levine will sign copies of her new definitely not trashy book I’m Lucy: A Day in the Life of a Young Bonobo at Riley’s Reads in Vineyard Haven — but kids will receive a 20 per cent discount on copies of the book if they bring three or more pieces of beach trash they’ve collected.

Read More

‘Spectacularful’ Clementine Creator Coming

Even if you don’t call your brother by the name of a different vegetable every day (Broccoli, Turnip, or, whenever he’s being nice, Pea Pod), many readers know what the quirky, crazy-lovable third grader Clementine means when she says, “Spectacularful ideas are always sproinging up in my brain.”

Read More

Bridge to Baseball

Bridge to Baseball

Walk-offs, Last Licks, and Final Outs: Baseball’s Grand (and-not-so-grand) Finales is the title of former Sports Illustrated baseball writer Jim Kaplan’s latest book — and an evening talk he’s giving Wednesday, August 6, at 7 p.m. at the West Tisbury Library.

Mr. Kaplan will chat about the connection between baseball and bridge, which he describes as being “joined at the hip.” The program will include a trivia quiz and the winner will receive a free book.

Read More

Characters in The End Come to Life on Cape
Jack Shea

For four years, Salvatore Scibona has been shepherding new writers at the Fine Arts Workshop in Provincetown through readings of their work at local libraries and other cultural venues.

Saturday at 5:30 p.m., at the West Tisbury library, Mr. Scibona will read from The End, his own first novel, that already has generated luxurious reviews prior to its release this week. Responsible reviewers have compared him with Saul Bellow, Virginia Woolf and Graham Greene.

Read More

Pages