Essay Contest Deadline

Today is the deadline for Island students, grades one through eight, to enter the Mom of the Year essay writing contest. The contest, in conjunction with the Edgartown Board of Trade and Pink and Green Weekend, will award three winning prizes—one each in grades one to three, four to six and seven to eight. The winning essays will be recognized and read at the Harbor View Hotel’s Mother’s Day brunch on Sunday, May 13, at 11 a.m.

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Speakeasy Series Welcomes Daughter of Literary Lion

Alexandra Styron, the daughter of William Styron, will be featured at the next Speakeasy series held at State Road Restaurant in West Tisbury on Wednesday, May 16 at 5:30 p.m.

Ms. Styron’s recent book is Reading My Father, a memoir about growing up with the legendary author of Sophie’s Choice, The Confessions of Nat Turner and Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness.

The New York Times called Ms. Styron’s book, “Ardent, sophisticated and entirely winning.”

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Bankable: Simple Abundance Author Talks Money

In 1995, Sarah Ban Breathnach wrote a bestselling book called Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy. The book features 366 essays about how to live life with simplicity and grace, but most of all gratitude. Oprah Winfrey called it her “favorite book,” of the year.

The book sold seven million copies and counting.

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Fate of the Albatross

On Tuesday, March 6 beginning at 5 p.m. the West Tisbury Library is hosting a talk by Virginia Carmichael, coauthor of The Albatross and the Fish (University of Texas Press, 2011).

The albatross family is currently the most threatened bird group in the world and in their extensively researched book, Robin W. Doughty and Virginia Carmichael tell the story of how its potentially catastrophic extinction has been interrupted by an unlikely alliance of governments, conservation groups, and fishermen.

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Vineyard Bookshelf

Fall from Grace, by Richard North Patterson, Scribner, a Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc., New York, NY, March 2012, 278 pages (hardcover, $26.00).

Chilmark is home base in Richard North Patterson’s newest novel, Fall from Grace. “I’ve long wanted to write a novel set on Martha’s Vineyard, my summer home for almost two decades now,” Mr. North Patterson writes in the book’s afterword.

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Herbal Tea Talk

Herbal Tea Talk

Some think green beer for St. Patrick’s day. Others go for a spot of tea.

If you’re in the latter camp, head to the Bunch of Grapes Bookstore on Main street in Vineyard Haven to sip tea with Island herbalist Holly Bellebuono, who will be discussing her new book The Essential Herbal for Natural Health: How to Transform Easy-To-Find Herbs Into Healing Remedies for the Whole Family.

Afterwards, perhaps you can use the herbs to help an ailing St. Patrick’s Day reveler.

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Snuggle Time Equals Reading Time

By SYDNEY BENDER

Children’s books are magical. Just ask Island author Kate Feiffer, who debuts her latest children’s book, Signed by Zelda, on Thursday, April 5, at the Bunch of Grapes Bookstore in downtown Vineyard Haven.

Her last book, No Go Sleep, arrived in book stores just last month.

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