Michael G. West wrote a talking blues song and it goes a little something like this. “I was born in 1947 / North of hell and south of heaven / About that time the sun went down / On San Francisco, my hometown . . . .”

On the northeast coast of Ireland in the small suburb Howth, Lara O’Brien spent her childhood days riding horseback with friends through the hillsides.

The Vineyard has a long history of being dog-centric. There are dogs on boats, dogs on beaches, dogs at offices. At the top of Circuit avenue there’s a shop dedicated to all things dog. And, of course, there’s the Island’s most well-known canine — the Black Dog.

Richard North Patterson likes to think of himself as a method actor. The 66-year-old writer and part-time resident of West Tisbury writes mostly fiction, but while his characters are born out of the quiet space in his imagination, he said, their every thought and movement is grounded in research.

This fall, as the weather cools and many turn indoors poised to pick a book off the bookshelf and lose themselves in another world, Aquinnah resident Philip Weinstein hopes it will be a Faulkner novel.

His wish is likely to be granted, with more than 60 Islanders signed up for a course he’s offering this fall at the Vineyard Haven Library. Discovering Faulkner’s Fiction begins on Sept. 24 and will explore three of Faulkner’s best-regarded works over a series of four classes.

Author Michael Tougias likes to focus on real life adventure stories, particularly tales of disaster and rescue. One of his books, The Finest Hours, is based on what is often considered the most difficult rescue missions the U.S. Coast Guard ever attempted. His most recent book, A Storm Too Soon, recounts the journey of survival three men experienced after a northeaster ripped their boat in half 200 miles off the coast of the Carolinas in 2007.

As chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett is widely considered the most successful investor of the last century. Less well known is the fact that he impersonates super heroes such as Batman and Spiderman in his spare time.

He has Andy Heyward, a seasonal resident of Katama and the creator of Inspector Gadget, to thank for this.

In his latest book Jews, Confucians and Protestants: Cultural Capital and the End of Multiculturalism, Lawrence E. Harrison, a senior research fellow and adjunct lecturer at Tufts University, presents an unorthodox investigation into what constitutes a universal progress culture. He does this by examining cultures through the lens of a set of values that include a focus on education, achievement, merit, frugality and ethical behavior.

It is his belief that these goals are facilitated mostly through the beliefs and attitudes inherent in Jewish, Confucian and Protestant cultures.

Nearly 50 years after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, numerous conspiracy theories still compete for attention. A recent study by the History Channel found that 85 per cent of Americans believe the assassination was the result of a plot against the president. Longtime Islander, historian and writer James Reston Jr. has developed his own argument in his new book.

The Christmas holiday season can be a challenging time for American Jews and yet according to Rabbi Joshua Eli Plaut, PhD, former rabbi of the Martha’s Vineyard Hebrew Center, this has not always been the case.