Charlie McDowell knows how to wear pastel, effortlessly. He also knows how to eavesdrop which is how he came upon this new skill. But most importantly, the young author knows how to write.

Mr. McDowell will read from his new book Dear Girls Above me, a roman à clef about how thinking like a couple of girls turned a single guy into a better man, at the Bunch of Grapes Bookstore in Vineyard Haven on July 7 at 7 p.m.

Pianist David Crohan will share the stage with summer resident Caroline Sky as they perform a concert to benefit the Island Elderly Housing’s Quality of Life programs on Sunday, July 14 at 7:30 p.m. The concert is at the Old Whaling Church on Main street in Edgartown. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and a meet-the-artist reception will follow the performance.

Tickets are $35 in advance and $40 at the door, and $15 for students ages 18 and under. They can be purchased at ticketsmv.com, daRosa’s, Alley’s General Store, Bunch of Grapes Bookstore and Edgartown Books.

Each week the folks at Cinema Circus show a series of short films on Wednesday evening at the Chilmark Community center. The films begin at 6 p.m. but the circus — complete with jugglers, face painters, stilt walkers, food and music — gets under way.

Kelleher Real Estate announces the addition of Kristin Zern of West Tisbury to their staff as a licensed sales associate. Kristin brings more than 20 years of experience in the travel industry as executive director of Travel Marketing Executives where she was responsible for event planning, membership, fund raising, education, marketing, technology and social media. In addition to her work in the travel industry, Kristin also brings practical real estate experience from her work in New York as a real estate agent and investor.

I was asked to go to Chilmark to interview Jane Slater at her antique shop in Menemsha about an upcoming art show and sale of original ink washes by Adolph Dehn, a Chilmark summer visitor during the 1930s and a regionalist painter. Recently a large body of his work became available to include his Chilmark period, and will be shown for sale at her shop from July 12 to July 14.

Chadwick Stokes, lead singer and guitarist for alternative rock bands State Radio and Dispatch, will perform at Flatbread on Friday, July 12. The concert is a benefit for his organization Calling All Crows, which provides assistance in coordinating service projects for musicians and their fans.

Did you know that America’s deadliest maritime disaster was not the Titanic? Or that an African-American woman refused to give up her seat on a bus 11 years before Rosa Parks did the same? How about that the government directed a massacre against Mormons in Missouri, the first non Native American to climb Pike’s Peak was a woman, or that a 14-year-old boy on an Idaho farm led to the invention of television?

The Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank reported revenues of $226,754 for the business week ending on Friday, June 28, 2013. The land bank receives its funds from a two per cent fee charged on many Vineyard real estate transactions.

A disbarred Edgartown attorney has been indicted on federal tax and bank fraud violations. John C. McBride, 64, has been charged with allegedly recording or attempting to record false tax lien releases on properties including his Edgartown home.

Mr. McBride, who lives in Edgartown and Braintree, was indicted June 26 on one charge of endeavoring to obstruct and impede the due administration of the Internal Revenue laws and one charge of bank fraud.

Remember when summer meant reading for fun just because you wanted to? The Martha’s Vineyard Library Association likes to perpetuate that feeling every summer with the launch of its summer reading program.