Best-selling author Adam Mansbach claims that he’s “really bad” at not working. He has spent a lifetime of summers at his family’s longtime home in Chilmark, times full of idyllic pleasures — bodysurfing, grilling fish from Larsen’s, living in a house overlooking a beach — that anyone would find enviable. But Mr. Mansbach cites his time on the Vineyard as his most productive as a writer.

There is a large group of literature in the American canon referred to as “coming of age.” Though Susan Choi will discuss her new book, My Education, at a Saturday afternoon panel at the Harbor View Hotel entitled Coming of Age, she says it only partially belongs there.

Someone once told me that writers are people who have failed at other careers. That’s not always true, but it is for me.

When Eric Asimov visits the Island for the book festival it will be his first time on the Vineyard in 30 years. His last trip was marked by trying his first farm-fresh egg. He was in college at the time, sleeping on a friend’s floor, and for breakfast one morning they went to the neighbor’s next door to fetch the eggs for breakfast.

For a parent, a child’s teenage years can be a frustrating time, when adulthood and independence start to rear their twin heads. Most parents, though, have the benefit of knowing the ins and outs of their child, having raised them since birth. But what if you were to skip the younger years entirely and suddenly find yourself a first-time parent to a 15 year old?

The Harlem Fine Arts Festival opens with a breakfast on Tuesday, August 6, at Hooked in Oak Bluffs. The event is from 9 a.m. to noon and speakers will include Touré, a music journalist and co-host of MSNBC’s The Cycle, fashion artist and author Harriet Cole and Martha’s Vineyard artist Harry Seymour.

The Unitarian Universalist Society focuses on Dr. Martin Luther King this Sunday, August 4, with its 11 a.m. service. The Rev. Ed Hardy explores Cornel West’s speech commemorating the life of Dr. King at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in 2010. Mr. West’s presentation was titled Don’t Sanitize Martin Luther King.

The trio of youngsters leaning on the fence of the Vineyard baseball park sported brand-new white Martha’s Vineyard Sharks hats. David Allen and Saul Pink, both from the Washington, D.C. area, had never been to a Sharks game before. Their friend Zachary Elliot had and knew the routine.

The Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank reported revenues of $230,400 for the business week ending on Friday, July 26, 2013. The land bank receives its funds from a two per cent fee charged on many Vineyard real estate transactions.

Amanda Jayne Termini and Charles Anthony Termini of Oak Bluffs announce the birth of a son, Vincenzo Bruce Termini, born on July 28 at the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital. Vincenzo weighed 8 pounds, 12 ounces at birth.