As a member of many book groups, Tweed Roosevelt wanted to create his own group, which focused on ideas rather than the books themselves. Last September, his new club, Tweed’s Reads, began meeting monthly at the West Tisbury library. The club meets on Nov. 18, and next on Dec. 16.
Mr. Roosevelt, who in his own words, was “first brought to the Island in a bassinet,” has been coming ever since, and now divides his time between the Vineyard and Boston. He has selected 15 books for his carefully culled list. Mr. Roosevelt calls them “underappreciated gems” which many people might not know. His group, he says, is “more of a course — there are underlying themes.” One common thread is “people who are the ‘other.’”
For example, “The Snow Goose,” by Paul Gallico, is about a strange man with a disability, an artist who paints and rescues birds. The book’s protagonist retreats to the fens of England, a swampy region, which Mr. Roosevelt says has “certain similarities to the Vineyard.” It’s sparsely populated, replete with seafaring types, and imbued with its own unique culture.
“It’s a kind of coming-of-age story, and a romance that intertwines with Dunkirk,” Mr. Roosevelt says. “You can read it in a few hours.”
For Mr. Roosevelt, this common thread of the “other,” means “the outcast, the person who does not follow the normal track. They are often interesting, and can be imaginative and create new ground. The others are the ones who do new things.”
In Mr. Roosevelt’s view, Steve Jobs is an example of the “other.” So is Craig Kingsbury. These are people who pride themselves on being different. “There are plenty of Island characters like that around,” Mr. Roosevelt says. “We seem to attract more of them.”
The comprehensive Tweed’s Reads list includes: “The Race to the South Pole” by Roland Huntford; “The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements” by Eric Hoffer; “The Culture of Fear: Why Americans Are Afraid of the Wrong Things” by Barry Glassner; “The Dwarf” by Par Lagerkwist; “I Am Legend” by Richard Matheson; “Ishi in Two Worlds: A Biography of the Last Wild Indian in North America” by Theodora Kroeber; “Wilderness and the American Mind” by Roderick Nash; “Gray Seas Under” by Farley Mowat; “Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World” by Jack Weatherford; “Meditations on Hunting” by José Ortega y Gassett; “The Painted Bird” by Jerzy Kosinski; “Brazilian Adventure” by Peter Fleming; “White Waters and Black” by Gordon MacCreagh; “The Old Man and the Boy” by Robert Ruark; and “Parkinson’s Law” by C. Northcote Parkinson.
To participate, Mr. Roosevelt says, “people have to read the book, but they don’t have to read all of the book.”
The next meeting, on Dec. 16 at 10 am, continues the theme of the “other” with the book “Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World,” by Jack Weatherford.
“Napoleon, Genghis, Stalin, Hitler, Montezuma — they are all known by one name. All came from outside of the society from which they ruled,” Mr. Roosevelt says. A secondary theme is looking at “the other side of the story.”
“It’s often said that history is written by the winners. Genghis was illiterate. So were the Mongols. So history was written by the losers. He was described as having raped and pillaged, but he controlled the largest land mass ever, and brought a great deal of modernization,” Mr. Roosevelt said. “The story is different from what people think it is. We’ll talk about the writing of history and how things get lost.”
Mr. Roosevelt is part of an historic lineage himself, as the great-grandson of Teddy Roosevelt and the president of the Theodore Roosevelt Association.
Looking ahead, he says the January book will cover Antarctica. March is about the last survivor in a culture, with “I Am Legend.”
People interested in participating can borrow copies of Tweed’s Reads and come by the library to enjoy a lively exchange and coffee.
Tweed’s Reads: Nov. 18 and Dec. 16, 10 to 11 am, West Tisbury library. For more information, visit westtisburylibrary.org.