Thursday, March 28, 2024

Books

An unconventional woman

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Emily Franklin takes us into the very heart and soul of Isabella Stewart Gardner in her engaging historical fiction novel “The Lioness of Boston.” In Franklin’s writing, Gardner is headstrong, sensitive, and in a...

Measuring standards

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“Renegade Teacher: Inside School Walls with Standards and the Test” is a memoir about working with students and teachers, standardized testing, and how schools can work better to raise the level of learning. This...

Real life

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Sherry Sidoti’s new memoir is a joy. I read “A Smoke and a Song” once for the story, and a second time to savor her language — the engrossing way she uses words, ideas,...

Riveting writing

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Elizabeth Benedict has, in the past, moderated panel discussions focused on writing about sex and writing about grief at The MV Times’ sponsored writers’ festival, Islanders Write. In May, Benedict’s memoir, “Rewriting Illness: A...

Saying goodbye

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“I suck at goodbyes, separations, and transitions. Sometimes, I sneak to bed to avoid saying goodnight to my family. When our oldest daughter, Maggie, headed off to college — a big transition — I...

Between the lines

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The poet Richard Michelson writes about life even when reflecting on death. In his new book of poems, “Sleeping as Fast as I Can,” he tells us that “L’Chaim” is a Hebrew toast meaning...

Museum as muse

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It is fitting that the stately white clapboard building that is home to the Martha’s VIneyard Museum has a storied history. The U.S. government chose the site overlooking Vineyard Haven Harbor to build a...

Around the bookstore

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According to the Macmillan Dictionary, a beach read is “a book you can take on holiday, which is good enough to keep you engaged, but not so serious it will spoil your holiday.” It seems...

A Christmas story for July

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Just as summer’s heating up, on July 11, you can meet author Cathryn Newton, whose children’s book, “Home Sweet Island,” takes us through a warm-hearted Vineyard winter’s tale. Newton opens her story with the barest...

‘Trial’: Richard North Patterson at his best

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Vineyarders browsing through Edgartown Books or the Bunch of Grapes this summer should beware of towering stacks of “Trial” (Post Hill Press), the 23rd novel by seasonal West Tisbury resident Richard North Patterson, which...

Rose Styron: A literary life

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A life well lived is the phrase that comes to mind reading Rose Styron’s new book, “Beyond This Harbor: Adventurous Tales of the Heart.” Styron takes us through her very full life with chapters...

A rollicking read

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For all who know and love Gwyn McAllister — the person and her work — here on the Island, particularly her many articles for the newspaper you’re now perusing, as well as her celebrity...

Radicals and rascals

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Thomas Dresser sets his new book, “Martha’s Vineyard in the Roaring Twenties: Radicals and Rascals,” securely within the larger context of world history. It offers us a sweeping, micro/macro perspective of the decade sitting...

What constitutes truth?

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“I’m Henry Farber, the psychiatrist. You will have heard my name, if only lately. The Great Man was found dead in my office in Providence, Rhode Island. That’s my couch he’s draped across in...

Living and loving well

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I thought I’d had my fill of reading inspirational self-help books in the 1980s, and hadn’t done so until picking up “Live, Learn, Love Well: Lessons from a Life of Progress Not Perfection” by...

‘Vineyard Folk’ celebrates the human landscape of the Island

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There should be a warning on the cover of Tamara Weiss, Amanda Benchley, and Elizabeth Cecil’s new book, “Vineyard Folk: Creative People and Places of Martha’s Vineyard,” that reads, “Not just a gorgeous coffee...

A tour de force for our times

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Spring into summer with a romp through a lineup of famous English poets imitated, in an act of homage, by former Kent State professor David R. Ewbank, to the tune of “Mary Had a...

‘The Half Moon’ illustrates a marriage in crisis

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“The Half Moon: A Novel '' in the title of part-time Vineyarder Mary Beth Keane’s new novel is not in the night sky, but the bar in the small town of Gillam. It is...

It’s always the right time for ‘A Vineyard Season’

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I’m always thrilled to review Jean Stone’s books in her Vineyard series. They are like chowing down on a tasty meal, and “A Vineyard Season” doesn’t disappoint. As always, Stone spins a great yarn...

‘A Border Town in Poland: A 20th Century Memoir’

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“A Border Town in Poland: A 20th Century Memoir,” by Hirsch Bieler, as told to Nora Jean and Michael H. Levin, is an intimate look at the circuitous, five-decade-long journey of survival for Hirsch...