A serene Sunday morning becomes a nightmare
You could fill a long shelf with books written about Japan's surprise attack on Pearl Harbor 82 years ago, and yet Marc Favreau of West Tisbury has found a niche not taken. “Attacked!” is...
Around the Bookstore
Here it is, right in front of us, the Great American Feast, Thanksgiving, the beacon that next comes the gift-giving holidays, a sharing of things we hope others will love as much as we...
A whole new world
Guinevere Turner begins her memoir, “When the World Didn’t End,” with a punch: “On Jan. 5, 1975, the world was going to end. All the World People were going to be wiped off the...
Ties that bind
When you’ve worked for newspapers as long as I have, you're bound to have congratulated more than one colleague on their new book. This is my turn to applaud Bill Eville’s “Washed Ashore.” Like...
Under observation
“What else?” James W. Jennings asks in the opening paragraph of his debut novel, which is based on his experience as a substitute teacher in the New York City school system, as a writer...
Writing and poetry at Pathways
The Chilmark Tavern, Pathways’ winter gathering space, will once again be hopping on Tuesday nights. Ron Slate has arranged an impressive array of readers for this year’s Writing and Poetry Tuesdays lineup. As always,...
Scientific progress
For those who remember Peter Kramer’s landmark 1993 book “Listening to Prozac: A Psychiatrist Explores Antidepressant Drugs and the Remaking of the Self,” it is hard to believe that it burst on the scene...
A walk to remember
There’s nothing like traveling on foot through breathtaking scenery to give you the emotional space to start thinking, as seasonal resident Kathy Elkind does about her past, present, and future in her new book...
Finding love
Seasonal resident Lynda Cohen Loigman takes readers back in time in her novel “The Matchmaker’s Gift.” The book is set in 1994.
Loigman intertwines two stories. One is about 10-year-old Sara, who is on a...
An unconventional woman
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
“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...
Riveting writing
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
“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
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
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
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
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
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
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...