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September-October 2010
Elisha Smith Beginnings Island commuters: The daily trek across the water
Spring-Summer Home & Garden 2010
Harmony on the plains A sense of belonging Emily Post, in her garden Your Vineyard Home A backyard symphony Getting rid of skunk smell Dr. Seussland on Martha’s Vineyard Inside a pro’s wine cellar
Martha’s Vineyard Island Weddings & Celebrations 2010
Photographer Randi Baird captured this joyful moment near the Edgartown Lighthouse during Monica Becerra and Bernard Baez’s nuptials on May 31, 2009.Summer reads
Fiction
Both Zoe Pechter and Riley, the namesake for her store Riley’s Reads, recommend Broadway Barks.
Bag of Bones by Steven King (Scribner, 1998; MGM movie, 2009): A grieving widower’s writer’s block leads to a haunted house, ghouls, and nightmares – a thriller that will leave you hearing noises in the dark.
Selected by Mathew Bose of the Oak Bluffs Library.
The Enchantress of Florence by Salman Rushdie (Random House, 2008): A woman in Renaissance Florence believed to have powers of sorcery and enchantment captivates the imagination of the far-off emperor of Mughal in this part novel, part fable.
Selected by Ebba Hierta of the Chilmark Library and Beth Kramer of the West Tisbury Library.
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (Scribner, 1925): The classic set on Long Island in the racy glamour of the 1920s is an unrequited-love story spun around the privileged lives of Tom and Daisy Buchanan, and their mysterious neighbor across the sound – Jay Gatsby.
Selected by Ivo Meisner of Book Den East in Oak Bluffs.
The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007): Queen Elizabeth II winds up in a bookmobile while chasing her dogs and discovers the mind-expanding pleasures of reading and writing; her newfound sensibility is mistaken for senility.
Selected by Donna Blackburn of the Edgartown Library.
The Widow’s War and Bound by Sally Gunning (William Morrow, 2006 and 2008, respectively): The first is a historical novel about the struggles of a whaling widow on Cape Cod in the 1700s. She shows up again in the sequel-ish Bound, the story of a young British girl who comes to America, is put into indentured servitude, and flees to the Cape.
Selected by Dawn Braasch of Bunch of Grapes Bookstore in Vineyard Haven and Jennifer Christy of the Aquinnah Library.
Nonfiction
Agent Zigzag: A True Story of Nazi Espionage, Love, and Betrayal by Ben Macintyre (Crown Publishing Group, 2007): A biography of World War II British double agent Eddie Chapman told with suspense and humor.
Selected by Virginia Munro of the Edgartown Library.
Bottlemania: How Water Went on Sale and Why We Bought It by Elizabeth Royte (Bloomsbury USA, 2008): An examination of the strange marketing phenomenon that is bottled water – one of the most popular drinks in the country.
Selected by Steve Klebs of the West Tisbury Library.
The Last Fish Tale: The Fate of the Atlantic and Survival in Gloucester, America’s Oldest Fishing Port and Most Original Town by Mark Kurlansky (Ballantine Books, 2008): A tale of the conflict between the contemporary tourism industry and that of traditional fishing.
Selected by Jennifer Christy of the Aquinnah Library.
The Red Leather Diary: Reclaiming a Life through the Pages of a Lost Journal by Lily Koppel (HarperCollins, 2008): A New York Times reporter discovers in a dumpster the diary of a young woman who chronicled her life in the 1930s. She finds the woman who wrote it, and pieces together her story, which is woven within the fabric of New York life at that time.
Selected by Amy Ryan of the Vineyard Haven Library.
When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris (Little, Brown and Company, 2008): From Proustian musings caused by a lack of water for making coffee, to the advice in Tokyo on what to do in case of fire, Sedaris’s essays are bizarre, funny, and entertaining.
Selected by Susan Mercier of Edgartown Books.
Young Adults
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2006)
An exceptional book for adults as well, this is written with some unusual literary devices including an eye-opening and surprisingly sensitive Death as narrator. This is Nazi Germany, the persecution of Jews, and World War II as the struggling German working class experienced them.
Selected by Katherine Ferguson of Bunch of Grapes in Vineyard Haven.
Children’s
Broadway Barks by Bernadette Peters, illustrated by Liz Murphy (Blue Apple Books, 2008): The story of a stray dog who lives in the park and follows a lady home one day in the hope of becoming a star. It includes a CD of Bernadette Peters reading the story and singing a song she wrote for the book. For ages four to eight.
Selected by Zoe Pechter of Riley’s Reads in Vineyard Haven.
Duck Dunks by Lynne Berry, illustrated by Hiroe Nakata (Henry Holt and Company, 2008): Five little ducks go to the beach to swim and picnic. For ages four to eight.
Selected by Susan Mercier of Edgartown Books.