Tag Archives: books
Read While You Walk
Early this fall I started noticing black plastic stakes along the path I walk daily behind the West Tisbury School. They were maybe three and a half or four feet high and about a hundred feet apart (that’s a guesstimate … Continue reading
Around the World in 30 Years
Shirley Mayhew could have rested on her laurels after publishing Looking Back: My Long Life on Martha’s Vineyard in 2014. It’s a lovely collection of personal essays covering, well, Shirley’s long life on Martha’s Vineyard, from 1947, when she arrived … Continue reading
Supply Chains
When the shelves — any shelves, in any store — are fully stocked, I seldom think much about how the products got there. When I can find everything I need, I seldom think “What if I couldn’t?” More often I … Continue reading
De-cluttering Before Breakfast
Not long after getting up on New Year’s Day I knocked some papers off my workside table. This was nothing new. What happened next was: I straightened up — “excavated” is probably the better word — the table’s top. This … Continue reading
From Off Island
From Off Island, by Dionis Coffin Riggs, in collaboration with Sidney Noyes Riggs. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1940. This is the 2016 facsimile edition of the novel first published in 1940 by McGraw-Hill’s Whittlesey House imprint, based on the life of … Continue reading
Undercover in the Summerland
Ta-Nehisi Coates might be the best, most challenging, most important writer I’ve read in years. I’ve been following his blog on TheAtlantic.com for a while now. His Atlantic essay “The Case for Reparations” is must-reading for anyone on the verge of rage … Continue reading
Book Sale
My one rule when the West Tisbury library’s annual book sale rolls around each summer is “Don’t buy any more books than you can carry home.” I live a brisk five-minute walk from the West Tisbury School, where the sale … Continue reading
The Wedding
Why did it take me almost 20 years to find my way to The Wedding? It’s not as though I didn’t know it was there, and it’s certainly not as though I didn’t know of Dorothy West. I read her first … Continue reading
Martha’s Vineyard Basketball
Slightly adapted from the review I just posted on Goodreads . . . No, I’m not a sports fan, but my fascination with the Vineyard and anything related to race and class is insatiable, so I had such hopes for … Continue reading
Mill Pond Joe
Nelson Bryant grew up on Martha’s Vineyard, and from 1967 till 1998 he was the outdoors columnist for the New York Times. His tales of hunting, fishing, and general outdoor adventuring on the Vineyard and in many other places make … Continue reading
From the Seasonally Occupied Territories . . . 