The Thing Itself–A Poetry Reading

At 6:00 pm on Thursday, January 23rd, the Vineyard Haven Library welcomes award-winning poet Terry Lucas for a reading from his new collection of poetry, The Thing Itself, featuring photographs by Gary Topper. This event will be held on the upper level of the library, with refreshments provided by the Friends of the Library. 

Terry Lucas is an award-winning poet, author, editor, and poetry coach. His previous books include: Dharma Rain (Saint Julian Press, 2016), In This Room (CW Books, 2016), If They Have Ears to Hear, winner of the Copperdome Chapbook Award (Southeastern State University Press, 2013), and Altar Call, a winner in the San Gabriel Valley Literary Festival, 2012. His poems, essays, articles, memoir pieces, short fiction, and reviews can be found in numerous national literary journals, including Alaska Quarterly Review, Best New Poets, Columbia Poetry Review, Crab Orchard Review, Fifth Wednesday Journal, Green Mountains Review, Prime Number Magazine, and The Sun.

The Thing Itself has been described as “a rich collection infused with wise and musical questionings” that “draw us to the thing, whether it be animate or inanimate, loved or feared, familiar or foreign. And from that tight focus we then see the world that contains it.” 

For more information, please contact the library at (508) 696-4211 or send an email to vhpl_programs@clamsnet.org. 

Traditional Storytelling for Adults with Nancy Binzen

At 6:00 pm on Tuesday, January 14th, the Vineyard Haven Library welcomes storyteller Nancy Binzen for a wildcrafted evening of traditional folktale and myth from around the world–especially for adults. 

Storytelling isn’t just for children. Traditional storyteller Nancy Binzen will entertain us two or three tales, including the myth of the Red Bead Woman from Siberia and the tale of the Selkie Bride from the Orkney Isles. Both stories are centuries old and revolve around a woman discovering and reclaiming her true identity, although their journeys are quite different.

Nancy Binzen has a BA in Theatre Arts, a Certificate in Storytelling from Dominican University, and has studied with noted mythologist, Martin Shaw. She’s been telling traditional tales for 25 years and is a seasonal Vineyard Haven resident. 

This event will be held on the upper level of the library, with refreshments provided by the Friends of the Library. For more information, please contact the library at (508) 696-4211 or send an email to vhpl_programs@clamsnet.org. 

The Best Books of 2024

Whether you're looking for some gift ideas or simply a recommendation for your own reading pleasure, the "best of" lists of 2024 provide loads of suggestions. Here we have links to some of the end-of-the-year lists, as well as a sampling of the New York Times Notable Books from our collection below.

As always, if you need a recommendation, please reach out to the library, or visit our Shelf Service section on our website by clicking here. 

The New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2024

Publisher's Weekly Best Books of 2024

Goodreads Best Books of 2024

The Atlantic Best 10 Books of 2024

NPR's Best Novels of 2024

Selections from the New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2024:

Godwin By O'Neill, Joseph 2024-06 - Pantheon Books 9780593701324 Check Our Catalog THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS' CHOICE - From the acclaimed author of Netherland (a New York Times Book Review Best Book of the year): the odyssey of two brothers crossing the world in search of an African soccer prodigy who might change their fortunes. Mark Wolfe, a brilliant if self-thwarting technical writer, lives in Pittsburgh with his wife, Sushila, …More

James By Everett, Percival 2024-03 - Doubleday Books 9780385550369 Check Our Catalog AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - SHORTLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD AND THE BOOKER PRIZE - KIRKUS PRIZE WINNER - A brilliant, action-packed reimagining of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, both harrowing and darkly humorous, told from the enslaved Jim's point of view In development as a feature film to be produced by Steven Spielberg - A Best Book of the Year of the …More

The Mighty Red: A Novel By Erdrich, Louise 2024-10 - Harper 9780063277052 Check Our Catalog NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - A READ WITH JENNA BOOK CLUB PICK - A FINALIST FOR THE KIRKUS PRIZE FOR FICTION "[A] sweeping, tender-hearted epic." --Harper's Bazaar In this stunning novel, Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning author Louise Erdrich tells a story of love, natural forces, …More

Martyr! By Akbar, Kaveh 2024-12 - Vintage 9780593685778 Check Our Catalog NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - SHORTLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD - NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR SO FAR FOR 2024 BY THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW - A newly sober, orphaned son of Iranian immigrants, guided by the voices of artists, poets, and kings, embarks on a remarkable search for a family secret that leads him to a terminally ill painter living out her final days in the …More

Rejection By Tulathimutte, Tony 2024-09 - William Morrow & Company 9780063337879 Check Our Catalog LONGLISTED FOR THE 2024 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD IN FICTION - A NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS' CHOICE "A master comedian with a virtuoso prose style has produced an audacious, original and highly disturbing book . . . an incandescent satire." --Giles Harvey, The New York Times Magazine From …More

The Safekeep By Van Der Wouden, Yael 2024-05 - Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster 9781668034347 Check Our Catalog *SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2024 BOOKER PRIZE* "Remarkable...Compelling...Fine and taut...Indelible." --The New York Times - "Moving, unnerving, and deeply sexy." --Tracy Chevalier, author of Girl with the Pearl Earring - "A brilliant debut, as multi-faceted as a gem." --Kirkus Reviews A "razor-sharp, perfectly plotted" (The Sunday Times, …More

Someone Like Us By Mengestu, Dinaw 2024-07 - Knopf Publishing Group 9780385350006 Check Our Catalog THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS' CHOICE - The son of Ethiopian immigrants seeks to understand a hidden family history and uncovers a past colored by unexpected loss, addiction, and the enduring emotional pull toward home. After abandoning his once-promising career as a journalist in search of a new life in Paris, Mamush meets Hannah--a photographer whose way of seeing the …More

Shred Sisters By Lerner, Betsy 2024-10 - Grove Press 9780802163707 Check Our Catalog LONGLISTED FOR THE CENTER FOR FICTION FIRST NOVEL PRIZE No one will love you more or hurt you more than a sister. "I love this book. It moves like a souped-up pickup truck." -- Patti Smith, author of Just Kids and M Train From Betsy Lerner, celebrated author of The Bridge Ladies, comes a wry and riveting debut novel about …More

Whale Fall By O'Connor, Elizabeth 2024-05 - Pantheon Books 9780593700914 Check Our Catalog THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS' CHOICE - A stunning debut from an award-winning writer, about loss, isolation, folklore, and the joy and dissonance of finding oneself by exploring life outside one's community "Both blunt and exquisite . . . O'Connor's excellent debut . . . is an example of precisely observed writing that makes a character's specific existence glimmer with …More

The Empusium: A Health Resort Horror Story By Tokarczuk, Olga Translator Lloyd-Jones, Antonia 2024-09 - Riverhead Books 9780593712948 Check Our Catalog AN INSTANT NATIONAL BESTSELLER! "A folk horror story with a deceptively light and knowing tone ... elegant and genuinely unsettling." -The New York Times Book Review The Nobel Prize winner's latest masterwork, set in a sanitarium on the eve of World War I, probes the horrors that lie beneath our most hallowed ideas September 1913. A young Pole …More

The Safekeep By Van Der Wouden, Yael 2024-05 - Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster 9781668034347 Check Our Catalog *SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2024 BOOKER PRIZE* "Remarkable...Compelling...Fine and taut...Indelible." --The New York Times - "Moving, unnerving, and deeply sexy." --Tracy Chevalier, author of Girl with the Pearl Earring - "A brilliant debut, as multi-faceted as a gem." --Kirkus Reviews A "razor-sharp, perfectly plotted" (The Sunday Times, …More

Bluff: Poems By Smith, Danez 2024-08 - Graywolf Press 9781644452981 Check Our Catalog Written after two years of artistic silence, during which the world came to a halt due to the COVID-19 pandemic and Minneapolis became the epicenter of protest following the murder of George Floyd, Bluff is Danez Smith's powerful reckoning with their role and responsibility as a poet and with their hometown of the Twin Cities. This is a book of awakening out of violence, guilt, shame, …More

Colored Television By Senna, Danzy 2024-09 - Riverhead Books 9780593544372 Check Our Catalog AN INSTANT NATIONAL BESTSELLER A GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK "A laugh-out-loud cultural comedy... This is the New Great American Novel, and Danzy Senna has set the standard." -LA Times "Funny, foxy and fleet...The jokes are good, the punches land, the dialogue is tart." -Dwight Garner, The New York Times A …More

Great Expectations By Cunningham, Vinson 2025-02 - Hogarth Press 9780593448250 Check Our Catalog NATIONAL BESTSELLER - A historic presidential campaign changes the trajectory of a young Black man's life in this "coming of age story that captures the soul of America" (The Washington Post), the debut novel from one of The New Yorker magazine's young stars and Pulitzer Prize finalist Vinson Cunningham. "Brilliantly written, piercingly smart, quietly subversive, …More

The Rebel's Clinic: The Revolutionary Life of Frantz Fanon By Shatz, Adam 2024-01 - Farrar, Straus and Giroux 9780374176426 Check Our Catalog Named a best book of 2024 so far by The New York Times The New Yorker Vulture Longlisted for the 2024 Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction "Nimble and engrossing . . . [An] exemplary work of public intellectualism." --Becca Rothfeld, The Washington Post "Undoubtedly the best [biography of Fanon] . . . A remarkable achievement." …More

Challenger: An American Tragedy By Higginbotham, Adam 2024-05 - Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster 9781982176617 Check Our Catalog Winner of the 2024 Kirkus Nonfiction Prize - Longlisted for the 2025 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - "Stunning...A heart-pounding thriller...Challenger is a remarkable book." --The Atlantic - "Devastating...A universal story that transcends time." --The New York Times - "Dramatic...a moving …More

Splinters: A Memoir By Jamison, Leslie 2024-02 - Little Brown and Company 9780316374880 Check Our Catalog From the New York Times bestselling author of The Recovering and The Empathy Exams comes "a blazing, unputdownable memoir" (Mary Karr, author of Lit), the "piercing, intimate" story (TIME Magazine) of rebuilding a life after the end of a marriage--an exploration of motherhood, art, and new love. ​ Leslie Jamison has become one of our most …More

The Hidden Globe: How Wealth Hacks the World By Abrahamian, Atossa Araxia 2024-10 - Riverhead Books 9780593329856 Check Our Catalog "Vivid, revelatory, and politically unpredictable...What bothers Abrahamian, in the end, isn't the anarchic but the unfair; if capital is free, people deserve the same respect." -- Gideon Lewis-Kraus, The New Yorker "A season of unrest looms ahead, and The Hidden Globe lays out the unvarnished truth in a luminous feat of …More

The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook By Sides, Hampton 2024-04 - Doubleday Books 9780385544764 Check Our Catalog NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR SO FAR FOR 2024 BY THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW - A "thrilling and superbly crafted" (The Wall Street Journal) account of the most momentous voyage of the Age of Exploration, which culminated in Captain James Cook's death in Hawaii, and left a complex and controversial legacy still debated to this day. "Hampton …More

The Achilles Trap: Saddam Hussein, the C.I.A., and the Origins of America's Invasion of Iraq By Coll, Steve 2024-02 - Penguin Press 9780525562269 Check Our Catalog "Excellent . . . A more intimate picture of the dictator's thinking about world politics, local power and his relationship to the United States than has been seen before." --The New York Times "Another triumph from one of our best journalists." --The Washington Post "Voluminously researched and compulsively readable." --Air Mail From …More

Madness: Race and Insanity in a Jim Crow By Hylton, Antonia A. 2024-01 - Legacy Lit 9781538723692 Check Our Catalog New York Times Bestseller Amazon Editor's Pick for Best Books In the tradition of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, a page-turning 93-year history of Crownsville Hospital, one of the nation's last segregated asylums, that the New York Times described as "fascinating...meticulous research" and bestselling author Clint Smith endorsed it as "a book that …More

Private Revolutions: How Ordinary Women Are Taking on China's New Social Order By Yang, Yuan 2024-07 - Viking 9780593493908 Check Our Catalog A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS' CHOICE PICK "Riveting . . . a powerful snapshot of four young Chinese women attempting to assert control over the direction of their lives." --The New York Times Book Review "As powerfully intimate as it is politically incendiary." --British Vogue A sweeping yet intimate portrait of modern China …More

Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder By Rushdie, Salman 2024-04 - Random House 9780593730249 Check Our Catalog NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST - #1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER - From Booker Prize winner Salman Rushdie, a searing, deeply personal account of enduring--and surviving--an attempt on his life thirty years after the fatwa that was ordered against him On the morning of August 12, 2022, Salman Rushdie was standing onstage at the Chautauqua Institution, preparing to give a lecture on the importance …More

I Just Keep Talking: A Life in Essays By Painter, Nell Irvin 2024-04 - Doubleday Books 9780385548908 Check Our Catalog From the New York Times bestselling author of The History of White People and Old in Art School, a finalist for the NBCC Award, comes a comprehensive new collection of essays spanning art, politics, and the legacy of racism that shapes American history as we know it. Throughout her prolific writing career, Nell Painter has published works on such luminaries …More

A Walk in the Park: The True Story of an Epic Misadventure in the Grand Canyon By Fedarko, Kevin 2024-05 - Scribner Book Company 9781501183058 Check Our Catalog "A triumph. Fedarko doesn't describe awe; he induces it." --The New York Times Book Review * "Passionate...memorable...life-affirming." --The Wall Street Journal From the author of the beloved bestseller The Emerald Mile, a rollicking and poignant account of an epic 750-mile odyssey, on foot, through the heart of America's most magnificent national park and the …More

The Swans of Harlem: Five Black Ballerinas, Fifty Years of Sisterhood, and Their Reclamation of a Groundbreaking History By Valby, Karen 2024-04 - Pantheon Books 9780593317525 Check Our Catalog THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS' CHOICE - The forgotten story of a pioneering group of five Black ballerinas and their fifty-year sisterhood, a legacy erased from history--until now. "This is the kind of history I wish I learned as a child dreaming of the stage!" --Misty Copeland, author of Black Ballerinas: My Journey to Our Legacy "Utterly absorbing, …More

Founding Foods: Seasonal Eating on Martha’s Vineyard from 1642 to 1850 with Norah Van Riper

At 6:00 PM on Thursday, January 9th, the Vineyard Haven Library welcomes local historian Norah Van Riper for an interactive program entitled, “Founding Foods: Seasonal Eating on Martha’s Vineyard from 1642 to 1850.”  

What did Islanders eat in the days before refrigeration and takeout? Norah Van Riper will delve into the complex reality of the way Martha’s Vineyard’s inhabitants fed themselves in the earliest days of English colonization–before the Industrial Revolution and its advances in technology and transportation up-ended seasonal and local patterns of eating. 

This interactive program features an array of unusual historical foods, recipes, preservation techniques, and samples of dishes available on Martha’s Vineyard in days gone by. The program will be presented in historical costume from a modern perspective.

Norah Van Riper, itinerant historian, has been in the museum and living history trades for the better part of twenty-five years. Though her focus is primarily on historical agriculture and domestic life in New England before the Industrial Revolution, she’s known to dabble in a number of other subjects and periods. Her real passion lies in giving voice to the forgotten and misunderstood people of the past. She lives in Vineyard Haven

This event will be held on the upper level of the library, with refreshments provided by the Friends of the Library. For more information, please contact the library at (508) 696-4211 or send an email to vhpl_programs@clamsnet.org. 

Library Renovation: Details on Town Meeting Vote and Cost Considerations

Key Details on Town Meeting Vote and Cost Considerations

The Town of Tisbury will hold a Special Town Meeting at 7:00 PM on Tuesday December 17th, at the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School Performing Arts Center. The warrant will include an article to fund the renovation and expansion of the Vineyard Haven Public Library. This will be followed by a Special Town Election on Tuesday January 7th, 2025, from 12:00 noon - 8:00 PM at the Emergency Services Facility, 215 Spring Street. View the warrant on the town website: https://www.tisburyma.gov/sites/g/files/vyhlif1321/f/uploads/stm_warrant_december_17_2024_for_print.pdf

What is being voted on?

• At the Tisbury Special Town Meeting on December 17th, 2024, attendees will vote to appropriate $4 million from the Town’s stabilization funds, and authorize borrowing of $4.8 million, for the library renovation project.
• If the vote passes at Town Meeting with a 2/3 majority, there will be a Ballot Vote on January 7th, 2025 to authorize a debt exclusion. Only if the project gets a majority vote on the ballot question will construction actually move forward.

How will the project affect my taxes?

• Borrowing for the library renovation is projected at $4.8 million, which would be approximately $135/household/year average (based on an average assessed home value of $1.79 million). Those with a lower assessed value and those with a residential exemption would pay less.
• Construction bids will be due and opened in advance of the December 17th Town Meeting, which may allow the Town to amend the warrant article to reduce the amount of borrowing and lower the tax impact.
• The capital campaign for the library project has raised more than $1.5 million, to fund the meeting room addition that will be included in this project. 

What would being funded by the warrant article?

The library project budget has been estimated at $10 million, including some funds already expended for project management, design and engineering. Proposed renovations and repairs to the building include the following:

• Replace leaking and inoperable heating & cooling systems with energy efficient, all-electric systems, with needed ventilation.
• Replace and insulate the roof, to prepare for rooftop solar.
• Update electric, plumbing, & IT to bring systems up to code, including bathroom renovations to correct accessibility issues, and eliminate recurring sewer gas backup into the building.
• Replace damaged, leaking, and inoperable windows and make other repairs and improvements to the building envelope.
• Interior painting & floor coverings throughout the building (not done since 1999).
• Repair and replace ceilings and light fixtures throughout the building that are missing or damaged.
• Removal of masonry chimney, before it manifests as a structural issue.
• Landscaping improvements including regrading to stop water intrusion, and to correct issues identified in 2019 Accessibility Survey. 
• The renovation will also enhance the current building by adding a multi-purpose community meeting room (with funding from the capital campaign), significant storage in the basement, and a renovated reading room with garden views.

For more information, visit www.vhlibrary.org/Building.shtml

Clara B. Kennedy’s “World of Miniatures” at Vineyard Haven Library

The Vineyard Haven Library is pleased to share with the community a display of miniatures from the collection of Clara Banta Kennedy, on loan from her family through the holiday season. The display can be viewed anytime during regular library hours.

Growing up in the 1920’s, Clara was given miniatures as birthday and Christmas gifts. Incredibly detailed for their size, these miniatures sparked her imagination and filled many days with play. Clara shared she could build entire “worlds” with them.  

As Clara grew older, she began slowly adding to her collection, following in her older sister, Jeanette’s footsteps. In 1945, Clara got married and eventually had four sons. While she was involved with many other things, her interest in miniatures never waned and her collection grew. Every year at Christmastime, she would set up a miniature village in Princeton, NJ for friends and family to enjoy. 

In the early 1970’s, Clara opened an antique store called the Calico Cat in Kingston, NJ, with fellow Vineyarder, Tita Vivian. In the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, Clara sold miniatures from a space at Pyewacket’s on Beach Road. Eventually, she left her space and took her miniatures home to adorn the shelves and walls of her Vineyard Haven house, where they have been cherished for many years.  

Clara Kennedy was a dedicated volunteer for the Friends of Vineyard Haven Library and many other community organizations. She died peacefully in her home this October at the age of 101.

Writing from Life and Finding Humor in the Drama

At 6:00 PM on Thursday, December 19th, the Vineyard Haven Library welcomes novelists Kate Feiffer and Marion McNabb for a conversation about writing contemporary fiction, finding humor in the drama, and getting published. 

Kate Feiffer is the author of eleven highly acclaimed books for children, including Henry the Dog with No Tail and Double Pink. Morning Pages, her first novel for adults, was published in 2024 and was called a “winning adult debut” by Publisher’s Weekly. Kate is also an artist and the illustrator of the poetry/parody The Lamb Cycle. Kate has been the event producer for the annual Martha's Vineyard-based writers' festival Islanders Write since its inception in 2014. Her writing and illustrations have appeared in newspapers and magazines on Martha's Vineyard, on HNN and NPR, and in Literary Hub. 

Marion McNabb is a novelist and screenwriter who studied film at the Tisch School at NYU and graduated from Arizona State with a degree in Theater. Her debut novel, Some Doubt About It (Lake Union) was selected by Friends and Fiction as a noteworthy debut, and was described by Booklist as, “going beyond empty platitudes to offer some real philosophical depth." 

This event will be held on the upper level of the library, with refreshments provided by the Friends of the Library. For more information, please contact the library at (508) 696-4211 or send an email to vhpl_programs@clamsnet.org.