Meet Liz Shick, Library Program Planner & Debut Author of "The Golden Land"

On Tuesday September 17th at 6pm, join the Friends of the Vineyard Haven Library for an author talk celebrating the release of The Golden Land, the debut novel by Elizabeth (Liz) Shick. Liz will recount the six years she lived in Myanmar, an extraordinary period of growth and democratization sandwiched between two authoritarian military regimes (1962-2011 and 2021-present), and explain how those experiences inspired her to write The Golden Land. Refreshments will follow the talk.

Winner of the AWP Prize for the Novel, The Golden Land is a novel that digs deep into the complexities of family history and relationships, with the explosive history of Myanmar as its backdrop. The novel explores themes of freedom, resistance, culture, and identity. It is written in a dual timeline (1988 and 2011), and alternates between Boston, Massachusetts, and Yangon, Myanmar (formerly known as Rangoon, Burma).

Liz Shick is an award-winning novelist whose writing is influenced by her many years abroad, including six years in Myanmar. She holds a master of fine arts from Lesley University and a master of international affairs from Columbia University.

Liz joined the staff of the Vineyard Haven Public Library as Adult Program Coordinator in 2024. At the library, Liz is responsible for envisioning, planning and hosting programs for adults, both in-person and virtual, including lectures and author talks, book clubs, performances, workshops, and more. She also coordinates the rotating art shows at the library.

We hope library patrons will take advantage of this opportunity to meet Liz and learn more about her unique background and talents! Whether or not you are able to attend, please feel free to reach out to Liz anytime if you’d like to suggest a program, volunteer as a presenter, participate in book discussions, or hold an art show at the library. She can be reached by email at lshick@clamsnet.org.

Register for "Known & Unknown Worlds: Fictions of the 21st Century" with Phil Weinstein

REGISTER ONLINE or by calling the library.

Beginning in January, Philip Weinstein, the Alexander Griswold Cummins Professor of Literature at Swarthmore College, will present a nine-part seminar, Known and Unknown Worlds: Fictions of the 21st Century. 

Programs will be held online via Zoom twice monthly from 6pm - 7:30pm, beginning Thursday January 18th (subsequent sessions will be on Wednesday evenings). Prior to the first class in January, registered participants will receive a welcome email with Zoom access information.  A limited number of copies of the books will be available for pickup at the library, or can be requested through CLAMS. All sessions will be recorded.

Additional course description, readings, and class dates appear below.

***

What might be a central tenet drawing together the six novels I have chosen for my next course at the Vineyard Haven Library? A syllabus comprised of Franzen's The Corrections, Sebald's Austerlitz, Jones's The Known World, Egan's A Visit from the Good Squad, Patchett's The Dutch House, and McCann's Apeirogon looks more like an out-of-control enterprise: these writers are so different from each other!

My candid answer is that no common theme or procedure joins together these six books. Rather, I find them the most resonant novels published (in English) in the 1st two decades of our new century. It's too early to call them classics, but (like classics) they stay in the mind long after an initial reading. The impression they make--on this reader at least--is intricate, powerful, lingering. With the exception of The Dutch House, each is difficult to categorize. Indeed, Austerlitz, The Known World, and Apeirogon escape all familiar novelistic frameworks. The Corrections and A Visit from The Goon Squad operate in more recognizable territory, but both are capable of startling you. As for The Dutch House, it is, while neither unfamiliar nor surprising, simply perfect.

We will devote two sessions each to the three longer novels (The Corrections, The Known World, Apeirogon), and a single session each to the three others. I cannot predict what you will come away with, but I can say this: together, they comprise an unforgettable set of readings. Rather than expertise--who is an expert on 21st century fiction?--I shall offer what guidance I can. A remarkable experience--in equal measures challenging and rewarding--lies ahead.

Dates and reading assignments:

Thursday Jan 18 2024: Jonathan Franzen, The Corrections (1st of 2 sessions)

Wednesday Jan 31 2024: Jonathan Franzen, The Corrections

Wednesday Feb 14 2024: W.G. Sebald, Austerlitz

Wednesday Feb 28 2024: Edward P Jones, The Known World (1st of 2 sessions)

Wednesday Mar 13 2024: Edward P Jones, The Known World

Wednesday Mar 27 2024: Jennifer Egan, A Visit from the Goon Squad

Wednesday Apr 10 2024: Ann Patchett, The Dutch House

Wednesday Apr 24 2024: Colum McCann, Apeirogon (1st of 2 sessions)

Wednesday May 8 2024: Colum McCann, Apeirogon

Philip M. Weinstein is Alexander Griswold Cummins Professor of English Emeritus at Swarthmore College. His numerous publications include Faulkner’s Subject: A Cosmos No One Owns (1992), What Else But Love? The Ordeal of Race in Faulkner and Morrison (1996), and Becoming Faulkner (2009). His newest book is a collection of essays entitled Soul-Error, published in May 2022. Professor Weinstein has been offering literary seminars in cooperation with the Vineyard Haven Public Library since 2012, and is the Honorary Co-Chair of the Capital Campaign for Vineyard Haven Library's expansion and renovation project.

REGISTER ONLINE or by calling the library.

Virtual Author Talk: When the World Didn’t End by Guinevere Turner

[Online] Author Talk: When the World Didn’t End by Guinevere Turner

Wednesday, October 18 at 6pm

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88093099792

Guinevere Turner’s memoir vividly recalls her unconventional upbringing in the Lyman Family cult. The isolated, hierarchical cult (made up of a network nation-wide of communes, including one on Martha's Vineyard) was led by the charismatic “Lord” Mel Lyman, who preached about the dangers of everyone outside their community, and an impending apocalypse. Slowly, Turner comes to understand the depth of the Family’s deception, and eventually embarks on a journey away from the cult and toward a successful screenwriting career (American Psycho, The Notorious Bettie Page, and most recently, Charlie Says). Request the book through CLAMS here Registration required, please email vhpl_programs@clamsnet.org for the Zoom invite. This program is sponsored by the Martha’s Vineyard Library Association.

Tolstoy's War and Peace with Phil Weinstein

Beginning in September, Philip Weinstein, the Alexander Griswold Cummins Professor of Literature at Swarthmore College, will present a six-part seminar on Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace, hosted on Zoom by Lifelong Learning Swarthmore. Professor Weinstein and Lifelong Learning Swarthmore have generously arranged for Martha's Vineyard Library patrons to participate in this program at no charge. 

The class will take place every two weeks on Mondays from 7:00-8:30 pm, September 18th, October 2nd, October 23rd, November 6th, November 20th, and December 4th.

To register through the library, visit https://bit.ly/3su4UMw. Zoom login will be sent to registered library participants prior to the first session in September. A limited number of copies of the book will be available for pickup at the library, or can be requested through CLAMS: https://library.clamsnet.org/Record/205597

At a time when most Americans have trouble thinking positively about Russia, it may be productive to launch a six-part engagement with Tolstoy’s War and Peace. Our aim is to come to grips with the literary dimensions of Tolstoy’s big book, not with the problematic history of post-Tolstoyan Russia in the last hundred years. That said, it is not surprising that Lenin was deeply interested in Tolstoy and wrote brilliantly about him. More, Tolstoy’s abiding concerns—the drama of class differences and commonalities, Russia’s relation to European culture and powers, among others—continue to resonate long after his death in 1910. 

"Not a novel," Tolstoy said about his epic novel, yet his refusal of novelistic norms does not keep War and Peace from being a supreme example of 19th-century Western fiction. Realistic, recognizable, filled with intricate and sympathetic characters, this novel does what great novels do: it informs, enlarges, deepens, and entertains its readers. It also does more: it seeks not just to rewrite history but to articulate a philosophy of history, intermingling the real and the invented in ways that baffled Tolstoy's critics. Reading 200 pages per session (every two weeks, for three months), we shall take the time necessary to try to do justice to Tolstoy's masterpiece.

Beginning in January, Professor Weinstein will present an additional seminar with Vineyard Haven Library, "Known and Unknown Worlds: Fictions of the 21st Century." Texts for this course will include works by Jonathan Franzen, W.G. Sebald, Edward P Jones, Jennifer Egan, Ann Patchett, and Colum McCann. Additional details to be announced.

Philip M. Weinstein is Alexander Griswold Cummins Professor of English Emeritus at Swarthmore College. His numerous publications include Faulkner’s Subject: A Cosmos No One Owns (1992), What Else But Love? The Ordeal of Race in Faulkner and Morrison (1996), and Becoming Faulkner (2009). His newest book is a collection of essays entitled Soul-Error (2022). Professor Weinstein has been offering literary seminars in cooperation with the Vineyard Haven Public Library since 2012, and is the Honorary Co-Chair of the Capital Campaign for Vineyard Haven Library's expansion and renovation project.

In Person Event with Renegade Teacher Author Kay Scheidler

 

[In-person] 5:30 pm Tuesday August 8th
Renegade Teacher with author Kay Scheidler

In Renegade Teacher: Inside School Walls with Standards and the Test, former urban school teacher Dr. Katherine Scheidler shows how schools can better serve all students, at any time. In the mid-1990s, Dr. Scheidler moved from the classroom to the epicenter of school change as Assistant Superintendent of teaching and learning in varied Massachusetts school districts. Scheidler illustrates the challenges and victories of standards and testing of all students, and she points out how school must still change to better support those classroom heroes who work every day with children.

Dr. Katherine Scheidler earned degrees from The American University School of International Service in Washington, DC, Brown University, Harvard Graduate School of Education, and Boston University. She taught for several decades at an urban school in Providence, Rhode Island, and served as Brown clinical professor teaching Methods of Teaching. As Massachusetts school district leader, she helped guide the first wave of new state standards and tests in the Clinton era of new accountability legislation and through George W. Bush’s ambitious and hated No Child Left Behind era, followed by the Obama administration’s less stringent approach to standards and testing. She now supports teachers in online courses.

Author Talk: Tom Dresser's "Martha's Vineyard in the Roaring 20s"

 

[In-person] 6pm Tuesday June 6th
Author Talk: Martha's Vineyard in the Roaring Twenties

The Roaring Twenties were filled with a range of events, experiences, fears, laws and advances that impacted Martha's Vineyard. Island residents were involved in rumrunning. Dozens died of the Spanish Flu. Women voted on Island. Dorothy West joined the Harlem Renaissance. Immigration from the Azores slowed, and airplanes landed in Katama. Tourism blossomed and business boomed.

In his latest book, Martha's Vineyard in the Roaring Twenties: Radicals & Rascals, local author Thomas Dresser shares the back story and the import of this remarkable decade and how it has shaped Vineyarders.

Thomas Dresser lives on Martha's Vineyard, and this is his fifteenth book for The History Press about the island. 

Place a "Standing Order" for Books by Popular Authors

 

Join Vineyard Haven Library's "Standing Order" program to automatically order forthcoming books from your favorite popular authors. Just fill out our online form, and library staff will add you to the advance hold list for any future books by the authors you select, then contact you as items become available. This program helps the library know how many books to order, and places our patrons higher on the waiting list since holds are placed prior to publication.

If you've been enrolled in the program in the past, you can use the form to update your selection -- we now have more than 200 authors to choose from. Sign up for Standing Orders here: https://forms.gle/RCqwheVUm8ndimJ46

For other ways to choose titles, see what's new and popular, and learn what's coming soon:

• Visit the "New Books" page on our website to see books added to the collection this week. This page is updated weekly, and includes a description for each title and a direct link to the CLAMS catalog to place a request online. Visit:  http://www.vhlibrary.org/newbooks.shtml
   
• Our "Books on the Air" page makes it easy to find books you've heard discussed on NPR and on news and talk shows. This weekly update is published every Friday. Visit:http://www.vhlibrary.org/booksizzle.shtml
   
• Try Novelist! Created especially for people who love books, NoveList Plus is the premier online database for reading recommendations, for readers of all ages. You will need your CLAMS library card number to login to Novelist.

Dirtbag, Mass: An Evening with Isaac Fitzgerald [Online]

 

Join us for a very special author event!  Isaac Fitzgerald has lived many lives. He's been an altar boy, a bartender, a fat kid, a smuggler, a biker, a prince of New England. But before all that, he was a bomb that exploded his parents' lives-or so he was told. In his new book Dirtbag, Massachusetts, Fitzgerald, with warmth and humor, recounts his ongoing search for forgiveness, a more far-reaching vision of masculinity, and a more expansive definition of family and self. 

Fitzgerald appears frequently on The Today Show and is also the author of the bestselling children’s book How to Be a Pirate as well as the co-author of Pen & Ink: Tattoos and the Stories Behind Them and Knives & Ink: Chefs and the Stories Behind Their Tattoos. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Esquire, The Guardian, The Best American Nonrequired Reading, and numerous other publications. He is Boston born, raised in Athol, and currently lives in Brooklyn, N.Y.

This program is brought to you in collaboration of  libraries across the Commonwealth.

The discussion will be moderated by Daniel Ford, host of The Writer's Bone Podcast.

This live online event will be held on the platform Crowdcast. To register, first create a Crowdcast account or sign in with Twitter, Facebook, or Google. After you have signed in, click the "Save My Spot" button and use the password below.

The registration link is: https://www.crowdcast.io/c/an-evening-with-isaac and the password is: ​dirtbagmass

A Century of American Short Stories with Philip Weinstein Continues in January

Register for the series

Philip Weinstein, the Alexander Griswold Cummins Professor of English Emeritus at Swarthmore College, will present a six-part seminar discussing short story collections from six American writers. Programs will be held online via Zoom on six Wednesday evenings from 6pm - 7:30pm, beginning November 16th. Prior to the first class, registered participants will receive a welcome email with Zoom access information. 

***

To go from Ernest Hemingway to Elizabeth Strout is not quite 100 years, but it is certainly enough time for us to come to grips with how brilliantly American writers have deployed the shorter form.  We begin with two "masters"--Hemingway (In Our Time, 1925) and Faulkner (a selection of his finest stories, written in the 1930s).  Everyone who comes after them is affected, one way or another, by the power of their work. But, while Raymond Carver's reputation is founded on his Hemingway-like tautness, you would never confuse his Cathedral (1981) with anything by Hemingway. 

Thereafter we shall read Louise Erdrich's 1st great collection of stories, Love Medicine (1984).  Our final pair of writers--Edward P. Jones (All Aunt Hagar's Children, 2006) and Elizabeth Strout (Olive Kitteridge, 2008)--take us into our current century; their careers, like Erdrich's, are still underway.

These readings are neither unduly lengthy nor unduly difficult.  You will get in easily enough; my aim is to help you get in as deeply as possible.  To that end, we will devote a separate session to each writer, so that you might come away with a finer sense of each one's typical syntax, lexicon, concerns, obsessions... I want you to turn them into your familiars--voices whose timbre and resonance will stay with you long after this course. 

We will be alert, as well, to the larger "story of America" that they are each engaged in telling.  Inevitably, such stories touch on dramas of race and gender and class--of black and white and red, of violence abroad and at home--that give America's past century its unpacifiable power to disturb.

Upcoming dates and reading assignments:

Wednesday January 11th: Louise Erdrich, Love Medicine

Wednesday January 25th: Edward P. Jones, All Aunt Hagar's Children

Wednesday February 8th:  Elizabeth Strout, Olive Kitteridge

Previous sessions on Ernest Hemingway's In Our Time, Selected Short Stories of William Faulkner, and Raymond Carver's Cathedral can be viewed online: https://vimeo.com/showcase/10017344

Philip M. Weinstein is Alexander Griswold Cummins Professor of English Emeritus at Swarthmore College. His numerous publications include Faulkner’s Subject: A Cosmos No One Owns (1992), What Else But Love? The Ordeal of Race in Faulkner and Morrison (1996), and Becoming Faulkner (2009). His newest book is a collection of essays entitled Soul-Error, published in May 2022. Professor Weinstein has been offering literary seminars in cooperation with the Vineyard Haven Public Library since 2012, and is the Honorary Co-Chair of the Capital Campaign for Vineyard Haven Library's expansion and renovation project.

Register for the series

Register For "A Century of American Short Stories" with Phil Weinstein

Register for the series

Philip Weinstein, the Alexander Griswold Cummins Professor of English Emeritus at Swarthmore College, will present a six-part seminar discussing short story collections from six American writers. Programs will be held online via Zoom on six Wednesday evenings from 6pm - 7:30pm, beginning November 16th. Prior to the first class, registered participants will receive a welcome email with Zoom access information and a reading guide. 

***

To go from Ernest Hemingway to Elizabeth Strout is not quite 100 years, but it is certainly enough time for us to come to grips with how brilliantly American writers have deployed the shorter form.  We begin with two "masters"--Hemingway (In Our Time, 1925) and Faulkner (a selection of his finest stories, written in the 1930s).  Everyone who comes after them is affected, one way or another, by the power of their work. But, while Raymond Carver's reputation is founded on his Hemingway-like tautness, you would never confuse his Cathedral (1981) with anything by Hemingway. 

Thereafter we shall read Louise Erdrich's 1st great collection of stories, Love Medicine (1984).  Our final pair of writers--Edward P. Jones (All Aunt Hagar's Children, 2006) and Elizabeth Strout (Olive Kitteridge, 2008)--take us into our current century; their careers, like Erdrich's, are still underway.

These readings are neither unduly lengthy nor unduly difficult.  You will get in easily enough; my aim is to help you get in as deeply as possible.  To that end, we will devote a separate session to each writer, so that you might come away with a finer sense of each one's typical syntax, lexicon, concerns, obsessions... I want you to turn them into your familiars--voices whose timbre and resonance will stay with you long after this course. 

We will be alert, as well, to the larger "story of America" that they are each engaged in telling.  Inevitably, such stories touch on dramas of race and gender and class--of black and white and red, of violence abroad and at home--that give America's past century its unpacifiable power to disturb.

Dates and reading assignments:

Wednesday November 16th: Ernest Hemingway, In Our Time

Wednesday November 30th: Selected Short Stories of William Faulkner

Wednesday December 14th Raymond Carver, Cathedral

Wednesday January 11th: Louise Erdrich, Love Medicine

Wednesday January 25th: Edward P. Jones, All Aunt Hagar's Children

Wednesday February 8th:  Elizabeth Strout, Olive Kitteridge

Philip M. Weinstein is Alexander Griswold Cummins Professor of English Emeritus at Swarthmore College. His numerous publications include Faulkner’s Subject: A Cosmos No One Owns (1992), What Else But Love? The Ordeal of Race in Faulkner and Morrison (1996), and Becoming Faulkner (2009). His newest book is a collection of essays entitled Soul-Error, published in May 2022. Professor Weinstein has been offering literary seminars in cooperation with the Vineyard Haven Public Library since 2012, and is the Honorary Co-Chair of the Capital Campaign for Vineyard Haven Library's expansion and renovation project.

Register for the series

The Southernization of America with Frye Gaillard

 

[In person or streaming] 6 pm Thursday September 8th
Talk by Frye Gaillard, co-author (with Cynthia Tucker) of 'The Southernization of America: A Story of Democracy in the Balance'

In 1974 John Egerton published his seminal work, The Americanization of Dixie. Pulitzer Prize-winner Cynthia Tucker and award-winning author Frye Gaillard carry Egerton’s thesis forward in The Southernization of America, a compelling series of linked essays considering the role of the South in shaping America’s current political and cultural landscape.

They dive deeper, examining the morphing of the Southern strategy of Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan into the Republican Party of today, the racial backlash against President Obama, family separation on our southern border, the rise of the Christian right, the white supremacist riots in Charlottesville, the death of George Floyd, and the attack on our nation’s capitol.

They find hope in the South too, a legacy rooted in the civil rights years that might ultimately lead the nation on the path to redemption. Tucker and Gaillard bring a multiracial perspective and years of political reporting to bear on a critical moment in American history, a time of racial reckoning and democracy under siege.

This book talk will be held in-person on the main floor of the Vineyard Haven Library (masks required), and will be streamed online on Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/732525640

Special Fundraising Event with Geraldine Brooks

 

THIS EVENT IS NOW SOLD OUT

Meet Pulitzer Prize-winning author Geraldine Brooks, at an event to benefit the Vineyard Haven Library's Capital Campaign

Join us for a special fundraising event with author Geraldine Brooks, who will discuss her latest novel, Horse, based on the remarkable true story of the record-breaking thoroughbred Lexington. Books will be available for purchase and signing following the talk. This event will be held outdoors at the Historic Tashmoo Spring Waterworks Building in Tisbury.

Event is sponsored by the Vineyard Haven Library Building Fund, Inc. Reserve your place early to meet Geraldine and learn about the Library's exciting program room project.

Purchase Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/geraldine-brooks-presented-by-the-vineyard-haven-library-building-fund-tickets-399663041917

Phil Weinstein: Soul-Error Reading & Book Signing

 

[In-person] 4 pm Sunday August 7th
Phil Weinstein: Soul-Error
Join us for a reading, discussion, and book signing event with Phil Weinstein, the Alexander Griswold Cummins Professor of English Emeritus at Swarthmore College. Soul-Error explores the ways in which, stubbornly yet creatively, we go through life misreading ourselves and our world. Event will be held in-person on the main floor of the library, or in the courtyard, weather permitting. Books will be available for purchase from the author. Event Sponsored by the Friends of the Vineyard Haven Library. The library main floor will open for this event at 3:45pm. Building closed for other uses on Sunday.

Lew French Book Talk: Sticks and Stones

 [In-person, at Oak Bluffs Library]  6 pm Tuesday August 2nd

Lew French Book Talk – Sticks and Stones

Lew French is a master stonemason who finds and gathers hundreds of individual stones to create a single fireplace or an outdoor stone wall that looks like it had been there for hundreds of years. Rather than use a chisel, his stones have to fit together naturally; he remembers and fits them together in his mind’s eye. From a huge outdoor water feature at an office building near Boston, to a residential landscape on Chappaquiddick, to his own retreat home in the mountains of Brazil, each creation is breathtaking.

New to this second book on Lew French’s designs are gallery-quality, framed art pieces, puzzled together from rock and driftwood, resulting in one-of-a-kind wall sculptures. Fans of natural building and all kinds of masonry will be more than impressed.

Lew French is the designer, architect, and builder of his work. He has spent over 30 years working on Martha’s Vineyard, Boston, in the Adirondacks, and other Northeastern locations. He has built his own home in Brazil. He was inducted into the New England Design Hall of Fame in 2015.

Alison Shaw is a fine art and editorial photographer who works and teaches on Martha’s Vineyard. Over 8,000 of her original fine art prints are in public and private collections. There are 19 books of her work so far, including a book she wrote about photographing Martha’s Vineyard.

BONUS: here’s the trailer for ‘The Power of Stone’, a documentary from Salt and Sugar Productions: https://vimeo.com/308211486

This program is a collaboration between the Oak Bluffs and Vineyard Haven Libraries.

POSTPONED Author Talk: The Southernization of America

THIS EVENT HAS BEEN POSTPONED, NEW DATE THURSDAY SEPT 8th @6PM

[In-person] 4pm Saturday July 30th
Talk by Frye Gaillard, co-author (with Cynthia Tucker) of 'The Southernization of America: A Story of Democracy in the Balance'

In 1974 John Egerton published his seminal work, The Americanization of Dixie. Pulitzer Prize-winner Cynthia Tucker and award-winning author Frye Gaillard carry Egerton’s thesis forward in The Southernization of America, a compelling series of linked essays considering the role of the South in shaping America’s current political and cultural landscape.

They dive deeper, examining the morphing of the Southern strategy of Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan into the Republican Party of today, the racial backlash against President Obama, family separation on our southern border, the rise of the Christian right, the white supremacist riots in Charlottesville, the death of George Floyd, and the attack on our nation’s capitol.

They find hope in the South too, a legacy rooted in the civil rights years that might ultimately lead the nation on the path to redemption. Tucker and Gaillard bring a multiracial perspective and years of political reporting to bear on a critical moment in American history, a time of racial reckoning and democracy under siege.

This book talk will be held in-person on the main floor of the Vineyard Haven Library, and will be streamed online. Masks required for attendees. 

Virtual Event: Phil Weinstein's "Soul-Error" Book Launch!

 

The Vineyard Haven Library Building Fund is pleased to sponsor an evening with Phil Weinstein, the Alexander Griswold Cummins Professor of English Emeritus at Swarthmore College. Professor Weinstein will read from his newest book, Soul-Error, published May 2022. Soul-Error explores the ways in which, stubbornly yet creatively, we go through life misreading ourselves and our world. A Q&A session will follow the reading. This virtual event will be held on Zoom at 6pm Wednesday May 4th.

PHILIP WEINSTEIN grew up in the South, taught at Harvard and then at Swarthmore, and has written nine books of literary criticism. Much of his work focuses on William Faulkner, and his Becoming Faulkner received the Hugh Holman Award as the best book published on Southern literature in 2010.

Since then, his writing has turned from a professional audience to a more inclusive one. His essay "Soul-Error" was chosen for Best American Essays 2020.

That essay has blossomed into his new book of essays, entitled Soul-Error, that explore our gift and our curse: how we stubbornly misread--and creatively reread--ourselves and others as we move through our lives. Author website: https://www.philipweinsteinauthor.com/

Register for this free event:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/phil-weinstein-soul-error-registration-311962406957

Special Event with the Author of "The Paris Library"

Vineyard Haven Library patrons are invited to join a special event sponsored by the Eldredge Public Library in Chatham!

Janet Skeslien Charles will join us via Zoom from Paris for a discussion of her best-selling novel, The Paris Library, published in 2021. Based on the true World War II story of the heroic librarians at the American Library in Paris, The Paris Library is a book for lovers of books and libraries and historical fiction. In Paris, 1939, young and ambitious Odile Souchet seems to have the perfect life with her handsome police officer beau and a dream job at the American Library in Paris. When the Nazis march into the city, together with her fellow librarians, Odile joins the Resistance with the best weapons she has: books. Switch to Montana, 1983, Lily is a lonely teenager looking for adventure in small-town Montana. Her interest is piqued by her solitary, elderly neighbor, Odile. As Lily uncovers more about her neighbor's mysterious past, she finds that they share a love of language, the same longings, and the same intense jealousy, never suspecting that a dark secret from the past connects them. 

Janet Skeslien Charles is the award-winning author of Moonlight in Odessa and The Paris Library. Her shorter work has appeared in revues such as Slice and Montana Noir. She learned about the history of the American Library in Paris while working there as the programs manager. She divides her time between Montana and Paris.

Registration is required for this Zoom program. Register

Special Event: Celebrate Women's History Month with Bestselling Author Marie Benedict!

 

7 pm Thursday March 10th
Virtual : An Evening With Marie Benedict

To celebrate Women's History Month in March, Vineyard Haven Library welcomes bestselling author Marie Benedict for a discussion of her newest book, Her Hidden Genius. The novel is about the brilliant British scientist Rosalind Franklin who, through her intellect and diligent work, discovered the molecular structure of DNA. Her research was utilized without her knowledge or permission by three now-famous scientists -- Francis Crick, James Watson, and Maurice Wilkins -- to write a paper for which they alone won the Nobel Prize. 

Author Marie Benedict found her calling unearthing the hidden historical stories of women. Her mission is to excavate from the past the most important, complex and fascinating women of history and bring them into the light of present-day where we can finally perceive the breadth of their contributions as well as the insights they bring to modern day issues. Previous novels in her thematically connected series include:

• The Other Einstein, the tale of Albert Einstein's first wife, a physicist herself, and the role she might have played in his theories
• The Only Woman in the Room, the story of the brilliant inventor Hedy Lamarr
• The Mystery of Mrs. Christie, on the disappearance of renowned author Agatha Christie
• The Personal Librarian, the story of Belle DaCosta Greene, librarian and collector of books and manuscripts for JP Morgan (co-written with Victoria Christopher Murray)

Register: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN__56GztrBQXWAQ48-GOONwA

Sponsored by the Martha's Vineyard Library Association with Bourne Public Library, Brooks Free Library, Falmouth Public Library, and Mashpee Public Library

Most Popular Books, DVDs and Children's Titles of 2021

Most Popular Books, DVDs and Children's Titles of 2021 at the Vineyard Haven Public Library

With the pandemic continuing to curtail our activities, last year was a big year for reading and watching movies. Here, the library has compiled a list of the books, DVDs and children's items in our collection that were checked out the most in 2021. Need a book recommendation? Check out our "Shelf Service" page or call the library at 508-696-4211. To receive weekly updates on all the new books available at the library, sign up for our email newsletter.

Adult Books

1. The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles

2. The Four Winds by Kristen Hannah

3. Hamnet: A Novel of the Plague by Maggie O'Farrell

4. The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

5. The Searcher by Tana French

6. Win by Harlan Coben

7. Shuggie Bain by Stuart Douglas

8. Anxious People by Fredrick Backman

9. Transient Desires by Donna Leon

10. The Law of Innocence by Michael Connelly

Adult DVDs

1. Wild Mountain Thyme 

2. Wonder Woman 1984

3. The Shoes of the Fisherman 

4. News of the World

5. The Silk Road

6. The Nest

7. Dreamland

8. The Irishman

9. Tesla

10. Promising Young Woman 

Young Adult Books

1. The Cousins by Karen McManus

2. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

3. A Good Girl's Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson

4. The Selection by Kiera Cass

5. Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo

6. We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

7. Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley

8. The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman

9. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

10. It's Not Summer Without You by Jenny Han

Children's Books

1. Seedfolks by Paul Fleishmann

2. Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus by Mo Willems

3. Kitties on Dinosaurs by Michael Slack

4. What About Worms? by Mo Willems

5. Worm Loves Worm by J.J. Austrian

6. Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes by Eric Litman

7. I Really Like Slop! by Mo Willems

8. Jabari Jumps by Gaia Cornwall

9. Elbow Grease v. Motozilla by John Cena

10. The Book of Brilliant Bugs by Jess French

"Uncanny Voyages" with Phil Weinstein Begins January 26th

Philip Weinstein, the Alexander Griswold Cummins Professor of English Emeritus at Swarthmore College, will present  a seven-part seminar "Uncanny Voyages," that will center on writers who explore extreme situations. According to Professor Weinstein, "in these readings we enter spaces where common sense collapses. Kafka prized those books “that affect us like a disaster...like being banished into forests far from everyone... A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within.” To travel with such texts is to encounter the bracing shock of uncanny voyages."

Hosted on Zoom by Lifelong Learning Swarthmore and Vineyard Haven Public Library, the class will take place every two weeks on Wednesdays from 7:00-8:30 pm, January 26th - April 20th, 2022. Zoom login will be sent to registered library participants prior to the first session on January 26th. To register through the library, visit https://bit.ly/3mCbuds

Class dates and reading selections appear below. 

7pm Wednesday January 26, 2022
Søren Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling

7pm Wednesday February 9, 2022
Fyodor Dostoevsky, Notes from Underground

7pm Wednesday February 23, 2022
Friedrich Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morals

7pm Wednesday March 9, 2022
Sigmund Freud, Civilization and Its Discontents & Essay, "The Uncanny"

7pm Wednesday March 23, 2022
Franz Kafka, Metamorphosis, & Stories (selections below)

• The Judgment
• In the Penal Colony
• A Report to an Academy
• A Country Doctor
• A Starvation Artist
• Jackals and Arabs

7pm Wednesday April 6, 2022

William Faulkner, As I Lay Dying

7pm Wednesday April 20, 2022
Flannery O'Connor, Stories (selections below)

• A Good Man is Hard to Find
• The Life You Save May Be Your Own
• The River
• The Displaced Person
• The Artificial Nigger
• Good Country People
• Greenleaf
• Everything that Rises Must Converge
• Revelation