From Maine to You, With Sauce

Slow Food Martha’s Vineyard is hosting a community potluck at the Agricultural Hall in West Tisbury on Thursday, Sept. 15, beginning at 6:30 p.m. The guest speaker is Kathy Gunst, Maine cookbook author and “resident chef” for WBUR’s award-winning show, Here and Now. Her radio work has received two James Beard award nominations.

PIANIST, A Biography of Eugene Istomin. By James Gollin. Ex Libris. Illustrated. 474 pages. $23.99 paperback, $35 hardcover from Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

In 1946, noted pianist Eugene Istomin summered in Menemsha. He shared a house with Rae Gabis (who later made Chilmark her year-round home and was a founder of the Thrift Shop) and her daughter, Shirley. A year later, Istomin made another summer visit, in which he and Shirley played Mendelssohn’s Allegro Brilliante together in the auditorium on the second floor of the Chilmark town hall.

Irene

No turbines in the Sound yet

wind makes its presence

felt the old-fashioned way

my old Vic of a house

rocks and sways with gusts

blowouts of freed-up energy

Plants take up residence in

the safety of inside next to

hammock, porch chairs and grill

tables fend for themselves

bushes and shrubs wear Wilt-Proof

MELTING DOWN. By Harvey Stone (The Way Things Are Publications), $28.95.

Anyone, young or old, who has a summer friend, enjoys the company of the family dog, cherishes their time along the shore and appreciates the differences in life that the world provides will find Sarah French’s new book, Summer Friends (Vineyard Stories, $16.95), very appealing. Ms. French, of Rowayton, Conn., and Chilmark, is not only the author but illustrator as well. Her literary and artistic abilities truly appeal to both children and adults, making this a book that any adult would be happy to read to any child, a very important factor when considering the topic.