Books & Ideas
Normally I don’t like sequels. I often find them to be inferior products. So when John Potter asked me to review On the Track of the Monmouth’s Galleon, I said yes with some dread. The book is a sequel to his autobiographical book My First Nine Lives. It continues Mr. Potter’s story from 1954 to 1958. But On the Track is a new story, and it is good.
Poets and musicians will gather at Featherstone on Thursday, June 19, to commemorate the season. Martha’s Vineyard poet laureate Lee McCormack and Edgartown’s poet laureate Steve Ewing will join poets from Cleveland House and the poets’ collective. Music and dance performances round out the night.
Renaissance House will once again hold free writers’ salons on Tuesdays, beginning June 17 at 7:30 p.m. with John Hough Jr. and his latest book, Little Bighorn.
Renaissance House provides writers and artists with a retreat to focus on their projects. Held at Renaissance House, 31 Pennacook avenue in Oak Bluffs, the salons feature authors talking about their work, and they always end with dessert.
Other writers over the summer include Pat Williams, Jessica Harris and poets Dan Waters, Justin Ahren and Mike West.
James Joyce’s The Dubliners is the subject of a lecture presented by Philip Weinstein at the Vineyard Haven library at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, June 25.
Mr. Weinstein is a professor at Swarthmore College and promises the only homework for the lecture is to carefully read the stories: The Sisters, A little Cloud, Counterparts and The Dead.
Copies of The Dubliners are available at the front desk at the library and there are no reservations necessary to attend the lecture. For more information, call 508-696-4211 or visit vhlibrary.org.
