Books & Ideas
By LIZ DURKEE
NIGHTTIDE ON A VINEYARD FARM. Lyric by Patty Schaal, Illustrations by Margot Datz. Vineyard Stories, Edgartown, 2010. $21.95, hardcover.
Sadly, I am no longer a child. Far from it. I may act like one at inappropriate times, but that’s a skill that probably hinders rather than helps write a children’s book review.
But I’ll have at it. Reviewing other people’s artistic creations is far easier than creating one’s own.
Some years ago, as a fresh washashore, I made the mistake of honking my car horn.
It was at the blinker, coming from Vineyard Haven on an off-season day. There were but two cars: mine, and that of the woman in front who had been unaccountably stopped, for maybe a minute, maybe less. I didn’t lean aggressively on the horn, just a little beep, to say “I’m here.”
Richard L. Taylor, professor of business, law and ethics at Suffolk University in Boston, will be speaking at Union Chapel on Sunday, July 4 at 10 a.m. The title of his talk is The Declaration of Independence: A 21st Century Perspective.
Bargain With the Devil
Harvard University professor Robert Mnookin will discuss his new book, Bargaining with the Devil, in a 7:30 p.m. program on Thursday, July 1, at the Hebrew Center in Vineyard Haven.
Gilded Age Gardener
Landscape historian, author and Vineyard gardener Judith Tankard offers a look at the life and work of Beatrix Farrand, one of the foremost landscape designers of the early 1900s, at the Polly Hill Arboretum on Wednesday, June 30 at 7:30 p.m.
Born into a prominent New York family, Ms. Farrand eschewed the social life of the gilded age to pursue her passion for landscape and plants.
The Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing will be offering a weeklong workshop from July 25 to 30. There will be morning and afternoon workshops devoted to studying technique and editing manuscripts, plus evening readings, receptions and panel discussions.
University creative writing teachers, literary journal editors and published authors will be on hand to help students move from conception to published story, book or poem.