Books & Ideas
In this serialized novel set on the Vineyard in real time, a native Islander (“Call me Becca”) returns home after many years to help her eccentric Uncle Abe keep his landscaping business, Pequot, afloat. Abe has paranoid hatred of Richard Moby, the CEO of an off-Island wholesale nursery (and Abe’s ex-wife’s new beau). In recent chapters, Abe caught Moby selling illegal invasive plants and sent a plant-sample to the state authorities to prove it.
Former CIA lawyer Vicki Divoll will deliver a talk titled Memo to Our New President: How to Fix Eight Years of Damage to U.S. Intelligence on Wednesday, August 6 at 5:30 p.m. at the Chilmark Public Library.
Ms. Divoll, former assistant general counsel for the CIA and former general counsel of the Senate Intelligence Committee, is presently teaching American government at the United States Naval Academy. She has also served as a fellow at Harvard University Institute of Politics.
Sustainable Garden Design
Class on Fly-Fishing
A fly-fishing class will be held from 8:30 a.m. to noon Saturday, August 9, at the Martha’s Vineyard Rod and Gun Club off Third street North in Edgartown.
Sandra Demel and John Kollett will provide individualized instruction. Equipment will be provided or feel free to use your own. The class size is limited. The fee is $85 for club members and $100 for non-members. For information and to preregister, call 508-693-6338.
PALACE COUNCIL By Stephen L. Carter. Knopf, New York, N.Y. July 2008. 528 pages. $26.95 hardcover.
There are some thrillers — The Big Sleep and The Maltese Falcon come to mind — where the plot is never going to make much sense, but for the reader to bog down on this point is to miss a jolly good ride. Stephen L. Carter’s new novel, Palace Council, is just the sort of book that keeps you turning pages — all 500-plus of them — until the clock blinks 3:28 a.m. in digital pixels and you force yourself to turn out the light.
Talking Ospreys
Rob Bierregaard began researching osprey on Martha’s Vineyard in 1969. Since then, he has been investigating the habits and migrations of these birds on Martha’s Vineyard and beyond. He will share his work, knowledge and passion for ospreys at a free lecture at the Oak Bluffs Library tonight, July 29, at 6:30 p.m.
For details on this lecture, call Felix Neck sanctuary at 508-627-4850. For more on Mr. Bierregaard’s work, see online bioweb.uncc.edu/bierregaard/.