Former Vineyard resident, fine art photographer and educator Michael Zide has been asked to speak for Bogen Imaging at the Photo Plus Expo in New York city this October. The expo, held at the Javits Center, is the largest photographic event in the country. Mr. Zide will present his collection of black and white landscape images of Martha’s Vineyard, the West Coast and the Pioneer Valley during three presentations, Thursday Oct. 23 at 4 p.m., and Friday Oct. 24, at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. The title of the presentation is Musings and Metaphors.

Ghost Stories

Holly Mascott Nadler will read spooky excerpts from her new book Vineyard Supernatural: True Ghost Stories from America’s Most Haunted Island, tonight, Friday, Oct. 24, at the Farm Institute in Katama, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. All brave souls are invited to join for a ghostly party, though, due to the spine-tingling potential, this event is not recommended for kids under 10. Cider and cookies will be served.

Katama Trio Performs

The Katama Trio, a Vineyard-based, semi-professional chamber ensemble, will perform selections from the baroque and early classical periods at the Vineyard Haven Public Library on Tuesday, Oct. 28 at 7 p.m. The event is a part of the library’s Tuesday Evening Lecture Series. Formed in 2005, the Katama Trio includes cellist Jan Hyer, recorder player Matt Pelikan and pianist Joan Solomon. They will perform sonatas by Georg Phillipp Telemann, John Ernst Galliard, and Francesco Mancini. A reception will follow the performance.

A four-week introductory class in the Alexander technique begins Oct. 27. Certified instructors Sue Collinson and Margaret Knight will lead the class.

EMILY POST: Daughter of the Gilded Age, Mistress of American Manners. By Laura Claridge. Random House, New York, N.Y. October 2008. 544 pages. $30 hardcover.

In this year-long serialized novel set on the Vineyard in real time, a native Islander (“Call me Becca”) returns home after two decades to help her eccentric Uncle Abe keep his landscaping business, Pequot, afloat. Abe has a paranoid hatred of Richard Moby, the chief executive of an off-Island wholesale nursery, Broadway. Convinced that Moby wants to destroy Abe personally, and all Island-based landscaping/nursery businesses generally, Abe is obsessed with “taking down” Moby. A series of failures has done nothing to dissuade him.