For the months of October and November the Beach Plum Inn is offering an Island Dinner Series, which translates to a special meal featuring a menu sourced from different farms every Thursday night.

If we want written accounts of Island life before the Gazette began to publish in 1846, we must usually rely on letters, town records, deeds, wills and diaries, many kept at the Martha’s Vineyard Museum, some at the newspaper office, others at the county courthouse.

Richard North Patterson likes to think of himself as a method actor. The 66-year-old writer and part-time resident of West Tisbury writes mostly fiction, but while his characters are born out of the quiet space in his imagination, he said, their every thought and movement is grounded in research.

The Edgartown Library summer reading program this year involved more than 100 children and for the first time reached out to children at the Boys’ and Girls’ Club. The statewide theme was Dig Into Reading. Leading this summer’s readers at the library was Jason Alpert-Wisnia, who read and reported on 58 books. Brandon Engerman read 33 books and Elizabeth Madsen read 24. Reading more than 15 books each were Whitney Johnson, Sasha Kagan, Ellie Kogan, Brant Maynard, Natasha Muromcew, Mary Muromcew, Simon Rhett and Celia Schaper.

On Saturday, Oct. 5, the Living Local Harvest Festival kicks into full swing with day-long events at the Agricultural Hall in West Tisbury. The festival is from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and then from 6 to 10 p.m. is the community potluck with a dance afterwards featuring music by the Flying Elbows.

I love fall, from the beautiful weather to the change in routines, with schedules a little more ordered and the kids back in school. But with back to school also comes the annual school lunch challenge. Parents and kids have a choice: buy lunch in school or pack a homemade lunch.