Books & Ideas
There is an inherent danger in reading the essays and books of Edward Hoagland. Suddenly, nothing else compares. Not just other books or other writers, but real life too. The phone rings unanswered, e-mails amass with no reply, and social engagements are shrugged off with little to no guilt. When under the spell of Mr. Hoag-land’s prose, the rest of us talkers or writers become toddlers, mere fumblers of language just embarking on our ABC’s.
By SYDNEY BENDER
Children’s books are magical. Just ask Island author Kate Feiffer, who debuts her latest children’s book, Signed by Zelda, on Thursday, April 5, at the Bunch of Grapes Bookstore in downtown Vineyard Haven.
Her last book, No Go Sleep, arrived in book stores just last month.
Bee School
Bee School is back for the second year. The Island Grown Initiative’s intensive eight-hour course on beekeeping with Everett Zurlinden takes place Saturday, March 24 from 4 to 8 p.m. and Sunday, March 25 from 1 to 4 p.m. at Island Cohousing in West Tisbury.
Leave it to Boomer; A Look at Life, Love and Parenthood by the Very Model of the Modern Middle-Age Man, by Jerry Zezima, iUniverse, Inc., New York, Bloomington, 2010, 154 pages (paperback, $15.95)
Jerry Zezima is a funny guy. You may have read some of his columns in the Vineyard Gazette over the years. In his first book, Leave it to Boomer, he traces his life as a middle-age father and husband. When someone tells his wife and daughter that Jerry is “very witty,” they both respond: “We just ignore him.”
Sustainable Book Club
Next up for the sustainable book club is Eaarth by Bill McKibben. The book is an in-depth, sobering, yet ultimately optimistic approach to dealing with sustainability on a rapidly changing planet. Mr. McKibben has long been a leader of the a leader of the environmental and climate awareness movements, and is the bestselling author of many books including the seminal End of Nature.
The book club meets on Wednesday, March 21, at 5:30 p.m. at the Vineyard Haven Public Library.
Build a Book
Teenagers have all the fun. It’s not enough that the young adult book genre has become the go-to read for adults (Harry Potter, The Hunger Games anyone) now teens have the chance to actually make the physical book too. Who said print was dead.
On Wednesday, March 14 and again on Wednesday, March 21 Emma Young leads a two-part book-making workshop for teens. To get a more precise idea of what this means, Ms. Young has the floor.