Friday, October 31, 2008

"Vineyard Supernatural" - Holly Nadler's Book Talk


A crowd of 30 people came to the library to listen to Holly Nadler discuss her latest book, "Vineyard Supernatural: True Ghost Stories from America's most Haunted Island".

The lights were dimmed as Holly read from several chapters of her book and discussed the walking ghost tours that she leads. She recounted spine tingling paranormal events taking place in notorious Island locations such as The Ritz Cafe and The Newes Pub.

The library has copies of all of Holly's books relating to the supernatural, check one out today:

Ghosts of Boston Town

Haunted Island

Vineyard Confidential

Vineyard Supernatural

Friday, October 24, 2008

Sustainable Book Club - "The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan

On Thursday evening, the library hosted the Island-Wide Sustainable Book Club Discussion. 15 people gathered to discuss Michael Pollan's book, "The Omnivore's Dilemma".

You can find a review of the book by visiting the library's catalog, and the Sierra Club produced a useful discussion guide including links to other related resources (an interview with the author, articles, etc...) that you may find interesting.

As the meeting wrapped-up, a few stragglers continued to talk about television commercials and how they affected their parent's choices of food and consumer products. Below are some commercials from the 50's and 60's that you can watch, courtesy of the Internet Archive.

Friday, October 17, 2008

"Is Pakistan Imploding?" - A Lecture by Dr. James Norton


A group of 13 people gathered at the library to listen to Dr. James Norton lecture on a very important current events topic, "Is Pakistan Imploding?".

In this picture Dr. Norton is concluding his lecture by reading some recommendations for improving the situation in Pakistan that he had made in 2001.

Many thoughtful comments and questions were posed by the audience, some of which led to a discussion of Greg Mortenson's popular book, "Three Cups of Tea".

Please see our events calendar to learn about future lectures and events happening at the library!

Wednesday, October 08, 2008

September Book Group - "A Yellow Raft in Blue Water"

This important book by Michael Dorris tells the story of three generations of Native American women who are beset by hardships and torn by angry secrets and yet inextricably joined by bonds of kinship. We had an interesting discussion about the book's main theme of individualism: what it means and how it was addressed through the three lives of the central characters. We also came to realize, through our comments, how privileged we are to live in such comfort while there are still people who don't even have indoor plumbing. We agreed that we liked the book, although the story it told was not happy, by any means.

Michael Dorris wrote several other books before his death in 1997. He was divorced from the writer Louise Erditch, who writes almost exclusively about Native Americans and their culture.

If you enjoyed "A Yellow Raft in Blue Water," you might be interested in reading the following works by Michael Dorris:

The Crown of Columbus (with Louise Erdrich, 1991)

Route Two and Back (with Louise Erdrich, 1991)

Morning Girl (1992)

Working Men (1993)

Rooms in the House of Stone (1993)

Paper Trail (essays, 1994)

Guests (1995)

Sees Behind Trees (1996)

Cloud Chamber (1997)

The Window (1997)

Saturday, October 04, 2008

Skunk Lecture - Luanne Johnson


Luanne Johnson, Doctoral Candidate in the Environmental Studies Department at Antioch University New England, educated a crowd of 10-15 people on the topic of coastal skunks.

Many interesting questions were posed by the audience, and a lively discussion resulted.

Luanne also presented her fascinating research which you can read more about by visiting her web page.