Edgartown Books - Store Events

Edgartown Books, a classic independent bookstore

Author Event Norman Bridwell at Edgartown Books Martha's Vineyard Welcome to Edgartown Books. This classic independent bookstore is renowned for its customer service. Our cheerful staff of dedicated booksellers are knowledgable professionals, eager to pleasantly provide superior personal attention to each customer. Edgartown Books is located in a recently restored, charming old whaling captain's home on Main Street.

We receive new books every day - you will find new items on our shelves with each visit. You will also find greeting cards and note cards, including cards and calendars by local artists. Please feel free to call us with any questions. We also welcome phone orders. Autographed books are available only by phone order or in-store purchase!

We also have regularly scheduled author signings on our porch during the summer, and also special theme parties and events, as well as special sales during the winter. Check with us frequently for schedule updates!


4th of July outside of Edgartown Bookstore.	Signing on our porch.	(L to R) Taylor, Susan, Paul Dolman (author of Hitchhiking with Larry David), and Miracle at Edgartown Bookstore.

"Christmas in Edgartown"
Featuring a day long, multi-author event!

December 10, 2011

	Saturday, December 10, 2011 - 11:00 AM Cynthia Riggs, Stephen Wesley (illustrator/cartoonist), Lynn Christoffers (photographer) Victoria Trumbull's Martha's Vineyard Victoria Trumbull’s Martha’s Vineyard is a different kind of tour book, an insider’s guide to the Island. Author Cynthia Riggs takes visitors, old hands, and fans of the Martha’s Vineyard Mystery Series to some of the places where much of the action is set in her novels, and where some of the (fictional) bodies are found. Drive or bike to special places visitors seldom see, glimpse some of the Island’s delightful eccentricities – beetlebungs, pinkletinks, and lace stonewalls. Illustrated lavishly with photos by Lynn Christoffers, and clear, witty maps by cartoonist Stephen (Step) Wesley, the book also includes poems by the late Dionis Coffin Riggs, on whom Victoria Trumbull is based. Take the book with you and follow the step-by-step tours, or enjoy the book from the comfort of your armchair. Best of all, purchase several copies to give as gifts.

	Saturday, December 10, 2011 - 12:00 PM Tony Horwitz Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid That Sparked the Civil War "Horwitz, an exceptionally skilled and accomplished journalist, here turns his hand to pure history with admirable results. Midnight Rising is smoothly written, thoroughly researched, places Brown within the context of his time and place, and treats him sensitively but scarcely adoringly."—The Washington Post Bestselling author Tony Horwitz tells the electrifying tale of the daring insurrection that put America on the path to bloody war. Plotted in secret, launched in the dark, John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry was a pivotal moment in U.S. history. But few Americans know the true story of the men and women who launched a desperate strike at the slaveholding South. Now, Midnight Rising portrays Brown's uprising in vivid color, revealing a country on the brink of explosive conflict. Tony Horwitz's riveting book travels antebellum America to deliver both a taut historical drama and a telling portrait of a nation divided—a time that still resonates in ours.

	Saturday, December 10, 2011 - 1:00 PM Alison Shaw Photographing Martha's Vineyard Whether it's ocean vistas, seashells, shore life, or quaint village life that excites the photographer in you, you'll find plenty of tips and inspiration in this thoroughly informative guide. With detailed maps and explicit guidance on locations, seasonal advice, and camera settings, you'll quickly be ready to capture the exquisite beauty of this area. 90+ full-color photographs Alison Shaw is a fine art and editorial photographer who lives and works on Martha's Vineyard. Shaw's work often appears in Yankee Magazine, Vineyard Style, and Cape Cod Life. She also teaches photography workshops around the country and around the world.

	Saturday, December 10, 2011 - 2:00 PM Saul Wisnia Fenway Park The Centennial 100 years of Red Sox Baseball Honoring the 100th anniversary of Fenway Park, this is a nostalgic and reverent look at America’s # 1 baseball shrine--the national treasure that has been home to more than 600 straight sellouts and some of baseball's greatest games and players over the last century Relive 100 years of memories in Fenway Park with this monumental book-with an original DVD documentary hosted by Carlton Fisk. With supreme photography, a wealth of memorabilia, and original commentary by three generations of Boston Red Sox players and fans, this book celebrates the stadium in style. It also includes treasures from the Sports Museum of New England—rarely seen photographs and artifacts—that enhance the nostalgic experience. Fenway Park: The Centennial is a visually stunning and thoroughly engaging celebration of this great monument and its 100 year history.

	Saturday, December 10, 2011 - 2:00 PM Tom Dresser The Wampanoag Tribe of Martha's Vineyard The Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head/Aquinnah are an indigenous people on Martha's Vineyard. Thomas Dresser captures the spirit of the tribe, tracing its survival through to recognition by the federal government in 1987. Brief interviews with elders and current tribal members offer insight into the tribe's remarkable history.
Check back soon as more authors will be added to the roster!

Summer 2011 Events

	Monday, July 4, 2011 - 3:00 PM Linda Fairstein Silent Mercy In the latest thriller in Linda Fairstein's bestselling series, Alex Cooper dives deep into the byzantine, sinister world of New York City's powerful religious institutions. Fairstein's Alexandra Cooper novels are international bestsellers and have been translated into more than a dozen languages. She lives with her husband in Manhattan and on Martha's Vineyard.
	Monday, July 4, 2011 - 4:00 PM Matt Taylor Jaws: Memories from Martha's Vineyard An unprecedented all-access pass to the creation of some of the most memorable and terrifying scenes in motion picture history. Movie buffs, special effects enthusiasts, and fans of the watershed film will thrill in this definitive volume's special features: • Foreword by JAWS director Steven Spielberg • Hundreds of never-before-seen photographs of the production's inner workings, taken by local participants and bystanders, as well as a detailed account of how the filmmakers chose Martha's Vineyard as their shooting location • Recollections of local crew and cast members • Newly illustrated schematics by JAWS Production Designer Joe Alves explaining the intricacies of the revolutionary sea sled fin mechanism, as well as his original 1974 storyboards
	Tuesday, July 5, 2011 - 11:00 AM Geraldine Brooks Caleb's Crossing Once again, Geraldine Brooks takes a remarkable shard of history and brings it to vivid life. In 1665, a young man from Martha's Vineyard became the first Native American to graduate from Harvard College. Upon this slender factual scaffold, Brooks has created a luminous tale of love and faith, magic and adventure. "Splendid...Brooks brings the 1660s to life to life with evocative period detail, intriguing characters, and a compelling story." - Publisher's Weekly
	Tuesday, July 12, 2011 - 2:00 PM William Martin City of Dreams William Martin, The New York Times bestselling author of nine novels, is best known for his historical fiction, which has chronicled the lives of the great and the anonymous in American history while bringing to life legendary American locations, from Cape Cod to Annapolis to The City of Dreams.
	Tuesday, July 12, 2011 - 4:00 PM Elin Hilderbrand Silver Girl Set against the backdrop of a Nantucket summer, Elin Hilderbrand delivers a suspenseful story of the power of friendship, the pull of love, and the beauty of forgiveness. Meredith Martin Delinn just lost everything: her friends, her homes, her social standing - because her husband Freddy cheated rich investors out of billions of dollars. Desperate and facing homelessness, Meredith receives a call from her old best friend, Constance Flute, and the two depart for a summer on Nantucket in an attempt to heal.
	Wednesday, July 13, 2011 - 4:00 PM Susan Stockdale Bring On the Birds Brightly colored, richly textured illustrations and an energetic rhyming text introduce young readers to distinctive birds and their unique qualities. Susan Stockdale's children's picture books celebrate nature with grace and cleverness and have won awards from Parents' Choice, the National Science Teachers Association and Bank Street College of Education.
	Friday, July 15, 2011 - 4:00 PM Cynthia Riggs Bee Balm Murders After her new boarder finds a body while laying fiber-optic cable across the island, Victoria is hired by the dead man's sons to investigate the murder, in this tenth Martha's Vineyard mystery.
	Friday, July 15, 2011 - 4:00 PM Tom Dresser The Wampanoag Tribe of Martha's Vineyard The Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head/Aquinnah are an indigenous people on Martha's Vineyard. Thomas Dresser captures the spirit of the tribe, tracing its survival through to recognition by the federal government in 1987. Brief interviews with elders and current tribal members offer insight into the tribe's remarkable history.
	Friday, July 22, 2011 - 4:00 PM Margaret McLean Under Fire A Boston firefighter is shot and killed in the line of duty while rescuing Amina Diallo and her fifteen-year-old son. A Senegalese Muslim immigrant is arrested for arson and murder, and will likely be convicted in record time. Attorneys Sarah Lynch and Buddy Clancy face more than racial and religious prejudice in an impossible courtroom battle. A dangerous pursuit of the truth becomes Amina's only chance in Margaret McLean's Under Fire. Margaret McLean graduated Magna Cum Laude from Boston College and earned her law degree from Boston College Law School. She practiced law as a criminal prosecutor.
	Thursday, July 28, 2011 - 8:00 PM at Chilmark Community Center Nancy Gertner In Defense of Women From a "Human Rights Hero," a memoir of her illustrious career litigating groundbreaking cases Today Judge Nancy Gertner dons a long black robe while presiding over court cases for the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. But in the 1970s, when she was one of few women in a stubbornly male profession, she sported bright red suits that reflected her fearless choice of cases and her daring litigation tactics. Defending clients in some of the most prominent criminal and civil rights cases of the time, Gertner drove home the point that women lawyers belonged in our courtrooms.
	Tuesday, August 2, 2011 - 2:00 PM Alison Shaw Photographing Martha's Vineyard Whether it's ocean vistas, seashells, shore life, or quaint village life that excites the photographer in you, you'll find plenty of tips and inspiration in this thoroughly informative guide. With detailed maps and explicit guidance on locations, seasonal advice, and camera settings, you'll quickly be ready to capture the exquisite beauty of this area. 90+ full-color photographs Alison Shaw is a fine art and editorial photographer who lives and works on Martha's Vineyard. Shaw's work often appears in Yankee Magazine, Vineyard Style, and Cape Cod Life. She also teaches photography workshops around the country and around the world.
	Wednesday, August 3, 2011 - 4:00 PM Carson Morton Stealing Mona Lisa Based on the actual theft of the Mona Lisa from the Louvre in 1911, and published on the 100th anniversary of the crime, Stealing Mona Lisa is a sophisticated, engaging caper, complete with a richly imagined group of con artists and a historical mystery that will keep you guessing until the very end. "Great characters, a captivating tale, and vivid descriptions of old Paris make this debut a pleasurable read. Morton's screenwriter/playwright background ensures sparkling dialog. Bring out the popcorn and settle in for excitement, thrills, and tension. Tremendous crossover appeal for historical fiction (think Susan Vreeland) and romance readers, too." --Library Journal, starred review
	Saturday, August 6, 2011 - 10:00 AM Norman Bridwell and CLIFFORD! Clifford the Big Red Dog What child wouldn't like to have a pet as special as Clifford the Big Red Dog! That's part of the secret of Norman Bridwell's successful series of children's books. Big, warm, red, and lovable, Clifford is every child's idea of what a dog should really be! Although Clifford books are based on rather ordinary events, such as camping, going to the seashore, or the circus, when the Big Red Dog comes on the scene, things start to happen! Clifford always tries to do the right thing, Bridwell explains, but he does make mistakes.
	Tuesday, August 9, 2011 - 2:00 PM Tina Sloan Changing Shoes: Getting Older--Not Old--with Style, Humor, and Grace After twenty-six years starring as nurse Lillian Raines on the hit soap opera Guiding Light, Tina Sloan knows a thing or two about surviving the pitfalls of growing older in front of the world. From depleted storylines, to transitioning from sizzling screen diva to a mature grandmother, Changing Shoes shows that even TV grandmothers can have style and flair. Drawing from the lessons she has learned in her own life, Tina candidly shares her endearing, sensitive, and often funny, story of crossing into her next phase of her life. And, in doing so, she offers important tips on how to embrace womanhood with ease.
	Friday, August 12, 2011 - 4:00 PM Sarah Kernochan Jane Was Here A mysterious young woman called Jane appears in a small New England town. She claims a fragmentary memory of growing up in this place, yet she has never been here before in her life. Searching for an explanation, she arrives at the unthinkable: that she is somehow connected to a beautiful girl who disappeared from the town in 1853. Is she recalling a past life? "The sudden appearance of a young woman called Jane in rural Graynier, Mass., propels this absorbing novel of reincarnation and karmic balances from filmmaker Kernochan, the winner of two Academy Awards, skillfully interweaving past and present incarnations." - Publishers Weekly
	Friday, August 12, 2011 - 4:00 PM Phoebe Lapine In the Small Kitchen Phoebe Lapine, one of the creators of the popular food blog biggirlssmallkitchen.com, shares her kitchen prowess and tasty tips with In the Small Kitchen: 100 Recipes from Our Year of Cooking in the Real World. Filled with delicious and resourceful recipes for daily cooking and entertaining on a budget, In the Small Kitchen is required reading for anyone who wants to put an appetizing meal on the table. Whether you're packing Pesto Chicken Salad Sandwiches for a cubicle picnic, whipping up Three Onion Dip and Pimm's Cup for a cocktail party, or making Shrimp Risotto with Sweet Peas and Leeks to impress a special dinner date, Phoebe will show you how to stretch your imagination and your pocketbook to get the most out of your small kitchen without sacrificing the flavor or fun of savoring a good meal.
	Saturday, August 20, 2011 - 2:00 PM and Sunday, August 21, 2011 - 10:30 AM Randall Peffer Screams & Whispers: A Cape Islands Novel Young Cape Cod public defender and commercial fisherman Michael Decastro ventures to Saigon with his father, a Vietnam War vet, to come to the aid of his long-lost client and love interest Tuki Aparecio. The half-Vietnamese, half-African American diva is in a fight of her life with a mysterious dragon lady from Indochina's underworld. At stake is an antique ruby in Tuki's possession—and the mortal souls of everyone Decastro loves. Ghosts that the Decastros and Tuki carry with them from Cape Cod and Southeast Asia will have their day.
	Tuesday, August 23, 2011 - 2:00 PM Kib Bramhall Bright Waters, Shining Tides Kib Bramhall, holder of multiple world fishing records and a well-known painter and writer, offers part art book and part fishing history. It includes eleven essays and fifty photos and illustrations and will appeal to those as interested nature and the outdoors as they are in fishing. Bramhall illustrates his essays with his own beautiful paintings.
	Wednesday, August 24, 2011 - 4:00 PM J.B. Spooner Little Black Dog series: The Story of the Little Black Dog The Little Black Dog Buccaneer The Little Black Dog Has Puppies Seafaring dog and her adventures on the Martha's Vineyard schooner the Shenandoah. When his friend Eddie gave him an orphaned puppy, Captain Bob Douglas did not expect to keep her for more than a night. Instead she became his longtime companion and a symbol of the island. Children and adults will love these heartwarming stories about a crusty Yankee sea captain and the little black puppy who won his heart and became a New England legend.
	Saturday, August 27, 2011 - 4:00 PM Jim Kaplan The Greatest Game Ever Pitched It would have been enough just to see them pitch. Taking the mound at San Francisco's Candlestick Park that summer night in 1963 were 42-year-old Warren Spahn and 25-year-old Juan Marichal the embodiment of an ageless wonder headed for the Hall of Fame and a whirling wunderkind making his own case for immortality. But as one scoreless inning followed another en route to a 16th-inning climax, the 15,921 fans in attendance began to sense that they were watching a pitching duel for the ages. As a result, The Greatest Game Ever Pitched is a dual biography with an unforgettable game woven through it, and a baseball gem in its own right. Jim Kaplan is the author of 19 books, including 13 on baseball. Kaplan has been called the poet laureate of fielding by George Will. Kaplan graduated from Yale with a B.A. in history and earned a Master's from Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism. He spent 16 years at Sports Illustrated then turned to freelance writing.

Previous Events

	Saturday, December 11, 2010 - 11:00 AM Margo Datz Nighttide Nighttide on a Vineyard Farm is a children's story that combines Patty Schaal's delightful prose with Margot Datz's beautiful illustrations.
	Saturday, December 11, 2010 - 12:00 PM Catherine Walthers Soup + SIdes Catherine Walthers, an award-winning journalist and food writer, is co-author of the cookbook Greens, Glorious Greens. She has worked for the past 15 years as a private chef and cooking instructor in the Boston area and on Martha's Vineyard. She is the food editor of Martha's Vineyard Magazine.
	Saturday, December 11, 2010 - 12:00 PM Susan Klein and Alan Brigish Martha's Vineyard Now & Zen Martha's Vineyard was once a little-known haven. The Island, though transformed, is still a stunning place. Martha's Vineyard - Now & Zen was created as much for the first-time visitor as for the Island-born, as much for those who have been vacationing here for generations as for those who live here year-round.
	Saturday, December 11, 2010 - 1:00 PM Edo Potter Pimpneymouse: The Last Farm on Chappaquiddick The other island of Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, has for almost 80 years occupied and fascinated Edo Potter. This is a book for anyone who has stood on Memorial Wharf in the old whaling village of Edgartown and watched the On Time ferries ply the channel to what's locally known as Chappy and wondered what goes on over there.
	Saturday, December 11, 2010 - 1:00 PM Cynthia Riggs Touch Me Not Victoria Trumbull, the ninety-two-year-old poet/sleuth, is back in another entertaining mystery, set in beautiful Martha's Vineyard. A mathematical knitters group is working on a coral reef quilt for a competition to draw attention to global warming. When a telephone stalker begins preying on their members, they become terrified and distracted and turn to Victoria Trumbull for help. Cynthia Riggs has once again created a suspenseful mystery with a cast of eccentric and memorable Island characters, bringing the rich setting of Martha's Vineyard to life.
	Saturday, December 11, 2010 - 2:00 PM Tom Dunlop and Alison Shaw Schooner "(I found) both joy and beauty in the pages of this book. ...Schooner delights the eye while informing the mind. ...(Photographer) Alison Shaw found sculpture in some of the most routine objects in the boatshop." -- WoodenBoat Magazine, July/August 2010
	Saturday, December 11, 2010 - 2:00 PM Shelley Christiansen and Alison Shaw Martha's Vineyard Tile: Hidden Gems in Island Homes It takes nine special places on the Island off the coast of Massachusetts and uses them to define "Vineyard" style. It peeks inside the houses of residents and visitors to show how the owners use the most creative of design elements - tile - to bring home the part of the Island they love the best.
	Saturday, December 11, 2010 - 3:00 PM Rebecca Loescher No Turn for Tern A charming children's picture book set on the island. What is tern trying to tell Martha's Vineyard creatures? It must be very exciting. If only they would give tern a turn to tell the secret!
	Saturday, December 11, 2010 - 3:00 PM Squire Rushnell When God Winks at You When God Winks at You is packed with true stories demonstrating that God does communicate with us, making incredible things happen in our lives every single day. Through these tangible signposts from God, we receive personalized messages that reassure us, stop us from worrying, chart our path in life, and help us keep the faith.

	Tuesday, August 3, 2010 - 2:00 PM David Dosa, M.D., M.P.H. Making Rounds with Oscar "This touching and engaging book is a must-read for more than just cat lovers; anyone who enjoys a well-written and compelling story will find much to admire in its unlikely hero." (Publishers Weekly)
	Wednesday, August 11, 2010 - 4:00 PM Catherine Walthers Soup + SIdes Catherine Walthers, an award-winning journalist and food writer, is co-author of the cookbook Greens, Glorious Greens. She has worked for the past 15 years as a private chef and cooking instructor in the Boston area and on Martha's Vineyard. She is the food editor of Martha's Vineyard Magazine.
	Thursday, August 12, 2010 - 2:00 PM Evan Thomas War Lovers: Roosevelt, Lodge, Hearst, and the Rush to Empire, 1898 "In his absorbing narrative of men who found duty or fulfillment or personal meaning in a war for empire-and of other men, like William James, who feared that such a quest would rot the nation's soul-Thomas has illuminated, in a compulsively readable style, a critical moment in American history. This is a book that, with its style and panache, is hard to forget and hard to put down." (New York Times Book Review)
	Saturday, August 14, 2010 - 4:00 PM Susan Wilson One Good Dog "One Good Dog is a wonderful novel: a moving, tender, and brilliantly crafted story about two fighters--one a man, one a dog--hoping to leave the fight behind, who ultimately find their salvation in each other. Susan Wilson's clear and unflinching style is perfectly suited for her story that strips away the trappings and toys we all hide behind, and exposes our essential need to give and accept love in order to thrive." --Garth Stein, New York Times bestselling author of The Art of Racing in the Rain

Edgartown Books, a classic independent bookstore