Fall festival
Arts and literary devotees in Western Massachusetts are throwing what amounts to a four-month-long book party. Beginning this month, BookMarks: A Celebration of the Art of the Book features exhibitions and programs that offer the chance to explore the region's literary heritage; meet local writers, artists, and bookbinders of national renown; and ponder the future of the book.
Museums10, the consortium of museums sponsoring BookMarks, includes the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art and the Emily Dickinson Museum, in Amherst.
In addition to an exhibit of Tony DiTerlizzi's illustrations for his and Holly Black's "The Spiderwick Chronicles," which is being adapted for film, highlights range from a marathon reading of Emily Dickinson's 1,789 poems and a performance of NPR's "Selected Shorts," with actors from stage, screen, and TV bringing short stories to life, to readings by Richard Russo and Andrea Barrett and a talk by illustrator and printmaker Barry Moser, creator of the BookMarks logo (above). Details at museums10.org/BookMarks.
An incendiary tale
The staff at historic writers' homes can be forgiven for feeling a little nervous this week. Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill is publishing "An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England," by Brock Clarke. The novel is the purported memoir of Sam Pulsifer, who spends 10 years in prison for burning down Emily Dickinson's house in Amherst.
Early in the year, as a publicity stunt, the publisher circulated a letter asking Pulsifer to burn down Edith Wharton's home. Staffers at the Mount, Wharton's home in Lenox, laughed it off after checking in with the state police and might even host Clarke for a reading this fall.
Vineyard diversions
Business at Bunch of Grapes Bookstore on Martha's Vineyard is winding down. The year-round island population of 22,000 swells to well over 100,000 in the summer, according to owner Jon Nelson, a sixth-generation islander. And an unusually high proportion of residents are writers, among them Richard North Patterson, Tom Clancy, and David McCullough.
In addition to selling books at private author parties, the bookstore has hosted readings by authors on subjects as various as the Martha Vineyard diet, the future of New Orleans, and the science of air.
Home-grown favorites this summer included "Double Murder on Martha's Vineyard," by Cynthia Riggs, a mystery writer who runs a bed-and-breakfast, and "Delish!," a cookbook featuring recipes from novels by the late Philip R. Craig. His signature character is J. W. Jackson, an island resident who solves murders in his spare time - and loves to cook.
Coming out
"The Reincarnationist," by M. J. Rose (Mira)
"One City: A Declaration of Interdependence," by Ethan Nichtern (Wisdom)
"The New Kid," by Eliot Schrefer (Simon & Schuster)
Pick of the week
Ellyne Raeuber of the Bookloft, in Great Barrington, recommends "The Kings of New York: A Year Among the Geeks, Oddballs, and Geniuses Who Make Up America's Top High School Chess Team," by Michael Weinreb (Gotham): " 'There are 85 billion ways to play the first four moves of a chess game,' writes Weinreb in this totally entertaining, informative, and thought-provoking book. It seemed that every few pages presented some new revelation, be it about chess in Russia or in the N.Y. City school system."
Jan Gardner can be reached at JanLGardner@yahoo.com.
