Great Reads for the Sunny Season

4 GREAT READS FOR THE SUNNY SEASON

BY COURTNEY LINCOLN

At a time when many of us are missing travel and dining at favorite restaurants, Nantucket’s CRU Oyster Bar cookbook offers the taste of a weekend getaway made right at home. CRU is a favorite Nantucket eatery serving local, seasonal dishes created with French and Mediterranean influences, and founders and partners, Erin Zircher, Jane Stoddard, and Carlos Hidalgo, worked with Martha Murphy, award-winning food writer, to create the CRU Oyster Bar Nantucket Cookbook:

Savoring Four Seasons of the Good Life.

Cooking seasonally is one of the best ways to support local farms and growers, and with the help of CRU’s recipes, you can learn to make your own spring favorites at home, like Nantucket clam chowder, potato salad with capers and soft-cooked eggs, and crispy fried oysters with bibb lettuce and radish rémoulade. For those who can’t make it to the island this spring or summer, may these recipes transport you to a waterfront table complete with champagne, Nantucket oysters, and loved ones.

BRAIDING SWEETGRASS

BY ROBIN WALL KIMMERER

In a newly released edition of Braiding Sweetgrass, professor and plant ecologist, Robin Wall Kimmerer weaves together a series of reflections based on indigenous wisdom and science that remind us of the many gifts and lessons to be garnered from our relationship with the natural world.

THE FOUR WINDS

BY KRISTIN HANNAH

In her latest novel, Kristin Hannah, author of The Nightingale and The Great Alone, tells a deeply emotional, riveting story about a courageous woman in search of new beginnings after her family’s life is uprooted by the Dust Bowl of the 1930s.

GREENWOOD

BY MICHAEL CHRISTIE

For readers seeking an absorbing, multigenerational novel, Greenwood offers a completely original story structure with well-drawn characters who all share ties to the land. Christie masterfully illustrates the consequences of both reliance and destruction of nature in this evocative tale.

DESTINATIONS AND EVENTS FOR BIBLIOPHILES

LOCAL NOOK

Located just behind Edgartown Books on Main Street is Behind the Bookstore, a seasonal coffee shop and restaurant offering breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Visitors recommend the basil lemonade and the yogurt and granola bowl, which can all be enjoyed, along with your new book, in the outdoor courtyard. Behind the Bookstore, 46 Main St, Edgartown, 774-549-9123, btbmv.com

BOOKSELLER

Edgartown Books is an independent bookstore located in a restored whaling captain’s home on Main Street in Martha’s Vineyard with a wide selection of adult and children’s titles, as well as works by local islanders. Edgartown Books, 44 Main St., Edgartown, 508-627-8463, edgartownbooks.com

COMMUNITY DISCUSSIONS

Truro’s Castle Hill Center for the Arts has a series of upcoming virtual author talks for readers near and far to join. Upcoming events include Robert Jones Jr., author of the new novel The Prophets, and Sarah Anne Johnson, author of The Last Sailor. Karen Dukess, author of The Last Book Party, will spend time interviewing the author and leave time at the end for reader questions. All events are free, but donations are appreciated. Castle Hill Center, 10 Meetinghouse Road, Truro, info@castlehill.org, 508-349-7511, castlehill.org

PUBLISHER’S PICKS

LOST AND FOUND: TIME, TIDE AND TREASURES

BY AMY HELLER AND GAIL BROWNE

Provincetown harbor was also the town dump, and six contemporary artists with a keen eye for color, shape, and texture have amassed collections based on their individual intuition and aesthetic. “The book is a study of culture, in a way,” says co-author Amy Heller. “It’s a love letter to old Provincetown.”

SHIPWRECKS OF CAPE COD: STORIES OF TRAGEDY AND TRIUMPH

BY DON WILDING

Historian Don Wilding takes a look back at sea adventures and misadventures. He begins with the earliest days of the U.S. Lifesaving Service (1872) and runs through the early years of the U.S. Coast Guard during the first half of the 20th century.