Authors Cynthia Riggs and Tom Dresser will celebrate their mysteries on Tuesday, August 12, at 5 p.m. at the West Tisbury library.

Ms. Riggs, a 13th-generation Islander, lives in West Tisbury in her family homestead, now a bed-and-breakfast for poets and writers. Double Murder on Martha’s Vineyard combines her first two books, Deadly Nightshade and The Cranefly Orchid Murders. Her ninth book is scheduled for release next year. All of her books feature 92-year-old Victoria Trumbull, a poet sleuth based on Cynthia’s mother, Dionis Coffin Riggs.

Political commentator, George Mason University professor and author Michael Fauntroy will discuss his book, Republicans and the Black Vote, a historical look at the GOP and black voters, on Thursday, August 14, at 5 p.m. as part of the Chilmark Free Public Library adult evening series. The free talk is open to the public, hosted by the library and Friends of the Library. Books will be available for purchase at the event.

How do Jules Feiffer’s early comic strips hold up after half a century? For over 40 years, beginning in 1956, his provocative, often ironic cartoons appeared weekly in the Village Voice. Fantagraphics Books has just published Explainers ($28.99 hardcover), a complete collection of the first 10 years’ worth, from 1956 to 1966. The strips deal with politics and the battle of the sexes in an era when intellectuals obsessed about Marx and Freud and when humor might arise from observing hypocrisy in people’s politics and their intimate relationships.

Bridge to Baseball

Walk-offs, Last Licks, and Final Outs: Baseball’s Grand (and-not-so-grand) Finales is the title of former Sports Illustrated baseball writer Jim Kaplan’s latest book — and an evening talk he’s giving Wednesday, August 6, at 7 p.m. at the West Tisbury Library.

Mr. Kaplan will chat about the connection between baseball and bridge, which he describes as being “joined at the hip.” The program will include a trivia quiz and the winner will receive a free book.

Bass Talks Side Effects

Pulitzer Prize nominee Alison Bass will discuss her book Side Effects: A Prosecutor, a Whistleblower and a Bestselling Antidepressant on Trial, today, August 5, at 5 p.m. at the West Tisbury Free Public Library.

Side Effects is based on a true story of a landmark case that exposed greed, corruption and negligence in the pharmaceutical industry.

On Tuesday, July 29, at 5 p.m. Prof. Renée Bergland as its next speaker in the Martha’s Vineyard Museum’s summer lecture series.

Dr. Bergland will speak on her book, Maria Mitchell and the Sexing of Science, a cultural biography of the 19th-century Nantucket astronomer. Maria Mitchell, a Nantucket native, apprenticed with her father, an amateur astronomer. For years she swept the Nantucket night with the telescope in her rooftop observatory. In 1847, Mitchell discovered a comet and was catapulted to international fame.

Thomas Dresser is pleased to announce the second printing of Tommy’s Tour of the Vineyard, his popular tour guide based on stories shared by tour bus drivers on their route around the Island. The material has been edited to make the book more readable and useful, but the essence remains the same: Mr. Dresser surveys the Vineyard from a variety of vantage points, including history, geography, social issues and humorous tales.

It’s time to slip on that great summer cocktail dress you’ve been dying to swirl about in, and school up with other she nymphs on Wednesday, July 16, from 6 to 8 p.m. for Margot Datz’s reception and booksigning of A Survival Guide for Landlocked Mermaid’s, published by Simon and Schuster.

Island readers anticipated Philip Craig’s annual mystery novels like their first summer swim. The author died this year, leaving one last novel finished. Here is an exclusive excerpt from that book, Vineyard Chill, printed with permission from Scribner.

It was a bright, snowless mid-January day, chilly but not cold, Just right for a drive on the Chappy beaches. We could enjoy the ride and bring back several big, industrial-strength trash bags full of seaweed for the garden. Two good reasons to go. So we went.

Arts a la Carte, a new children’s arts discussion series at the Featherstone Center for the Arts, will kick off this Thursday with a bang: a Molly Bang, that is.