Each summer, I [try to*] cobble together some Cape Cod-specific, -based or inspired book recommendations. The recommendations are usually from a curated source, such as a local bookstore (Where The Sidewalk Ends, etc) or reader reviews (Cape Cod Chronicle Section 2/Art Cast, etc.). Only one recommendations has truly failed me.
The short list below (and fifth “annual” as I forgot to do a 2023 list*), includes stories that take place on Cape Cod (and the Islands). Nothing too heavy; at the very least, interesting enough for an overcast day.
The Vineyard Remains, Addison McKnight
The Vineyard Remains is the second novel by West Hartford authors Nicole Moleti and Krista Wells, who go by the pen name Addison McKnight.
A thriller that explores the “dark” side of the exclusive island’s year-round population through the eyes of two women who have come to live there for very different reasons, and whose lives are forever intertwined through secrets and tragedy. This book is half women’s fiction, half psychological suspense. While there are many books set in the Vineyard, and many authors who live there, there are not a lot of thrillers.
An excerpt of a brief synopsis from Amazon: A desperate murder committed by Angela Miller’s mother tore Angela’s life apart and brought her to Martha’s Vineyard to live with her wealthy grandparents. It’s where her cousin, Kiki King, was born and raised, and Kiki now wants nothing more than to see the world beyond its sandy perimeter. Kiki’s mother escaped it. She took a late-night swim off Tashmoo Beach and was never seen again.
Historic Storms of Cape Cod, Don Wilding
Historic Storms of Cape Cod looks back at the most severe weather events to strike Cape Cod over the last 125 years.
An excerpt of a brief synopsis from Amazon: Cape Cod has always been in the path of deadly hurricanes and ferocious storms. Unwelcome summer visitors include the “Long Island Express” Hurricane of 1938, the Great Atlantic Hurricane of 1944, the twin Hurricanes Carol and Edna in 1954, and Hurricane Bob in 1991. These storms destroyed countless homes and left several coastal communities under several feet of water. Surging tides carried away houses with residents inside who didn’t survive and sank the Coast Guard lightship Vineyard in Buzzards Bay, killing all 12 crew members. Fall and winter brought the benchmark Blizzard of 1978, the nor’easter of January 1987, and the infamous “Perfect Storm” of October 1991 which delivered some of the highest tides ever seen on the Outer Cape.
The Outer Beach, Robert Finch
This deep dive into a life of discovery along the outer Cape Cod beaches from Orleans to Provincetown, is a must-read for the inner explorer in all of us.
An excerpt of a brief synopsis from Amazon: Robert Finch writes of its beaches: “No other place I know sears the heart with such a constant juxtaposition of pleasure and pain, of beauty being born and destroyed in the same moment.” And nowhere within its borders is this truth more vivid and dramatic than along the forty miles of Atlantic coast―what Finch has always known as the Outer Beach. The essays here represent nearly fifty years and a cumulative thousand miles of walking along the storied edge of the Cape’s legendary arm.
Finch considers evidence of nature’s fury: shipwrecks, beached whales, towering natural edifices, ferocious seaside blizzards. And he ponders everyday human interactions conducted in its environment with equal curiosity, wit, and insight: taking a weeks-old puppy for his first beach walk; engaging in a nocturnal dance with one of the Cape’s fabled lighthouses; stumbling, unexpectedly, upon nude sunbathers; or even encountering out-of-towners hoping an Uber will fetch them from the other side of a remote dune field.
July 10, 2024
