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    To the New Owners: A Martha's Vineyard Memoir
    To the New Owners: A Martha's Vineyard Memoir
    To the New Owners: A Martha's Vineyard Memoir
    Audiobook8 hours

    To the New Owners: A Martha's Vineyard Memoir

    Written by Madeleine Blais

    Narrated by Laura Copland

    4.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    In the 1970s, Madeleine Blais's in-laws purchased a vacation house on Martha's Vineyard for the exorbitant sum of $80,000. 2.2 miles down a poorly marked, one lane dirt road, the house was better termed a shack-it had no electricity, no modern plumbing, the roof leaked, and mice had invaded the walls. It was perfect.

    Sitting on Tisbury Great Pond-well-stocked with oysters and crab for foraged dinners-the house faced the ocean and the sky, and though it was eventually replaced by a sturdier structure, the ethos remained the same: no heat, no TV, and no telephone. Instead, there were countless hours at the beach, meals cooked and savored with friends, nights talking under the stars, until at last, the house was sold in 2014.

    To the New Owners is Madeleine Blais's charming, evocative memoir of this house, and of the Vineyard itself-from the history of the island and its famous visitors to the ferry, the pie shops, the quirky charms and customs, and the abundant natural beauty. But more than that, this is an elegy for a special place.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateOct 3, 2017
    ISBN9781541484818
    Author

    Madeleine Blais

    Madeleine Blais was a reporter for the Miami Herald for years before joining the faculty of the School of Journalism at the University of Massachusetts. She is the author of In These Girls, Hope is a Muscle, Uphill Walkers, and The Heart Is an Instrument, a collection of her journalism. Madeleine Blais lives in Amherst, Massachusetts.

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    Reviews for To the New Owners

    4.5/5

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    • 5/5
      Family history mixed in with true life stories in a lovely and historic setting. ❤️
    • 4/5
      This was a really interesting memoir of life and times of a family summer home on Martha's Vineyard as it was being sold. I have spent just a little time on the island, never in the summer, but loved finding out historical and personal facts about it.
    • 3/5
      I’m a sucker for memoirs about selling old, family owned Cape Cod homes since I love the island that much. That’s why I loved The Big House: A Century in the Life of an American Summer Home by George Howe Colt. He evoked the charm, the family, the sadness when his family sold their summer home. I hope To the New Owners by Madeleine Blais would evoke the same emotions, but alas, it did not.Instead, Ms. Blais, a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, described life on Martha’s Vineyard, the growth of the Vineyard from a whaling town to a summer destination for the elite, and then, to some extent, life with her family.To the New Neighbors is not a love story about a somewhat ramshackle summer home, lived in for fifty years by her in-laws’ family, that the author is sure will be knocked down and replaced by a McMansion. It is more a psychological study of the island, the residents’ desire for privacy, the way the island makes summer guests forget the rest of the world (until a president or two decide to vacation there), the ramifications of a breach of that privacy, etc. She touches on the life of year-round residents facing many of the same issues found on the mainland. She name drops quite a bit.Ms. Blais is an award winning journalist and To the New Neighbors comes across more as a newspaper article than a memoir. If you are looking for a more poignant story, The Big House will be more your speed.