Presidential Bookstore Watch on Martha's Vineyard

Shelf Awareness

Reunited on the Vineyard?

Will he or won’t he? President Obama arrived on Martha's Vineyard for his vacation Saturday. The big question now is: Will he do some indie bookstore shopping this year? Last summer, the president did not make a book run to Bunch of Grapes Bookstore or Edgartown Books for the first time in several years. His appearance at an Amazon warehouse just weeks before was cited by the media as one possible reason for the decision.

If the First Family is going to have a bookstore outing this vacation, it may not be today, since Hillary Clinton is signing her book Hard Choices at Bunch of Grapes. The Washington Post noted that the "presence of both the sitting president and his former political rival-turned-secretary of state-turned-possible 2016 candidate is sparking interest, intrigue and largely hypothetical questions about whether it would be cooler to catch a glimpse of the sitting president or get a book signed by someone who might one day succeed him."

They will both be attending the same party tonight, the Associated Press reported. Although Clinton has been recently "voicing some differences" regarding the president's foreign policy, a spokesman for the former secretary of state said that "like any two friends who have to deal with the public eye, she looks forward to hugging it out when they see each other."