Darwoon Dyreez by Kathy Goss
When visiting the China Ranch date farm in Tecopa, I picked up a copy of the amazing book Darwoon Dyreez by Kathy Goss. I am happy to announce that the author, resident of the town of Darwin, will be visiting us at 7:00pm on Monday November 4th at the Copper Mountain Mesa Community Center. She will be bringing an audio visual presentation including a lesson on how to speak Darwoon, the very special desert language her book is written in. You should definitely check out her website to see videos made by a native speaker! If by chance you find the written version a bit overwhelming, Kathy mentioned that she would be bringing USB thumb drives with a spoken word version as an alternative.
To get to Copper Mountain Mesa Community Center from downtown JT, drive east on Hwy 62 and turn left on Sunburst at the light. Turn right on Golden, left on Border and keep a look out for Pole and Del Oro street signs. Turn right on Winters and drive 4.5 miles and the Center will be on your left at 65336 Winters Rd. If you are coming from 29 Palms and you don’t mind tough dirt roads, you can go west on Hwy 62, turn right at Sunburst and continue on past the pavement where the road turns to Coyote Valley and turn left on Winters and the Center will be on your right.
See you at the Center!
Upcoming books: HDTS Scout Book 04 by Annelies Kuiper in December at BOXO House. Recapture by Erica Olsen in January at Kip’s house and Wind Sand and Stars by Antoine de Saint-Exupery at Tonelise’s place in February.
—Kip
Every month from October 2014 until March 2020, Kip’s Desert Book Club gathered on the first Monday of the month at 7:00 pm in the home of a different resident of the Morongo Basin to discuss a book that in one way or another touches on the theme of “desert”.
Since the start of the pandemic, Kip has been hard at work making renovations to the kitchen and bathrooms at Copper Mountain Mesa Community Center, where he is the board President, and keeping their monthly USDA food drive alive. During this time, Kip’s Desert Book Club had largely been on pause, with the exception of a few virtual meetings. These virtual gatherings allowed us to welcome the participation of book club fans from beyond our local region.
Sixty-six books, more than seven years, and one pandemic later, Kip has decided to step back from being the primary book club organizer and join the rest of us as readers. Kip, we thank you for all the wonderful and eclectic desert books you’ve chosen over the years, as well as the unforgettable stories and knowledge you continue to share (if you know, you know!)
So, we are excited to announce that beginning in January 2022, our in-person book club will resume as the Desert Research Library Book Club (or DRL Book Club, for short). Each month, a member of the current Desert Research Library Artist Cohort will select a book from the library as that month’s book club selection.
