Desert Notebooks by Ben Ehrenreich
Last November the Book Club convened for our first experiment in meeting virtually. We were happy to see 20 faces tuning in from far and wide, a benefit of holding space together online. Kip is eager to get back to monthly in-person meetings when we can do so safely, but for now we’re keeping it occasional.
We are incredibly excited to announce that Ben Ehrenreich, author of Desert Notebooks, will join us for our next virtual Book Club discussion on Monday, April 5th at 5pm PST!
Time is an ever stranger thing these days. What happens when “desert time” is layered over “pandemic time?” Time and the desert are topics of our next Book Club selection, Desert Notebooks by Ben Ehrenreich. Ehrenreich, an award-winning journalist, temporarily moved to Joshua Tree shortly after the 2016 presidential election. His book opens with the tragic story of a young couple who got lost in the national park in Summer 2017. The story of their found bodies broke on the cover of the Hi-Desert Star on October 21, 2017, with the driving map for HDTS 2017 featured in the centerfold of the very same weekend issue of the newspaper. Other locally specific personal musings will also sound familiar to desert dwellers, such as the experience of being “followed” by owls, or gazing at stars until dizzy with cold and existential overwhelm. Interspersed within the desert moments are diversions into philosophies of time, local Indigenous histories, and relatable anxious pondering on climate change.
Join us on Zoom on Monday, April 5th at 5:00pm PST to discuss Desert Notebooks with author Ben Ehrenreich. Come prepared with questions! As always, participation is free.
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.
