Nut Grass by James Hagerty
Author James Hagerty is looking forward to having us visit him on February 5th at 7pm at his house and studio in Morongo Valley. He was raised on a farm in Thermal, California in the 1950’s and wrote his book, Nut Grass, about the dramatic travails of a rather dysfunctional migrant farm worker family who lived there for a while. Hard copies of this book have dried up recently, but it is available digitally on Amazon, and a few used copies are floating around on Alibris and Abe books. If you want a new paperback, contact me at kipfjeld@gmail.com. The author has kindly provided me with a limited supply which I can mail to you for $20, including postage, in the USA.
To get to James’ house from Joshua Tree, take Hwy 62 west and just before you get to downtown Morongo Valley, turn right on Valley View street, I’ll have the white Book Club sign out. Drive about a mile and turn left on Aspen Dr and go for about another mile. You will be looking for 49988 Aspen Dr on your right. Be careful when using your GPS on this one, it could get you into trouble. We will be meeting in the music room where James promises to play jazz on the grand piano for us! If you are coming from Palm Springs, the highway now has a barrier that prevents left turns in front of Valley View, so you will have to go about a mile and turn around. See you in Morongo Valley! –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.
