The Devil’s Highway by Luis Alberto Urrea
When I recently learned about The Devil’s Highway by Luis Alberto Urrea I knew we had to get this serious desert book in front of our readers. This is a true tale of desert tragedy and survival when 26 men crossed the border from Mexico to Arizona through some of the toughest conditions one can imagine in May of 2001. We will be gathering at 7:00 pm, November 5th in Friendship Hall at the Joshua Tree Retreat Center. This is a new location for us and I can’t wait to try it out!
The Joshua Tree Retreat Center is at 59700 Twentynine Palms Hwy. just east of the traffic light at Yucca Mesa on the north side of the road. I will have my white Book Club signs to guide you to Friendship Hall from the main entrance. For those of you somewhat familiar with the campus, it’s near the swimming pool. Look forward to seeing you there, as always.
For the December Book Club at my place, get yourself a copy of Rancho Costa Nada by Phil Garlington. I believe it is available for free on the author’s web site, but the pictures in the print version are super. For January, we will be at Bernard Liebov’s BOXO House and reading The Desert by Brandon Shimoda. It’s poetry and prose, hot off the press!
–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.
