What I’m reading this week: “Cadillac Desert,” by Marc Reisner.🌵📚 California has had abundant rainfall this year. Reservoirs are full and snowpacks are impressive. We’ve had so much rain that complaining about it has become de rigeur. So why am I reading this 30-year old treatise on “the American West and its disappearing water”? Partly because I recently spent a week in the Mojave desert where every inch of the landscape is a visceral reminder that water is precious, scarce, and fleeting—even when the desert flowers are in full bloom. And partly because our return trip brought us through the Central Valley, where water is the lifeblood of agribusiness that feeds us, and where bitter “water wars” have raged for decades on end. Marc Reisner’s landmark book is part history, part warning about California’s elaborate and unsustainable relationship with water. Updated several times since its first publication, Cadillac Desert also was made into a riveting documentary television series. A fascinating and searing examination of life’s most precious resource. 🌧