200 pages, $24.95, University of Nevada Press
Penelope Grenoble O’Malley
By Ashley King/Special to The Malibu Times
It just doesn’t get any better than Malibu, or at least that’s what writer for The Malibu Times and its magazine Penelope Grenoble O’Malley thought when she moved in 1986 from Los Angeles to the beautiful Southern California coastal community.
Her recently published book, “Malibu Diary: Notes from an Urban Refugee,” recounts her experiences on the urban-wildland frontier facing fire, flood, small town politics and her own false expectations.
O’Malley currently writes for consumer and professional publications, specializing in the topics of urban planning, land use, conservation and civic management. She will appear at Dutton’s Brentwood Books on March 27 to sign and speak about “Malibu Diary.”
Her essays have been published in Orion, Northern Lights, and American Nature Writing 2002 and 2003.
“As a society, we believe that by living closer to nature, we’ll better understand our environment and work harder to protect it,” O’Malley said in a press release.
O’Malley’s “Malibu Diary” reflects on the struggles of one small town to resolve how to live responsibly on the urban-wildland frontier.
Southern California hosts the longest direct interface between developed and wild land in the country-600 miles from San Diego to Santa Barbara. Acres of open space are officially protected, but face daily assaults from development.
Far from isolating herself from the ills of contemporary urban life, O’Malley found herself deeply engaged in a community where Realtors lusted after the magnificent hills and beachfront, Native Americans fought to protect the artifacts of their ancestors and locals, no matter how resistant to development, were forced to address such pressing urban issues as zoning and sewage treatment.
“While the rest of us run off to ‘wild’ nature weekends like concrete-crazed fugitives, Penelope Grenoble O’Malley stays home,” Ellen Meloy, author of “The Anthropology of Turquoise” writes. “She struggles to know a place where people live, where everyday desires include space and safety, a slower pace and a closeness to the land that, ironically, usurps and controls it.”
O’Malley’s discovery of Malibu has been that nature is often sacrificed as seaside residents attempt to protect themselves from development. “Malibu Diary” is a memoir of self-discovery, in which the discoveries lie in such unlikely places as town advisory committee meetings.
O’Malley will be at Dutton’s Brentwood Books in Los Angeles on March 27 at 2 p.m. to sign and speak about her book.
“Malibu Diary” will be available at bookstores or
by mail from the University
of Nevada. To order, call 1.877.NVBOOKS or visit www.nvbooks.nevada.edu.