Lake Tahoe 

pairs well with Gold diggers & how much of these hills is gold

This golden cocktail of stories will be just the accompaniment you need for your trip to Lake Tahoe. Much like Neil and Anita in Gold Diggers, you’ll be craving more. See below for synopsis.

For all you Miner Miner 49’ers out there, yelling at your computers that there was little gold found at Lake Tahoe, you’re right. Lake Tahoe is technically outside of the gold districts of the Sierras. But your gold lust can be satiated within an hour drive to foothills in the West.

Put down your books, hop in the rental car, and drive to these sites within 1 hour:

·  South Fork American River near Placerville

·  North Fork American River and Bear River

·  South Yuba River and the historic mining towns of Nevada City and Grass Valley 

·  Countless small creeks in the Tahoe National Forest and El Dorado National Forest

Or stay on the pristine beach of Lake Tahoe and satisfy your gold lust with a metal detector. It’ll look great with your swimsuit. There are 20 million visitors per year to the Tahoe area with sunscreen-greased hands. A diamond ring or two is sure to go missing. Just remember, you’ll be competing with serious hunters like these.

Looking back over these pictures, I’m reminded of my fear of lakes, and for good reason. Lake Tahoe is 1,200 feet deep. Who knows what scary marine life is waiting to nibble on your untanned legs? Think about the potential body count at the bottom of that lake. Don’t worry, a quick Google search tells me that microorganisms and larger marine animals still feed on the dead people in Tahoe, despite the cold temperatures. Maybe I should have recommended a horror novel?

Gold Diggers, as described on Goodreads, is an Indian-American magical realist coming of age story, spanning two continents, two coasts, and four epochs, in razor sharp and deeply funny prose.

Neil Narayan, a floundering second-generation teenager growing up in the Bush-era Atlanta suburbs, is authentic, funny, and smart. He just doesn't share the same drive as everyone around him. His perfect older sister is headed to Duke. His parents' expectations for him are just as high. He tries to want this version of success, but mostly, Neil just wants his neighbor across the cul-de-sac, Anita Dayal.

But Anita has a secret: she and her mother Anjali have been brewing an ancient alchemical potion from stolen gold that harnesses the ambition of the jewelry's original owner. Anita just needs a little boost to get into Harvard. But when Neil--who needs a whole lot more--joins in the plot, events spiral into a tragedy that rips their community apart.

Ten years later, Neil is an oft-stoned Berkeley history grad student studying the California gold rush. His high school cohort has migrated to Silicon Valley, where he reunites with Anita and resurrects their old habit of gold theft--only now, the stakes are higher. Anita's mother is in trouble, and only gold can save her. Anita and Neil must pull off one last heist.

How Much of These Hills is Gold, as summarized by Goodreads, is set in the end of the American gold rush. Newly orphaned children of immigrants, Lucy and Sam are suddenly alone in a land that refutes their existence. Fleeing the threats of their western mining town, they set off to bury their father in the only way that will set them free from their past. Along the way, they encounter giant buffalo bones, tiger paw prints, and the specters of a ravaged landscape as well as family secrets, sibling rivalry, and glimpses of a different kind of future.

Both epic and intimate, blending Chinese symbolism and re-imagined history with fiercely original language and storytelling, How Much of These Hills Is Gold is a haunting adventure story, an unforgettable sibling story, and the announcement of a stunning new voice in literature. On a broad level, it explores race in an expanding country and the question of where immigrants are allowed to belong. But page by page, it's about the memories that bind and divide families, and the yearning for home.