I Think I'll Prune the Lemon Tree

Essays from My Arizona Life

If you are captivated by creative storytelling—brimming with vivid imagery and emotional honesty—you will love Mark Johnson’s fourth book, I Think I’ll Prune the Lemon Tree.

Set against the warm and rugged landscape of Arizona’s Sonoran Desert, it features thirty-nine serendipitous, provocative, and humorous essays. Mark’s true stories and desert fantasies chronicle his triumphs as a gay man and journey with husband Tom to build a healthy, open, and literary life in Arizona, while revisiting indelible memories from his Illinois, Missouri, and North Carolina past.

Throughout his anthology of often-tender-yet-bold essays, Mark weaves universal themes: the beauty of nature; the importance of community; the need for authenticity; the realities of aging; the anxiety of uncertainty; the upheaval of a global pandemic; and the gratitude that comes from examining all of it with an open heart.