You might want to check the supplies of cocoa and tea, because that little taste of rain we just had portends a wet winter; it's an El Niño year.

Book lovers should be gloating “Let it rain!” because this looks like our year.

Here are just a few of the early fall fiction temptations.

Dan Brown is back with Robert Langdon in “The Lost Symbol,” releasing Tuesday, this time probing the connections of Freemasonry and Washington, D. C. Washington pols and critics reportedly are waiting breathlessly.

Book club favorite Anita Diamant, who captivated so many with "The Red Tent," gives us “Day After Night,” young women escaping to Israel from Nazi Germany.

Anita Shreve, who specializes in couples under great stress, “A Change in Altitude,” puts her protagonists in a Kenyan tragedy.

Lorrie Moore sets her post-9/11 novel, “A Gate at the Stairs” in the Midwest with a 20-year-old punster as her protagonist.

Margaret Atwood imagines another dystopia in “The Year of the Flood,” with much of the human race wiped out. (Guess: She'll somehow find the humor in that.)

Audrey Niffenegger, whose "The Time Traveler's Wife" was recently released for the big screen, follows it up with “Her Fearful Symmetry,” set in a London cemetery.

E.L. Doctorow's “Homer & Langley” examines the famous Collyer brothers, whose hoarding of old newspapers and other debris was world class. (Could have you putting down your book for a bit of tossing out.)

Kazuo Ishiguro, author of the lovely and melancholic "Remains of the Day," with another evocative title in “Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall,” stories connected by music.

Popular Spokane native author Sherman Alexie ("Smoke Signals") lightens it up with “War Dances,” a collection of stories.

Anne Rice, dominatrix of vampire novels for years, left the field for Christian themes about the time lots of competition moved in. She returns Oct. 27 (just in time for you-know-what!) with a hybrid of popular themes in “Angel Time: Songs of the Seraphim.” A killer meets an angel who gives him a chance at time travel to right some wrongs.

Sophie Annan Jensen is a book lover and retired journalist. She lives in Lucerne.

LOWER LAKE – The upcoming Old Time Bluegrass Festival at Anderson Marsh State Historic Park this Saturday will feature numerous musicians workshops that are open to anyone attending the festival.

A fiddle workshop will be led by Andy Skelton; a banjo workshop will be led by Pat Ickes and Dock Jekel, and a mandolin workshop will be led by Don Coffin and Eric Brittain.

If you are into flat picking guitar, a workshop by Jim Nunally and Dix Bruce is perfect. A beginning guitar workshop with Jim Williams is planned and a children’s song workshop with Scott Sommer and friends is also scheduled. These are both participation and demonstration workshops, so bring your instrument. Event organizers are encouraging.

The schedule of workshops will be on the bluegrass program when you enter the festival. Participants can sign up at the event, just go right to the workshop and participate, urged one of the event organizers, Don Coffin.

Advance registration is not required. “Bring your instrument, swap tunes, and have fun!” Coffin urged.

The Bluegrass Festival will be held from 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. with advance tickets selling for $15 and tickets at the door are $20.

Featured entertainers include Laurie Lewis, Nina Gerber, and Susie Glaze and the Hilonesome Band. Go to www.andersonmarsh.org for tickets and information.

Anderson Marsh State Historic Park is located on Highway 53 between Lower Lake and the City of Clearlake.

LOWER LAKE – Internationally known guitarist/vocalist Mike Wilhelm and local favorite vocalist/percussionist Neon Knepalm will play at the Tuscan Village from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 11.

Tuscan Village is located next to the Post Office on Main Street in Lower Lake.

Videos of their previous performances there as well as at the Blue Wing Saloon can be viewed at www.youtube.com/TheMonkeybeat .

KELSEYVILLE – Clear Lake Performing Arts' annual meeting will take place at 4 p.m .Sunday, Sept. 13, in the Friendship Hall of the Presbyterian Church in Kelseyville.

Members are invited to attend and to bring a friend, if possible.

Dinner and beverages will be served by members of the CLPA Auxiliary, with entertainment provided by the Lake County Symphony Chamber Orchestra, and Andi Skelton and the popular Konocti Fiddle Club.

There is no charge for admission.

As required by its by-laws there will be a very brief business meeting to introduce board members named by the nominating committee. Time will also be allowed for comments or questions from the general membership.

According to its president Paul Brewer, this will be CLPA's 32nd annual meeting.

The group was founded in 1977 specifically to encourage good music in Lake County including supporting youth music activities and fostering a local symphony.

Both these goals have been met, with the general acknowledgment that the symphony, under the direction of John Parkinson, is now among the finest in Northern California.

CLPA also supports the CLPA Youth Ochestra under the direction of Wes Follett, as well as providing scholarships for worthy students and helping to fund a new in-school music education program developed by Sue Condit and Andi Skelton and members of the Konocti Fiddle Club.

CLPA has also sponsored scores of concerts during its 32-year history, featuring world class artists of every musical description.

The next one will feature classical guitarist David Burgess appearing in concert on Oct. 4 at the Galilee Lutheran Church in Kelseyville.

Brewer asks that those planning to attend the annual meeting confirm by e-mail to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. , or call 707-279-0877.

Kelseyville Presbyterian Church is located at 5340 Third St. in dowtown Kelseyville.

CLEARLAKE – Second Sunday Cinema's film for September will be “The End of America.”

This recent, important and well-made film might better be called, “The End of America as a True Democracy.”

Author, speaker and activist Naomi Wolf (not Klein) speaks on the 10 big similarities between what's happening in the USA today, with Obama in office, and what was happening in Germany as Hitler took power, and in Stalin's Soviet Union.

In addition to the fascinating and alarming facts, there are plenty of interesting film clips. This film was released in 2008, before Obama was elected, but most – if not all – of the provisions of the Patriot Act are still in full flower.

Many of the changes that seriously reduce our sacred freedoms came in with the second Bush Administration, following Sept. 11, 2001. But Obama has not rejected them.

This film is more than a little scary, more than a little angering and quite inspiring. What kind of nation are we passing on to our children and grandchildren?

According to Naomi Wolf, only determination and vigilance will restore the US to freedom and true democracy. Highly recommended.

Second Sunday Cinema meets at 14521 Pearl Ave. near Mullen in Clearlake.

Doors open at 5:30 p.m. for snack and seat-grabbing. The film – sometimes with a (very) brief speech (as in 5 minutes) – begins at 6 p.m.

For more information contact Shannon Tolson, telephone 707-279-2957.