One Conference, One READ

One Conference, One READ, Book Discussion

A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore will be the featured title during the WAPL spring conference “One Conference, One READ, Book Discussion on Friday April 30 at 9:00 a.m.

Gary Niebuhr, Library Director at Greendale Public Library will lead the discussion sponsored by READ. The New York Times selected this book as one of 2009’s best, and Publisher’s Weekly gave it a starred review. From Publishers Weekly: Moore (Anagrams) knits together the shadow of 9/11 and a young girl's bumpy coming-of-age in this luminous, heart-wrenchingly wry novel—the author's first in 15 years. Tassie Keltjin, 20, a smalltown girl weathering a clumsy college year in the Athens of the Midwest, is taken on as prospective nanny by brittle Sarah Brink, the proprietor of a pricey restaurant who is desperate to adopt a baby despite her dodgy past. Subsequent adventures in prospective motherhood involve a pregnant girl with scarcely a tooth in her head and a white birth mother abandoned by her African-American boyfriend—both encounters expose class and racial prejudice to an increasingly less naïve Tassie. In a parallel tale, Tassie lands a lover, enigmatic Reynaldo, who tries to keep certain parts of his life a secret from Tassie. Moore's graceful prose considers serious emotional and political issues with low-key clarity and poignancy, while generous flashes of wit—Tessie the sexual innocent using her roommate's vibrator to stir her chocolate milk—endow this stellar novel with great heart. (Sept.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The WAPL Spring Conference will be held at the Blue Harbor Resort in Sheboygan April 28-30. Go online to find the conference schedule at-a-glance, plus the full program listing. The deadline for conference registration is April 9. Register online (where you can opt to send a check, using the receipt and confirmation email to submit to your library for payment) or print the PDF registration form and send it in.

To make room reservations at the conference center go to www.blueharborresort.com or phone 866-701-2583 and use code 7A9582. The room registration deadline is April 6.