A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore

This is a tough review to write, because (like Liberated Bride) there were a lot of things about the book I liked but some fundamental flaws I am not sure I can get over.

The story is about a young woman named Tassie from a rural town who is attending a liberal college in the Midwest.  Looking to make some money, Tassie is hired by a couple (Sarah and Edward) to be the nanny for their not-yet-adopted baby.   Sarah and Edward (and Tassie) are white and the baby is mixed-race, mostly black. The first half of the book is mostly about her interactions with the family - who are not exactly who she thinks they are - and her bonding with the child.  I really enjoyed this section of the book because it was well-balanced between plot, characters, and internal monologue.  Sarah is quite a well-developed character and Tassie's inner monologue reminds me of myself in college - a weird combination of precocious, bright, cynical, and naive.

Then the book take a weird turn.  Something happens with Sarah and Edward, then also with Tassie and her boyfriend, and so she goes home to her parents.  Life at home, always stoic and bucolic, suddenly becomes uncertain and scary.  The remainder of the book takes a completely different trajectory, with dense descriptions of her home and farm and what feels like a different narrator.  I was so disappointed at this part of the book!  I felt really invested in the story of Tassie's interactions with Sarah and Edward, and then let down by the lack of closure.

What I've left out of this description (other than plot spoliers) is that there are several post-9/11 themes within the book.  I can only guess that Moore wanted to make some political statements through this book and that threw her off course.  I would have really enjoyed reading a book about Tassie's interaction with Sarah and Edward and the baby.  These other parts took a coherent story and engaging plot and made it a disjointed book.

A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson

This book had been knocking around the house for a while.  It's a memoir of Bill Bryson's attempt to hike the Appalachian Trail.  He sets out with a set of expensive gear and an eccentric friend and begins hiking in Georgia with hopes of making it up to Maine.  While he does not finish the Trail (at least not as a 'through hiker') the book is interesting and funny.

I had hiked a few miles of the Long Trail in Vermont which is part of the AP, but I had no idea before reading this how intense a process it is for people to hike the entire thing.

The funny part of the book relates to his adventures with his friend. His friend is an admittedly overweight recovering alcoholic.  Together, they subsist on ramen noodles and Snickers, meeting unusual traveling companions along the way and both encouraging and annoying each other.

Interspersed with their adventures is a lot of other information about the Appalachain Trail: the genesis of it, its famous hikers, encounters with bears and murderers, its current status, and plenty of pleasant folklore.  Bryson did have some scathing criticism of the National Forest Service, who maintain much of the Trail - he talks about logging and conservation in several places.  I enjoyed reading these information sections as much as I did his individual adventures.  Bryson did a good job of balancing the personal with the broader perspective. 

I enjoyed this and think this would be a good read for anyone who likes the outdoors.

The Liberated Bride by A. B. Yehoshua

I started this book at my parents' house because I had finished Next sooner than I expected.  Though Mom hadn't liked this very much, I remember seeing poetry books by Yehoshua in Jenne's bookcase in college so I decided to give it a try.

There are a lot of layers to this book and I believe I missed some of Yehoshua's point of view.  On the surface, the story is about a father who is obsessed with finding out what happened to his son's marriage after an abrupt divorce.  There are also several storylines and characters representing different parts of the Arab-Israeli conflict.  Finally, there is a significant portion of the book devoted to the relationship between the man and his wife.

I enjoyed reading this book most of the time.  There are a few sections where Yehoshua incorporates folk tales and poetry into the story and I was a little bored by those.  Perhaps if I had discussed this book with other people who had read it at the same time I would have been able to understand the symbolism - because I do believe that I did not "get" the book in its entirety, not that Yehoshua missed the mark.

I did enjoy reading the descriptions of modern-day Israel.  Particularly, the characters visit parts of the Middle East near Israel that are Arab several times in the book and I was fascinated by the descriptions of those visits.  I also enjoyed reading the sections about the main character and his wife because I thought they represented a realistic marriage although what do I know about what it feels like to be 30+ years in??  The main story about the son and his divorce was well-crafted.

Overall I think this was a good book but that I would have benefited from reading it with a group or at least with someone to talk to about it.

Next by Michael Crichton

This book had been sitting on my bookshelf for a while; I think I bought it at Costco a few years back.  The book is about several storylines all relating to genetics.  On major plotline was about the legality of patenting genes, another was about hybrid humans and animals, and another was about using DNA testing to assess someone's propensity towards certain diseases.


Like most Michael Crichton books, this was a quick and easy read.  Crichton moved among the storylines often (and there were a lot of them) which I did find a little hard to follow in some places.  But overall I liked the stories and was invested in most of the characters.

This was obviously a political book for Crichton - after the story he spent about 10 pages suggesting a set of policies and laws that were necessary to ensure that genes and DNA weren't misused.  Fine airport read.

A Beautiful Blue Death by Charles Finch

My book club chose this book as this month's read.  I wasn't crazy about it and I guess the group wasn't either because only two of us showed up to discuss it.


The book takes place in the 1800's in London and follows a detective named Lenox who is asked to help solve the mystery of a woman's murder.  He works with several assistants, including his brother, his neighbor Lady Jane, his butler, and some other associates. While they are trying to solve the case, a second murder occurs and Lenox then solves both related cases.

The most unique thing about this book was that while it was written in the past decade, it was written in the style of Victorian England.  Lenox and Lady Jane have some very proper flirtation and everyone has tea every day.  While this made the book drag in some places, it was delightful in others.  Lenox was charming and even progressive for his time.  There were, however, some references to the "new technology" of fingerprints that I found was too deliberate in setting the time and place.

Overall I thought the solution to the mystery was clever but not something I could have figured out myself by reading carefully.  Despite how well the setting and style were done, I wouldn't be too interested to read another book from this series any time soon.