Author Events

Join us for the annual CWE Window Walk and help St. Louis children's author Beth Bacon celebrate her newest book The Family Santa Almost Forgot!

Storytime with Beth will happen every hour on the hour from 1-5pm in our children's section. There will be special giveaways and an activity for the kids.

Beth will be signing copies of her new book The Family Santa Almost Forgot available for sale at Left Bank Books! We will also have copies of Beth's other fantastic books available for sale.

Join us at 1pm, 2pm, 3pm, or 4pm.

Left Bank Books and Book Passage presents Melissa Dilkes Pateras, the Laundy Lesbian You've Seen on TikTok, for an incredible virtual event! Melissa Dilkes Pateras is the most competent housekeeper/DIY-project master/home repair genius that you've ever been sexually attracted to.

Pateras will be providing bookplates for signed copies available to order from Left Bank Books to be mailed anywhere in the country.

Watch the livestream on Book Passages' YouTube Page

Ordering the book from Left Bank Books allows us to continue bringing incredible events like Melissa Dilkes Pateras to the virtual world. Thank you for your support!

@melissadilkespateras Reply to @everydaytrace ♬ Just the Two of Us (feat. Bill Withers) - Grover Washington, Jr.

About the Author:

In addition to creating viral videos with housecleaning tips and tricks, Melissa Dilkes Pateras has worked in social services for over twenty years, specializing in behavior and relationship management. She lives in Ontario, Canada, with her wife and three children.

About the Book:

Everything you need to know about laundry, cleaning, and basic home repairs--from the TikTok star who made bluing a thing, showed you how to fold a fitted sheet, and taught you to properly use your (caulk) gun.

"[Melissa Pateras] makes chores enjoyable in her bawdy debut. . . . Doing laundry has never sounded so fun."--Publishers Weekly

Melissa Dilkes Pateras is the most competent housekeeper, DIY-project master, and home repair genius that you've ever fantasized about becoming. When she followed her kids on to TikTok, she discovered a community hungry for her approachable, tongue-in-cheek advice on everything from balls--dryer balls, that is--to why color-coded closets are a spiritual experience. She doesn't expect you to know what you were never taught, and she doesn't care about transforming your home into a minimal, beige Instagram post; she simply wants to help make your life easier.

Whether you're terrified of your laundry pile or have an inner handyperson who's been longing for their moment, A Dirty Guide to a Clean Home is a joyful all-purpose guide to organizing, cleaning, laundry, repairs, and beyond. As Melissa says, "Your home shouldn't be your adversary."

Reviews:

"Pateras, who dispenses housekeeping tips on TikTok, makes chores enjoyable in her bawdy debut. . . . The plentiful tips are often surprising. . . . Other 'hacks' are simple yet clever. . . . Throughout, Pateras's ribald humor animates the advice ('I love balls . . . in my dryer, ' she writes on preferring dryer balls to dryer sheets). Doing laundry has never sounded so fun." --Publishers Weekly

Left Bank Books presents Shellburne Thurber & Jess Dugan as they discuss the photographic investigation of the relationship between constructed space and human energy in Analysis: Psychoanalytic Interiors. 

Thurber will personalize and sign copies after the presentation!

Books are available to order over the phone for pick up or for mail out following the event. They will also be available for sale at the event. Please call 314-367-6731 to pre-purchase your copy.

About Analysis: Psychoanalytic Interiors

On the couch with Sigmund Freud--a photographic study of psychoanalytic offices in Buenos Aires and New England

For much of her life, American photographer Shellburne Thurber has been engaged in an ongoing photographic investigation of the relationship between constructed space and human energy. Long intrigued by the idea of lived space as an extension of the body and a site for projection, she has photographed a wide variety of subjects, beginning with the homes of family and friends who have passed, to generic back road motels, churches, abandoned and derelict homes and hospitals, as well as commissioned projects such as the renovation of the Boston Athenæum and the Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site. She is especially interested in spaces that are both public and private.

This volume comprises a selection of images Thurber made in 1999 and 2000 of psychoanalysts' offices in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and the New England area of the United States.

About our Speakers

Shellburne Thurber graduated from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and Tufts University. Her work has been in numerous group and one person shows both here and abroad. Her work is in several collections including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Addison Gallery of American Art; the Worcester Art Museum; and the Decordova Museum and Sculpture Park.

Shellburne Thurber has taught extensively throughout New England, most recently as visiting professor of photography at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design and was recently awarded a fellowship from the Saint Gaudens National Historic Site. She is based in Boston.

Jess T. Dugan (American, b. 1986) is an artist whose work explores issues of identity through photography, video, and writing. Dugan's work has been widely exhibited and is in the permanent collections of over 50 museums throughout the United States.