Author Events

Venue: St. Louis County Library 

An Oprah Book Club selection, Wild is a blazingly honest memoir: the story of an eleven-hundred-mile solo hike that broke down a young woman reeling from catastrophe--and built her back up again. Wild captures the terrors and pleasures of Chery Strayed's journey that maddened, strengthened, and ultimately healed her. Cheryl Strayed will speak as part of Read St. Louis, a community-wide initiative develped by the St. Louis area library systems to encourage St. Louisans to read and discuss great books.

Venue: Maryville University Library 

Elizabeth Strout "animates the ordinary with astonishing force," wrote The New Yorker on the publication of her Pulitzer Prize-winning Olive Kitteridge. Tender, tough-minded, loving, and deeply illuminating about the ties that bind us to family and home, The Burgess Boys follows brothers Jim and Bob Burgess, who escaped from their Maine hometown as soon as they possibly could after their father's death... until Susan--the Burgess sibling who stayed behind--urgently calls them home to help with her troubled teenage son. Maryville Talks Books is sponsored by Left Bank Books, Maryville University, St. Louis Public Radio, and HEC-TV.

Venue: St. Louis Public Library - Central Branch 

Clean is a myth-shattering look at drug abuse by David Sheff, the #1 New York Times best-selling author of Beautiful Boy. Based on the latest research in psychology, neuroscience, and medicine, Clean is a leap beyond the traditional approaches to prevention and treatment and the mental illnesses that usually accompany it. Clean offers clear, cogent counsel for parents and others who want to prevent drug problems and for addicts and their loved ones no matter what stage of the illness they're in. But it is also a book for all of us--a powerful rethinking of the greatest public health challenge of our time.

Venue: Missouri Athletic Club Please join Assistance League St. Louis for their Eighth Annual Authors Brunch, this year featuring guest author John Searles and local author Antony John. British-born author Antony John has a Ph.D. in Classical Music Composition and is popular among the young adult genre with novels including Five Flavors of Dumb and Elemental. Tickets are $60 and $100 and must be purchased in advance by calling 636.227.6200 or visiting stlouis.assistanceleague.org.*NOTE - The original program included Thrity Umrigar.  She is unable to attend. 

Venue: St. Louis County Library 

Award-winning sports writer Michael MacCambridge presents the definitive biography of one of our most beloved sporting figures: Lamar Hunt, the soft-spoken owner of the Kansas City Chiefs whose audacious challenge to the NFL transformed the landscape of American sports. Drawing on Hunt's personal papers and more than 200 interviews, MacCambridge provides an intimate, original portrait of Lamar Hunt.

Venue: Left Bank Books - Central West End 

Join Shakespeare Festival Reads in celebrating the Bard's birthday as Laura Bates discusses and signs Shakespeare Saved My Life. Just as Larry Newton, one of the most notorious inmates at Indiana Federal Prison, was trying to break out of jail, Dr. Laura Bates was trying to break in. Now, a decade later, her Shakespeare in Shackles program has been lauded by academics and prison communities alike. In this profound illustration of the enduring lessons of Shakespeare through the ten-year relationship of Bates and Newton, an amazing testament to the power of literature emerges. Shakespeare Festival Reads is a public reading group hosted by Left Bank Books and Shakespeare Festival St. Louis, designed to read the works of William Shakespeare, fictional adaptations of his plays, and relevant non-fiction.

Venue: St. Louis Public Library - Schlafly Branch 

In this examination of the doctor-patient relationship, Drs. Wen and Kosowsky argue that diagnosis, once the cornerstone of medicine, is fast becoming a lost art, with grave consequences. Using real-life stories of cookbook-diagnoses-gone-bad, the doctors illustrate how active patient participation can prevent mistakes. In the pursuit for the best medical care available, readers can't afford to miss out on these inside tips and more.

Venue: Left Bank Books - Central West End 

In Haunted Route 66: Ghosts of America's Legendary Highway, author Richard Southall brings you across the country to investigate over 100 ghostly hot spots filled with fascinating facts and lingering spirits. History's most well-known figures traveled along the route--Al Capone, John dillinger, Charlie Chaplin--and left many ghosts behind. Join us for a night of interesting pop-culture and spooky stories.

Venue: St. Louis County Library 

A Cold and Lonely Place, the sequel to Learning to Swim, by Sara Henry follows Troy Chance on a powerful emotional journey as she discovers the damage left by long-hidden secrets and catches a glimpse of what might have been. Troy is snapping photos of the Saranac Lake Winter Carnival ice palace when she finds the dead body of a man she knows. Ultimately, she must decide which secrets should be exposed and how far her own loyalty can reach.

Venue: Mad Art Gallery 

Enjoy performances and learn about contemporary circus in this Circus Now! event with Duncan Wall, author of The Ordinary Acrobat. The evening will include performances, audio and visual presentations, and a book signing. The Ordinary Acrobat is an utterly charming account of Duncan Walls's novice plunge into the strange and wonderful world of contemporary circus, and a nostalgic look back at circus history and inside the current Cirque du Soleil-fueled phenomenon. Tickets are $5 to attend, and if you are interested in a copy of The Ordinary Acrobat, we will apply that $5 toward the price of a book at the event. Tickets are available at circusnow.brownpapertickets.com.