Author Events

Venue: Central Branch Library 

Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman expose the hidden factors behind every sort of win and loss--from bringing home a gold medal in Olympic swimming to bombing the SAT. Exploring the psychology of rankings, the neuroscience of mistakes, and the DNA of fearlessness, Top Dog is filled with cutting-edge science. By enabling you to identify your own competitive style, Top Dog will help you tip the odds of success in your favor.

Venue: Left Bank Books - Central West End 

Chavisa Woods presents a technicolored vision of rural adolescence in The Albino Album, the story of a girl with an unpronouncable name--a fiery, unhinged, growling, big-hearted country girl in a dirty black tutu and combat boots who travels along all the bizarre yet familiar byways of human desire. Woods presents a new land of contemporary misfits, including fire-dancers, pseudo-Nazis who breed albino animals, horse thieves, and more.

Venue: Left Bank Books - Central West End 

Born in Missouri, Courtney Elizabeth Mauk returns with her debut novel, Spark, about the relationship between Andrea Simon and her older brother Delphie, a pyromaniac. Booklist called Spark "an absorbing and nuanced character study, and it was "highly recommended" by the Midwest Book Review. Mauk received an MFA in Fiction from Columbia University and teaches at Julliard and The Sackett Street Writers' Workshop.

Venue: Central Branch Library 

The St. Louis Public Library's Read It Forward series presents Kekla Magoon, whose featured book is The Rock and the River. Set in 1968 Chicago, this powerful debut novel for teens follows thirteen-year-old Sam Childs, the son of a known civil rights activist who questions the possibility of change after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Magoon is also the author of 37 Things I Love (in No Particular Order) and, most recently, Camo Girl.

Venue: Left Bank Books - Central West End 

St. Louisan William Gass--essayist, novelist, literary critic, and National Book Critics Circle Award winner--discusses his long-awaited novel, Middle C. It begins in Austria in 1938, as Joseph Skizzen's father, pretending to be Jewish, takes his family to England, before he disappears under mysterious circumstances. Relocated to a small town in Ohio, Joseph grows up and creates a fantasy self with a fantasy goal: to establish the Inhumanity Museum.

Venue: Left Bank Books - Central West End 

St. Louis native Ed Kovacs returns with his latest book, Good Junk, which received a starred review from Publishers Weekly. Ex-cop turned private investigator Cliff St. James has his hands full when he's called upon to assist with an investigation into the apparent suicide of a U.S. government "black projects" engineer in New Orleans. Ed Kovacs has worked for many years as a private security contractor deploying to challenging locations worldwide.

Venue: Left Bank Books - Downtown 

Two wonderful authors join us for the paperback releases of their critically-acclaimed books! Reading groups are especially encouraged to attend this discussion and book signing. Jim Lynch, author of Border Songs, returns with Truth Like the Sun, a classic and hugely entertaining political novel, the cat-and-mouse story of urban intrigue in Seattle both in 1962, when Seattle hosted the World's Fair, and in 2001, after its transformation in the Microsoft gold rush. Alex George brings us A Good American, a "Best Book of the Year" for both Library Journal and Bookpage and the story of the Meisenheimer family, told by James, a third-generation American living in Missouri; but above all, it is about the music in Frederick's heart, a song that began as an aria, was jazzed by ragtime, and became an anthem of love for his adopted country that the family still hears to this day.

Venue: St. Louis County Library 

These eight new stories from the celebrated novelist and short-story writer Nathan Englander display a gifted young author grappling with the great questions of modern life. His stories tackle marriages and parlor games, vigilante justice of geriatric campers, the nature of evil, the history of Israel's settlements, a political fable, sexual longing and ingenuity, and more. Englander is also the author of the award-winning collection, For the Relief of Unbearable Urges.

Venue: Central Branch Library 

Raina Telgemeier is the creator of Smile, a critically acclaimed graphic memoir based on her childhood, which was a New York Times bestseller and winner of the Will Eisner Award for Best Publication for Teens. Raina also adapted and illustrated the award-winning The Baby-sitters Club graphic novels and her latest creation is Drama, a full-color graphic novel set in the world of middle school theater production.

Venue: JCC Staenberg Family Complex 

New York Times best-selling author and father Bruce Feiler offers The Secrets of Happy Families, an informative and entertaining guide to help families cherish and enrich their home life and strengthen their bonds in the age of distraction. Admission is $15. Visit www.stljewishbookfestival.org for more information.