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Authors @ Your Library

     
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
     
 
Authors @ Your Library presents: Anchee Min

(Central)
  7:00PM - 8:30PM Anchee Min will discuss and sign her new memoir, The Cooked Seed. Books available for sale courtesy of Left Bank Books. In 1994, Anchee Min made her literary debut with a memoir of growing up in China during the violent trauma of the Cultural Revolution. Red Azalea became an international bestseller and propelled her career as a successful, critically acclaimed author. Twenty years later, Min returns to the story of her own life to give us the next chapter, an immigrant story that takes her from the shocking deprivations of her homeland to the sudden bounty of the promised land of America, without language, money, or a clear path. It is a hard and lonely road. She teaches herself English by watching Sesame Street, keeps herself afloat working five jobs at once, lives in unheated rooms, suffers rape, collapses from exhaustion, marries poorly and divorces. But she also gives birth to her daughter, Lauryann, who will inspire her and finally root her in her new country. Min's eventual successes-her writing career, a daughter at Stanford, a second husband she loves-are remarkable, but it is her struggle throughout toward genuine selfhood that elevates this dramatic, classic immigrant story to something powerfully universal. Anchee Min was born in Shanghai in 1957. At seventeen she was sent to a labor collective, where a talent scout for Madame Mao's Shanghai Film Studio recruited her to work as a movie actress. She moved to the United States in 1984. Her first memoir, Red Azalea, was an international bestseller, published in twenty countries. She has since published six novels, most recently Pearl of China. Lower Level Auditorium.
     
Thursday, May 23, 2013
     
 
Authors @ Your Library presents: Walter Mosley

(Central)
  7:00PM - 8:30PM Walter Mosley will discuss and sign his new book, Little Green. Easy Rawlins is back (almost literally from the dead after the car wreck that ended Blonde Faith, his last outing) and cruising the hippified streets of the Sunset Strip circa 1967, in search of a young black man who has gone missing. Walter Mosley burst on the literary scene in 1990 with Devil in a Blue Dress (recently named one of the L.A. Times' best novels about L.A.), the first Easy Rawlins mystery, a combustible and irresistible mixture of Raymond Chandler and Richard Wright that future president Bill Clinton picked up on, as did hundreds of thousands of other readers. Eleven books later, Easy Rawlins is one of the small handful of private eyes in contemporary crime fiction who can be called immortal. So it is great news on every front that this major figure's new mystery features the return of his signature and most resonant character. Books for sale courtesy of Left Bank Books. In the Lower Level Auditorium.
     
Saturday, May 25, 2013
     
 
Authors @ Your Library presents: Joe Schwartz

(Carondelet)
  2:00PM - 3:00PM Joe Schwartz returns to discuss and sign his new book, The Veiled Prophet of St. Louis. Schwartz shines a spotlight on the Midwest with stories that are nothing less than remarkable. His dark, gritty, visceral transgressive style is like a sharp punch to the gut, always leaving the reader breathless wanting more. His previous collections, Joe's Black T-Shirt: Short Stories About St. Louis and The Games Men Play, have captivated short story enthusiasts. With his original voice, each story strives to be different from the last, constantly examining the world through the eyes of malcontents, degenerates, sadists, and the disaffected. The Veiled Prophet of St. Louis exposes itself through the ancient art of divinity called Tarot. As the playing cards are dealt the stories reveal the horror and the glory that is commonly overlooked and dismissed as ordinary life. A lifelong resident of St. Louis, Schwartz writes exclusively, and without apology, about the Gateway City, its surrounding regions, and the unique people who call it home. Books for sale.
     
Wednesday, June 05, 2013
     
 
Authors @ Your Library presents: Anton DiSclafani

(Schlafly)
  7:00PM - 8:30PM Anton DiSclafani will read from and sign her new book, The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls. Co-sponsored by Subterranean Books. It is 1930, the midst of the Great Depression. After her mysterious role in a family tragedy, passionate, strong-willed Thea Atwell, age fifteen, has been cast out of her Florida home, exiled to an equestrienne boarding school for Southern debutantes. High in the Blue Ridge Mountains, with its complex social strata ordered by money, beauty, and girls' friendships, the Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls is a far remove from the free-roaming, dreamlike childhood Thea shared with her twin brother on their family's citrus farm-a world now partially shattered. As Thea grapples with her responsibility for the events of the past year that led her here, she finds herself enmeshed in a new order, one that will change her sense of what is possible for herself, her family, her country. Anton DiSclafani grew up in northern Florida, where she rode horses, competing nationally. She graduated from Emory University, and received her MFA from Washington University. She currently lives in Saint Louis, where she teaches creative writing at Washington University.
     
Saturday, June 08, 2013
     
 
Authors @ Your Library presents: Dr. David Tolin

(Central)
  1:00PM - 2:30PM Dr. David Tolin will discuss fear and anxiety and tell you what you can do about it. After his talk, he will sign copies of his book, Face Your Fears: A Proven Plan to Beat Anxiety, Panic, Phobias, and Obsessions. Books available for sale courtesy of Left Bank Books. Dr. Tolin is the founder and Director of the Anxiety Disorders Center at The Institute of Livin g. He is also Adjunct Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Yale University School of Medicine. Dr. Tolin has been a recurrent guest on programs such as The Today Show, Good Morning America, and The Oprah Winfrey Show. He was a featured expert on the A&E series Hoarders, and the host of the VH-1 series The OCD Project and the Oxygen series, My Shopping Addicti on. In the Lower Level auditorium.
     
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
     
 
Authors @ Your Library presents: Andrew Carroll

(Central)
  7:00PM - 8:30PM Andrew Carroll will discuss and sign his new book, Here's Where: Discovering America's Great Forgotten History. The centerpiece of a major national campaign by bestselling historian Andrew Carroll to seek out and promote unmarked historic sites, this book is a fascinating cross-country tour of forgotten spots that are connected to momentous events and remarkable individuals. Andrew Carroll is best known for creating the Legacy Project, which archives wartime correspondence, and War Letters, which sold more than 300,000 copies and inspired an acclaimed PBS documentary. Other New York Times bestsellers include Letters of a Nation and Behind the Lines. Carroll's Operation Homecoming inspired an Emmy-winning documentary, he's been profiled on Oprah, Today, Good Morning America, PBS, Fox, CNN, and Nightline, and he was featured as "Person of the Week" on ABC's World News Tonight. This program is part of Read St. Louis, a community-wide initiative developed by St. Louis Public Library and St. Louis County Library to encourage St. Louisans to read and discuss books. Books for sale courtesy of Left Bank Books.
     
Thursday, June 20, 2013
     
 
Authors @ Your Library presents: Mike McCubbins and Matt Bryan

(Schlafly)
  7:00PM - 8:30PM Mike McCubbins and Matt Bryan will talk about and sign their new graphic novel, Book of Da. Funded by Kickstarter, Book of Da is a graphic novel about a mysterious being who controls the emotions of the sea, and the deep-sea diver who dares defy him. Mike and Matt are comic creators and animators living and working in Saint Louis. Together, over their 15 year friendship, they have collaborated on two graphic novels, two award-winning animations, a two hour anthology of animation, an ongoing comics anthology in its 5th issue, four music albums, several short films, and more taco nights than they can count. Book of Da is their latest collaboration. Books available for sale.
     
Wednesday, June 26, 2013
     
 
Authors @ Your Library presents: Lynda Brown

(Schlafly)
  7:00PM - 8:30PM Are you a local author who is interested in expanding into the audio book market? Lynda Brown will demonstrate how to convert your published titles into audio books and she will discuss and sign her book, How to Convert Your Published Book into an Audio Book. This new book is a step by step guide that shows authors how to do this without any out of pocket cost, a major reason why publishers don't offer books in this format. Books available for sale by the author.
     
Saturday, July 13, 2013
     
 
Authors @ Your Library presents: Laura Nowlin

(Central)
  11:00AM - 12:00PM Laura Nowlin will read from and sign her new book, If He Had Been With Me. Chosen as a selection in the Junior Library Guild's Spring 2013 list, If He Had Been With Me shares with readers a love that will break hearts, reveal hope and leave them thinking, "what if?" Nowlin has created a powerful and timeless story exploring the meaning of human relationships and what it means to fall in love. Laura Nowlin holds a B.A. in English with an emphasis in Creative Writing from Missouri State University. She lives in St. Louis with her musician husband, neurotic dog, and psychotic cat. This event takes place in the Teen Lounge. Books for sale courtesy of Left Bank Books.
     
     
 
Authors @ Your Library presents: Laura Nowlin

(Central)
  11:00AM - 12:00PM Laura Nowlin will read from and sign her new book, If He Had Been With Me. Chosen as a selection in the Junior Library Guild's Spring 2013 list, If He Had Been With Me shares with readers a love that will break hearts, reveal hope and leave them thinking, "what if?" Nowlin has created a powerful and timeless story exploring the meaning of human relationships and what it means to fall in love. Laura Nowlin holds a B.A. in English with an emphasis in Creative Writing from Missouri State University. She lives in St. Louis with her musician husband, neurotic dog, and psychotic cat. This event takes place in the Teen Lounge. Books for sale courtesy of Left Bank Books.
     
Saturday, July 20, 2013
     
 
Authors @ Your Library presents: Annie Blum

(Buder)
  10:00AM - 11:00AM Annie Blum will discuss and sign her book, The Steamer Admiral and Streckfus Steamers. The author begins her story with a memoir of her years working on the steamer Admiral, an excursion boat at St. Louis, Missouri. The Admiral was a huge, beautiful all metal boat; not the usual kind, but one of Art Deco design with live bands providing fun and memories for over 35 years. The Admiral was also the master- mind and flagship of an historic family company by the name of 'Streckfus' that ran boats on two major rivers beginning in the 1800s. Using memories and historical data, the author tells the story of the family and especially, the story of how the admiral became the excursion boat she was. "Something on the Admiral seemed pleasing to every sense: the sights of moving river scenes, of other people, of the dancing lights in the city at night plus the sounds of good live music and of the machinery of a living, almost breathing steamboat..." Annie Blum worked on The Admiral from 1962-1978. She lives in St. Louis. Books for sale courtesy of the author.