Left Bank Books

Events Calendar

Left Bank Books brings the writer and the reader together!

Unless otherwise noted all events are free and open to the public. We request that books for signing be purchased from Left Bank Books. Please do not bring copies of the author’s featured book purchased elsewhere to a Left Bank Books event.

Title of Event: Big Read Festival
When: Saturday, October 11, 2008 9:00 AM
Location: Clayton High School, Mark Twain Circle at Topton Way, Clayton, MO 63105
Description: The Big Read Festival, presented by Centene Corporation, features publishers, book-sellers, national authors, readings, book signings, panel discussions, work-shops, demonstrations and an interactive children's area with readings, costumed characters and projects that engage the young reader. The Big Read is free and open to the public, www.BigRead.net.

Reading Groups

We have three book clubs of our very own - The Left Bank Books Reading Group, The Lesbian Reading Group and The Gay Men's Reading Group - and provide fiction and nonfiction selections for more than thirty different book clubs in the St. Louis area. All book club selections are 20% off for the month of the meeting.

For more info, contact Shane Signorino (shane@left-bank.com)here at Left Bank Books!

Staff Picks

The staff pick selection of Left Bank Books is famous all over town, and quite rightly so. We invite you to take a look at what we're reading!

The Name of the Wind: The Kingkiller Chronicle: Day One
by Rothfuss, Patrick
Orphaned protagonist? Check. School of magic? Check. Ongoing feud with a snotty fellow student? Check. Your usual fantasy tale? Che... Wait, no! Uncheck! Patrick Rothfuss' "The Name of the Wind" is anything but typical. In his capable hand, the seemingly familiar trappings of fantasy twist and transform into a completely unique and completely enjoyable tale. It's a marvelous story of a world both strange and familiar, a magic both extraordinary and pragmatic, and a protagonist who is both a living legend and heartbreakingly human. proclaimed by the Onion to be "one of the best stories told in any medium in a decade," this book must be read. Can't wait for the sequel? Check!!

New and Notable

These new books are sure to keep you turning pages!

The Oxford Project
by Feldstein, Peter, Bloom, Stephen G.
In 1984, photographer Peter Feldstein set out to photograph every single resident of his town, Oxford, Iowa (pop. 676). He converted an abandoned storefront on Main Street into a makeshift studio and posted fliers inviting people to stop by. At first they trickled in slowly, but in the end, nearly all of Oxford stood before Feldstein's lens. Twenty years later, Feldstein decided to do it again. Only this time he invited writer Stephen G. Bloom to join him, and together they went in search of the same Oxford residents Feldstein had originally shot two decades earlier. Some had moved. Most had stayed. Others had passed away. All were marked by the passage of time.
In a place like Oxford, not only does everyone know everyone else, but also everyone else's brothers, sisters, parents, grandparents, lovers, secrets, failures, dreams, and favorite pot luck recipes. This intricate web of human connections between neighbors friends, and family, is the mainstay of small town American life, a disappearing culture that is unforgettably captured in Feldstein's candid black-and-white portraiture and Bloom's astonishing rural storytelling.
Meet the town auctioneer who fell in love with his wife in high school while ice-skating together on local ponds; his wife who recalls the dress she wore as his prom date over fifty years ago; a retired buck skinner who started a gospel church and awaits the rapture in 2028; the donut baker at the Depot who went from having to be weighed on a livestock scale to losing over 150 pounds with the support of all of Oxford; a twenty-one-year-old man photographed in 1984 as an infant in his father's arms, who has now survived both of his parents due to tragedy andillness.
Considered side-by-side, the portraits reveal the inevitable transformations of aging: wider waistlines, wrinkled skin, eyeglasses, and bowed backs. Babies and children have instantly sprouted into young nurses, truck drivers, teachers, and rodeo riders, become Buddhists, racists, democrats, and drug addicts. The courses of lives have been irrevocably altered by deaths, births, marriages, and divorces. Some have lost God--others have found Him. But there are also those for whom it appears time has almost stood still. Kevin Somerville looks eerily identical in his 1984 and 2004 portraits, right down to his worn overalls, shaggy mane, and pale sunglasses. Only the graying of his lumberjack beard gives away the years that have passed.
Face after face, story after story, what quietly emerges is a living composite of a quintessential Midwestern community, told through the words and images of its residents--then and now. In a town where newcomers are recognized by the sound of an
unfamiliar engine idle, The Oxford Project invites you to discover the unexpected details, the heartbreak, and the reality of lives lived on the fringe of our urban culture.

Friends of Left Bank Books Literary Society

Left Bank Books is St. Louis' full-service independent bookstore. We offer friendly, experienced service and value our customers as part of our family. The Friends program provides booklovers with another way to support independent bookstores. Won't You Join Us?

Please Note: You WILL NOT be charged sales tax on this purchase regardless of what our e-commerce site may tell you. It's a bit quirky.

Friends of Left Bank Books Membership- Reader

For $35 per year, this membership level entitles you to receive:

Regular mailings for readings, discussions, book signings and other events of note.

$5 Gift Certificate

Access to twice yearly members-only, store wide sales: 25% off!