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St. Charles City-County Library District
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Book Club News
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Corporate Parkway Branch |
1200 Corporate Parkway; Wentzville
(636) 332-9966
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Tuesday, June 30
7:00 pm
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Tuesday, July 28
7:00 pm
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Tuesday, August 25
7:00 pm
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Around the World on Two Wheels: Annie Londonderry's Extraordinary Ride
by Peter Zheutlin
Published 2008 by Citadel Press
Paperback, English. ISBN: 9780806530666
Find this book in our catalog.
Jacket Notes:
Zheutlin pens the remarkable story of one woman--Annie Londonderry--one bike, and one incredible journey that would change the face of sports, feminism, and America itself. Illustrated.
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The Bible Salesman
by Clyde Edgerton
Published 2009 by Back Bay Books
Paperback, English. ISBN: 9780316117579
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Jacket Notes:
Preston Clearwater has been a criminal since stealing two chain saws and 1,600 pairs of aviator sunglasses from the army during the Second World War. Back on the road in postwar North Carolina, now a member of a car-theft ring, he picks up hitchhiking Henry Dampier, an innocent twenty-year-old Bible salesman. Clearwater immediately recognizes Henry as smart but gullible, just the associate he needs--one who will believe Clearwater is working undercover for the F.B.I.; one who will drive the carsClearwater steals as Clearwater follows along in his own car at a safe distance. Henry joyfully sees a chance to lead a dual life as a Bible salesman and a G-man.
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Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time
by Greg Mortenson
Published 2007 by Penguin Books
Paperback, English. ISBN: 9780143038252
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Jacket Notes:
The astonishing, uplifting story of a real-life Indiana Jones and his humanitarian campaign to use education to combat terrorism in the Talibanas backyard Anyone who despairs of the individualas power to change lives has to read the story of Greg Mortenson, a homeless mountaineer who, following a 1993 climb of Pakistanas treacherous K2, was inspired by a chance encounter with impoverished mountain villagers and promised to build them a school. Over the next decade he built fifty-five schoolsaespecially for girlsathat offer a balanced education in one of the most isolated and dangerous regions on earth. As it chronicles Mortensonas quest, which has brought him into conflict with both enraged Islamists and uncomprehending Americans, "Three Cups of Tea" combines adventure with a celebration of the humanitarian spirit.
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Deer Run |
1300 North Main; O'Fallon 63366
(636) 978-3261
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Thursday, June18
10:00 am
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Thursday, July 16
10:00 am
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Thursday, August 20
10:00 am
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Still Summer
by Jacquelyn Mitchard
Published 2008 by Grand Central Publishing
Paperback, English. ISBN: 9780446696739
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Jacket Notes:
The "New York Times"-bestselling author returns with a breathtaking tale of suspense and high adventure, in this story that encompasses the bonds of friendship, the love between mothers and their children, and the strengths they don't know they possess until faced with their own mortality. The New York Times bestselling author of returns with a breathtaking tale of suspense and high adventure. In high school, Olivia, Tracy and Holly had been known as The Godmothers, and their friendship has endured throughout the ensuing decades. Now, with the death of Olivia's husband, a wealthy Italian Count, and her return to America, the friends decide to reunite on a luxury cruise in the Caribbean. Along with Tracy's college-aged daughter and a two-man crew, they begin their journey uneventfully, enjoying the sun and the warm, clear waters of the Caribbean.
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House Calls and Hitching![House Calls and Hitching Posts: Stories from Dr. Elton Lehman's Career Among the Amish [HOUSE CALLS & HITCHING POSTS]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/4160M844VLL._SL500_AA240_.jpg) Posts: Stories from Dr. Elton Lehman's Career Among the Amish
by Dorcas S Hoover
Published 2007 by Good Books
Compact Disc, English. ISBN: 9781561485833
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Jacket Notes:
Medical technology meets rural values of simplicity, home health remedies, and unwavering faith in divine providence when a country-boy-turned-country-doctor returns to his roots. House Calls and Hitching Posts is a sometimes humorous and often intimate account of Dr. Elton Lehman's 36 years practicing medicine among the Amish of Ohio, for which he was named Country Doctor of the Year.
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The Rest of Her Life
by Laura Moriarty
Published 2008 by Hyperion Books
Paperback, English. ISBN: 9781401309435
Find this book in our catalog.
Jacket Notes:
From the critically acclaimed author of "The Center of Everything" comes this luminous, provocative, and ultimately redemptive look at how even mothers and daughters with the best intentions can be blind to the harm they do to each other. This incredibly nuanced, beautifully written novel treats moral dilemma with the riveting, character-driven& nbsp; plot& nbsp; of a Jane Hamilton or a Jodi Picoult. This novel looks at one incident and how it changes everything for Leigh, the mother of a pretty, popular high school senior, and their entire family. It's a novel about mothers, daughters, sisters, and female friends, and the ripple effect that an accident has upon all of these people. Like so many great novels, it makes readers ask the question, What would I do if this happened to me?
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Kathryn Linnemann Branch |
2323 Elm Street; St. Charles 63301
(636) 946-0789
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Wednesday, June 24
7:00 pm
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Wednesday, July 29
7:00 pm
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Wednesday, August 26
7:00 pm
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Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking
by Malcolm Gladwell
Published 2007 by Back Bay Books
Paperback, English. ISBN: 9780316010665
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Jacket Notes:
Drawing on cutting-edge neuroscience and psychology, the author shows how the difference between good and bad decision-making has nothing to do with how much information can be processed quickly, but on the few particular details on which people focus. - The Tipping Point was a huge bestseller, here and abroad, selling over 630,000 copies in hardcover and paperback combined. The paperback edition still appears on business and trade bestseller lists, as his fan base continues to grow.
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The Outsiders
by S E Hinton
Published 1968 by Laurel Leaf Library
Mass Market Paperbound, English. ISBN: 9780440967699
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Jacket Notes:
Ponyboy is 14 years old, tough and confused, yet sensitive beneath his bold front. Since his parents' deaths, his loyalties have been to his brothers and his gang, the rough boys from the wrong side of the tracks. When his best friend kills a member of a rival gang, a nightmare of violence begins and quickly envelops Ponyboy in a turbulent chain of events.
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Bel Canto
by Ann Patchett
Published 2009 by Harperluxe
Paperback, English. ISBN: 9780061719868
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Jacket Notes:
Somewhere in South America, at the home of the country's vice president, a lavish birthday party is being held in honor of the powerful businessman Mr. Hosokawa. Roxanne Coss, opera's most revered soprano, has mesmerized the international guests with her singing. It is a perfect evening -- until a band of gunwielding terrorists takes the entire party hostage. But what begins as a panicked, life-threatening scenario slowly evolves into something quite different, a moment of great beauty, as terrorists and hostages forge unexpected bonds and people from different continents become compatriots, intimate friends, and lovers.
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Kisker Road Branch |
1000 Kisker Road; St. Charles 63304
(636) 926-READ
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Tuesday, June 16
7:00 pm
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Tuesday, July 21
7:00 pm
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Tuesday, August 18
7:00 pm
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The Prince of Tides
by Pat Conroy
Published 2009 by Brilliance Corporation
Compact Disc, English. ISBN: 9781441807915
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Jacket Notes:
PAT CONROY has created a huge, brash thunderstorm of a novel, stinging with honesty and resounding with drama. Spanning forty years, this is the story of turbulent Tom Wingo, his gifted and troubled twin sister Savannah, and their struggle to triumph over the dark and tragic legacy of the extraordinary family into which they were born.
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Standing in the Rainbow
by Fannie Flagg
Published 2004 by Ballantine Books
Paperback, English. ISBN: 9780345452887
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Jacket Notes:
Once again, Flagg gives readers a story of richly human characters, the saving graces of the once-maligned middle class, small-town life, and the daily contest between laughter and tears. Good news! Fannie's back in town--and the town is among the leading characters in her new novel.
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Around the World on Two Wheels: Annie Londonderry's Extraordinary Ride
by Peter Zheutlin
Published 2008 by Citadel Press
Paperback, English. ISBN: 9780806530666
Find this book in our catalog.
Jacket Notes:
Zheutlin pens the remarkable story of one woman--Annie Londonderry--one bike, and one incredible journey that would change the face of sports, feminism, and America itself. Illustrated.
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McClay Branch
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2760 McClay Road; St. Charles
(636) 441-7577
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Wednesday, June 3
10:00 am
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Friday, June 5
1:30 pm
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Wednesday, August 5
10:00 am
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A Lost Lady
by Willa Cather
Published 2009 by Book Jungle
Paperback, English. ISBN: 9781438508771
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Jacket Notes:
Willa Cather was an early 20th century author best known for her novels; O Pioneers, My Antonia, and Death Comes for the Archbishop. In 1906 Cather became the managing editor of McClure's magazine. As a muckraker journalist Cather co-authored a scathing biography about the head of the Christian Science church, Mary Baker Eddy. A Lost Lady is written in the third person. Niel Herbert is a young man who grows up in Sweet Water and witnesses the decline of Mrs. Forrester for whom he feels very deeply. Cather portrays the moral disintegration of a lovable woman as seen through the eyes of a boy. The West is also depicted in its decline from the idealized age of noble pioneers to the age of capitalist exploitation.
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Twilight
by Stephenie Meyer
Published 2005 by Megan Tingley Books
Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780316160179
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Jacket Notes:
Isabella Swan's move to Forks, a perpetually rainy town in Washington, could have been the most boring move she ever made. When she meets the mysterious, alluring Edward Cullen--a vampire--her life takes a thrilling and terrifying romantic turn. Young Adult.
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The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America
by Erik Larson
Published 2003 by Crown Publishing Group (NY)
Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780609608449
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Jacket Notes:
In a thrilling narrative showcasing his gifts as storyteller and researcher, Larson recounts the spellbinding tale of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition and its devious creators. A blend of "Ragtime" and "Silence of the Lambs, The Devil in the White City" is Larson at his best. 6 photos. 1 map. Two men, each handsome and unusually adept at his chosen work, embodied an element of the great dynamic that characterized America' s rush toward the twentieth century. The architect was Daniel Hudson Burnham, the fair' s brilliant director of works and the builder of many of the country' s most important structures, including the Flatiron Building in New York and Union Station in Washington, D.C. The murderer was Henry H. Holmes, a young doctor who, in a malign parody of the White City, built his " World' s Fair Hotel" just west of the fairgrounds-- a torture palace complete with dissection table, gas chamber, and 3,000-degree crematorium.
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Wednesday, June 3
7:00 pm
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Wednesday, August 5
10:00 am
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Friday, August 7
1:30 pm
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The Thirteenth Tale
by Diane Setterfield
Published 2006 by Atria Books
Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780743298025
Find this book in our catalog.
Jacket Notes:
"All children mythologize their birth... "So begins the prologue of reclusive author Vida Winter's collection of stories, which are as famous for the mystery of the missing thirteenth tale as they are for the delight and enchantment of the 12 that do exist. When Margaret Lea opened the door to the past, what she confronted was her destiny."All children mythologize their birth."..So begins the prologue of reclusive author Vida Winter's collection of stories, which are as famous for the mystery of the missing thirteenth tale as they are for the delight and enchantment of the twelve that do exist.The enigmatic Winter has spent six decades creating various outlandish life histories for herself -- all of them inventions that have brought her fame and fortune but have kept her violent and tragic past a secret.
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The Other Boleyn Girl
by Philippa Gregory
Published 2004 by Touchstone Books
Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780743269834
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Jacket Notes:
Gregory's first installment of her "New York Times" bestselling series ow the basis is n feature film from Sony Pictures, starring Eric Bana, Scarlett Johansson, and Natalie Portman, set for release on December 21. Two ferociously ambitious sisters, Mary and Anne Boleyn, are rivals for the bed and heart of King Henry VIII. Two sisters competing for the greatest prize: the love of a kingWhen Mary Boleyn comes to court as an innocent girl of fourteen, she catches the eye of Henry VIII. Dazzled by the king, Mary falls in love with both her golden prince and her growing role as unofficial queen. However, she soon realizes just how much she is a pawn in her family's ambitious plots as the king's interest begins to wane and she is forced to step aside for her best friend and rival: her sister, Anne. Then Mary knows that she must defy her family and her king, and take her fate into her own hands.A rich and compelling tale of love, sex, ambition, and intrigue, "The Other Boleyn Girl" introduces a woman of extraordinary determination and desire who lived at the heart of the most exciting and glamorous court in Europe and survived by following her own heart.
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Warm Springs: Traces of a Childhood at FDR's Polio Haven
by Susan Richards Shreve
Published 2007 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH)
Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780618658534
Find this book in our catalog.
Jacket Notes:
An indelible portrait of the fallout of childhood illness, separation from a protective mother, and first love, Shreve chronicles her stay at the Warm Springs sanitarium during the height of the polio epidemic. Her memoir is both a fascinating historic record and an intensely felt story of childhood. A rich and moving memoir of childhood illness and its aftermath by a member of the last generation of Americans to have experienced childhood polio
Just after her eleventh birthday, at the height of the frightening childhood polio epidemic, Susan Richards Shreve was sent as a patient to the sanitarium at Warm Springs, Georgia. It was a place famously founded by FDR, "a perfect setting in time and place and strangeness for a hospital of crippled children."
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Middendorf-Kredell Branch |
2750 Hwy. K; O'Fallon 63368
(636) 978-7997
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Wednesday, June 10
7:00 pm
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Wednesday, July 8
7:00 pm
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Wednesday, August 12
7:00 pm
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Bold Spirit: Helga Estby's Forgotten Walk Across Victorian America
by Linda Lawrence Hunt
Published 2005 by Anchor Books
Paperback, English. ISBN: 9781400079933
Find this book in our catalog.
Jacket Notes:
Helga Estby left Spokane Washington and walked to New York City on a $10,000 challenge. This remarkable story of hardship and suffering was long lost and only recently discovered by the author. In 1896, a Norwegian immigrant and mother of eight children named Helga Estby was behind on taxes and the mortgage when she learned that a mysterious sponsor would pay $10,000 to a woman who walked across America.
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Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling (2., Erw. Aufl.)
by Ross King
Published 2003 by Walker & Company
Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780802713957
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Jacket Notes:
The extraordinary story behind Michelangelo's masterpiece in the Sistine Chapel from the author of the acclaimed "Brunelleschi's Dome." King paints a magnificent picture of day-to-day life on the Sistine scaffolding and outside in the upheaval of early 16th century Rome. 46 illustrations. In 1508, despite strong advice to the contrary, the powerful Pope Julius II commissioned Michelangelo Buonarroti to paint the ceiling of the newly restored Sistine Chapel in Rome. Four years earlier, at the age of twenty-nine, Michelangelo had unveiled his masterful statue of David in Florence; however, he had little experience as a painter, even less working in the delicate medium of fresco, and none with the curved surface of vaults, which dominated the chapel's ceiling. The temperamental Michelangelo was himself reluctant, and he stormed away from Rome, risking Julius's wrath, only to be persuaded to eventually begin.
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Big Stone Gap
by Adriana Trigiani
Published 2000 by Random House
Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780375504037
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Jacket Notes:
It's 1978, and 35-year-old Ave Maria Mulligan is about to discover a skeleton in her own family's tidy closet that will blow the lid right off her quiet, uneventful life.
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Thursday, June 18
2:00 pm
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Thursday, July 16
2:00 pm
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Thursday, August 20
2:00 pm
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Unlikely Spy
by Daniel Silva
Published 1996 by Villard Books
Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780679455622
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Jacket Notes:
A page-turning spy thriller in the tradition of Ken Follett. In 1943 London, a mild-mannered academic and friend of Churchill is drafted into MI5 to help break the most crucial intelligence case of World War II: the existence of a Nazi spy ring in England dedicated to uncovering D-Day invasion plans. The time is 1943, London. Professor Alfred Vicary, a mild mannered academic, friend of Churchill, is drafted into M15 to help break the most horrifying intelligence case of World War II--the existence of a Nazi spy ring in England that is ferreting out the secret of the D-Day invasion. Vicary's "opponent" is Catherine Blake, a beautiful, perfect young Brit, a volunteer in the emergency wards during the Blitz, a heartbreaker--and deep German mole, a trained assassin and a determined killer. Their game of cat and mouse, with the success of the European invasion at stake--is the riveting saga of "The Unlikely Spy."
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Catnap
by Carole Nelson Douglas
Published 2007 by Forge
Mass Market Paperbound, English. ISBN: 9780812516821
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Jacket Notes:
Ms. Temple Barr, a 29-year-old public relations free-lancer, while pursuing a cat, stumbles over a dead paperback publisher at the Las Vegas ABA. Narrated in part by Midnight Louie, the sleuthing tomcat who leads Temple to the corpse, this is an entertaining, irresistible mystery from the author of Good Night, Mr. Holmes. "Attention! All you ailurophiles addicted to Lilian Jackson Braun's "The Cat Who."..mysteries...can latch onto a new purrivate eye: Midnight Louie....slinking and sleuthing on his own a la Mike Hammer." -- "Fort Worth Star-Telegram"
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Bootlegger's Daughter
by Margaret Maron
Published 1992 by Mysterious Press
Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780892964451
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Jacket Notes:
This smart, sassy series introduces Deborah Knott, candidate for district judge--and daughter of an infamous bootlegger. Deborah's campaigning is interrupted when disturbing new evidence surrrounding a murder that has never been solved surfaces and she is implored to investigate.
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North County Branch |
1825 Commonfield Rd; Portage des Sioux 63373
(636) 753-3070
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Monday, June 22
7:00 pm
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Monday, July 27
7:00 pm
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Monday, August 24
7:00 pm
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The House at Riverton
by Kate Morton
Published 2008 by Atria Books
Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9781416550518
Find this book in our catalog.
Jacket Notes:
This gorgeous debut novel is set in England between the two World Wars. The story of an aristocratic family, a mysterious death, and a vanishing way of life is told in flashback by a woman who witnessed it all and kept secrets for more than 50 years. "The House at Riverton" is a gorgeous debut novel set in England between the wars. It is the story of an aristocratic family, a house, a mysterious death and a way of life that vanished forever, told in flashback by a woman who witnessed it all and kept a secret for decades.Grace Bradley went to work at Riverton House as a servant when she was just a girl, before the First World War. For years her life was inextricably tied up with the Hartford family, most particularly the two daughters, Hannah and Emmeline.
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Loving Frank
by Nancy Horan
Published 2008 by Ballantine Books
Paperback, English. ISBN: 9780345495006
Find this book in our catalog.
Jacket Notes:
"This graceful, assured first novel tells the remarkable story of the long-lived affair between Frank Lloyd Wright, a passionate and impossible figure, and Mamah Cheney, a married woman whom Wright beguiled and led beyond the restraint of convention"--Scott Turow. "I have been standing on the side of life, watching it float by. I want to swim in the river. I want to feel the current."
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Pride and Prejudice
by Jane Austen
Published 1972 by Penguin Books
Paperback, English. ISBN: 9780140430721
Find this book in our catalog.
Jacket Notes:
Austen's comedy of manners--one of the most popular novels of all time--features splendidly civilized sparring between the proud Mr. Darcy and the prejudiced Elizabeth Bennet as they play out their spirited courtship in a series of 18-century drawing-room intrigues. Reissue.
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Spencer Road Branch |
427 Spencer Road; St. Peters 63376
(636) 441-0794
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Thursday, March 19
7:00 pm
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Thursday, April 16
7:00 pm
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Thursday, May 21
7:00 pm
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Water for Elephants
by Sara Gruen
Published 2006 by Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill
Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9781565124998
Find this book in our catalog.
Jacket Notes:
Though he may not speak of them, the memories still dwell inside Jacob Jankowski's ninety-something-year-old mind. Memories of himself as a young man, tossed by fate onto a rickety train that was home to the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. Memories of a world filled with freaks and clowns, with wonder and pain and anger and passion; a world with its own narrow, irrational rules, its own way of life, and its own way of death. The world of the circus: to Jacob it was both salvation and a living hell.
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The Hindi-Bindi Club
by Monica Pradhan
Published 2007 by Bantam Books
Paperback, English. ISBN: 9780553384529
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Jacket Notes:
An elegant tapestry of East and West, peppered with food and ceremony, wisdomand sensuality, this luminous novel breathes new life into timeless themes offamily and place. For decades they have remained close, sharing treasured recipes, honored customs, and the challenges of women shaped by ancient ways yet living modern lives. They are the Hindi-Bindi Club, a nickname given by their American daughters to the mothers who left India to start anew--daughters now grown and facing struggles of their own.
For Kiran, Preity, and Rani, adulthood bears the indelible stamp of their upbringing, from the ways they tweak their mothers' cooking to suit their Western lifestyles to the ways they reject their mothers' most fervent beliefs. Now, bearing the disappointments and successes of their chosen paths, these daughters are drawn inexorably home.
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The Cheaters: The Walter Scott Murder
by Scottie Priesmeyer
Published 1997 by Tula Publishing
Paperback, English. ISBN: 9780965466837
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Jacket Notes:
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