Ray Flynn’s Confessions of a Mob Hitman, discussion/book signing with Mike Flynn Back in print!  Mike’s dad Ray Flynn penned his memoirs just before he died in 2002, and those memoirs chronicle the gang warfare of St. Louis starting in the 1930’s.  John Auble describes it as, “Finally, an inside look at mob warfare in [...]

Loud cellphone talkers in public: they’re still out there.

The Pre-K class at City Academy receives their first book! Thanks to all our customers who sponsored a child. If you’re interested in sponsoring next semester (Spring 2010) please contact us.

The Ascent of George Washington: The Hidden Political Genius of an American Icon by John Ferling (Bloomsbury, $28.50) Bestselling historian of early American history, Ferling focuses on the political side of Washington instead of the oft-written about heroic one.  His portrayal shows a Washington that was not above petty politics,  but was a canny infighter and [...]

The following classes’ course books are here.  You must know your professor’s name.  Simply ask at the front desk and we’ll pull them for you. 1. Arch 209: Design Processes, Gaye Lorbebaum 2. Intro to Fiction Writing, Amy Baily 3. Intro to Fiction, Alison Espach 4. Poetry Writing I, Annah Browning 5. Intro to Poetry, [...]

So the trailer that Penguin released that we put in an earlier post–that’s Thomas Pynchon narrating.

The Art of Time in Fiction by Joan Silber  (Graywolf, $12.00) Those folks at Graywolf do some fine work.  Starting about, oh two years ago?, they began putting out The Art Of series and it is wildly wildly popular. Previous installments have included The Art of the Poetic Line by James Longenbach, The Art of [...]

Wendell Berry’s brand-new book is called Bringing it to the Table: On Farming and Food (Counterpoint, $14.95). As if a new book by Berry weren’t good news enough, this one sports an introduction by none other than Michael Pollan. Berry and Pollan: two great, green minds meeting within the covers of one book. Reason for celebration.

My Rotten Life: Nathan Abercrombie, Accidental Zombie by David Lubar (Starscape, $5.99, middle-reader) Zombies are everywhere these days.  They’ve even seeped into the children’s lit genre.  10-year-old Nathan Abercrombie takes an experimental serum to help him deal with the every-day humilities of life (bullies, girls…). The serum, though, turns him into a half-zombie, which for most [...]

…for the poor felled trees required to produce William Vollman’s massive new tome, Imperial (Viking, $55). It’s a veritable doorstop, all 1,300 pages of it. W.V. is known for pumping out some plenty hefty volumes, so Imperial is hardly without precedent in his body of work. Here, Vollman trains his prodigious energies on one particular region in [...]