Maryville Talks Books

Presented by Maryville University Library

Maryville Talks Books features lectures by noted authors. Admission is free and open to the public. Seating is open on a first come, first served basis.

Books will be available for purchase courtesy of Left Bank Books.

For more information, contact Chris Hollenbeck; 314.529.6854.

David Von Drehle – Rise to Greatness: Abraham Lincoln and America’s Most Perilous Year
Friday, January 18, 7pm
Maryville University Buder Commons

In Rise to Greatness, acclaimed author David Von Drehle has created both a deeply human portrait of America’s greatest president and a rich, dramatic narrative about our most fateful year. As 1862 dawned, the American republic was at death’s door. Twelve months later, the Civil War had become a cataclysm but the tide had turned and the blueprint of modern America had been indelibly inked. And the man who brought that nation through its darkest hour, Abraham Lincoln, had been forged into a singular leader.

Lisa Gardner – Touch & Go
Sunday, February 10, 4pm
Ethical Society of St. Louis

#1 New York Times bestseller Lisa Gardner returns with a heart-thumping thriller about what lurks behind the facade of a perfect family. The Denbe family has the kind of life that looks good in the pages of a glossy magazine. When investigator Tessa Leoni arrives at the crime scene in the Denbes’ home, the family appears to have been abducted, with only a pile of their most personal possessions remaining behind. No witnesses, no ransom demands, no motive. Just an entire family, vanished without a trace.

Daniel H. Pink – To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth about Moving Others

Wednesday, March 6, 7pm
Maryville University Auditorium
Lecture, Q&A and Book signing
Free and open to the public, first come first served seating

Thursday, March 7, 11:30 a.m.
Maryville University President’s Conference Center
Luncheon with Daniel Pink
Tickets ($20-$40) at http://danpink.brownpapertickets.com

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, one in nine Americans works in sales. But so do the other eight. Whether we’re employees pitching colleagues on a new idea, entrepreneurs enticing funders to invest, or parents and teachers cajoling children to study, we spend our days trying to move others. To Sell Is Human offers a fresh look at the art and science of selling. The result is a perceptive and practical book–one that will change how you see the world and transform what you do at work, at school, and at home.

Elizabeth Strout – The Burgess Boys
Friday, April 12, 7pm
Maryville University Library

Elizabeth Strout “animates the ordinary with astonishing force,” wrote The New Yorker on the publication of her Pulitzer Prize-winning Olive Ketteridge. Tender, tough-minded, loving, and deeply illuminating about the ties that bind us to family and home, The Burgess Boys follows brothers Jim and Bob Burgess, who escaped from their Maine hometown as soon as they possibly could after their father’s death… until Susan–the Burgess sibling who stayed behind–urgently calls them home to help with her troubled teenage son.

Michael Pollan – Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation
Thursday, May 9, 7 PM
This is a ticketed event
Chaminade College Preparatory School, Skip Viragh Center for the Arts, 425 S. Lindbergh

In Cooked, Michael Pollan (Food Rules, The Omnivore’s Dilemma) explores the enduring power of the four classical elements–fire, water, air, and earth–to transform the stuff of nature into delicious things to eat and drink. Apprenticing himself to a succession of culinary masters, Pollan learns how to grill with fire, cook with liquid, bake with bread, and ferment everything from cheese to beer. In the course of his journey, he discovers that the cook stands squarely between nature and culture. Both realms are transformed by cooking, and so, in the process, is the cook. Ticket packages are available at http://cooked.brownpapertickets.com.

Khaled Hosseini – And the Mountains Echoed
Thursday, May 30, 7 PM
Chaminade College Preparatory School, Skip Viragh
Center for the Arts, 425 S. Lindbergh

Join us for a Maryville Talks Books event with Khaled Hosseini in celebration of his new book, “And the Mountains Echoed.” Khaled Hosseini will be joined in conversation with journalist Angie Weidinger from The Higher Education Channel (HEC-TV).

This is a ticketed event. Ticket packages admit one person and include one copy of “And the Mountains Echoed,” which Hosseini will sign following the event. Additional books are available for purchase from Left Bank Books in advance and at the event.

Khaled Hosseini was born in Kabul, Afghanistan, and moved to the United States in 1980. He is the #1 New York Times best-selling author of “The Kite Runner” and “A Thousand Splendid Suns.” In 2006, he was named a U.S. envoy to UNHCR, the United Nations Refugee Agency.

“And the Mountains Echoed” is a new novel about how we love, how we take care of one another, and how the choices we make resonate through generations. In this tale revolving around not only just the parents and children but brothers and sisters, cousins and caretakers, Khaled Hosseini explores the many ways in which families nurture, wound, betray, honor, and sacrifice for one another; and how often we are surprised by the actions of those closest to us, at the times that matter most. Following its characters and the ramifications of their lives and choices and loves around the globe–from Kabul to Paris to San Francisco to the Greek island of Tinos–the story expands gradually outward, becoming more emotionally complex and powerful with each turning page.

http://mountains.brownpapertickets.com/