Calendar
Check here for all of the upcoming events at UCPL. If you have questions about any of them, give us a call at 314-727-3150.
Tom D. Crouch, a Smithsonian veteran of almost 45 years, paints a robust picture of a unique American establishment and its lasting legacies in his book Smithson’s Gamble.
Follow the fascinating growth and development of the world’s largest museum and research complex during its first 60 years. Told in rich detail, Smithson’s Gamble reveals how, as it defined a role rooted in curiosity and exploration, the Smithsonian helped to shape the nation’s developing identity.
The Smithsonian evolved from a small, narrowly focused organization into an institution leading the way in fields from astrophysics to zoology. Smithsonian researchers, and the hundreds of citizen scientists who they recruited, created a collection that documented the natural and human history of a continent. The American conservation movement and a national weather service are rooted at the Smithsonian. Smithson’s Gamble is filled with fascinating characters, twists and turns, and moments of triumph and tragedy, complete with political machinations, a bit of backstabbing, accusations of murder, and the occasional scandal.
Register now to take part in the conversation and learn about the trials, errors, and incredible legacy of the Smithsonian’s foundation.
Join us online for a free conversation with recipe developer and social media star Jenn Lueke. In her new cookbook Don’t Think About Dinner, Jenn offers a framework to save time, money, and energy with strategic meal planning, grocery lists, and kitchen prep.
Whether you want to improve your health, cut down food waste (and spending), reduce your mental load, or build new kitchen skills, Don’t Think About Dinner provides everything you need to confidently approach every meal of the day—from shopping and stocking the pantry to storing and reheating leftovers, and everything in between.
As a college student, Jenn was struggling with health problems and tired of quick-fix “healthy” recipes that relied on obscure, expensive ingredients that were often spoiled before she could finish them. Overwhelmed and frustrated, she felt further from her health goals. So, she made a plan. Or rather, a list—filled with plants and proteins, plus simple recipes to make the most of them. This became the framework for her hugely successful business—and transformed her life.
Unlike a typical cookbook, this comprehensive handbook offers strategies, tools, tips, meal plans, and more, plus over 125 delicious recipes. Jenn includes a wide range of adaptable dishes that suit any vibe, budget, or dietary need, from breakfast and lunch to appetizers, dinner, drinks, snacks, and desserts.
Join us for a virtual conversation with acclaimed author Kate Quinn about her latest fantastical work, The Astral Library, which poses the question: Have you ever wished you could live inside a book? Welcome to the Astral Library, where books are not just objects, but doors to new worlds, new lives, and new futures.
Alexandria “Alix” Watson has learned one lesson from her barren childhood in the foster-care system: unlike people, books will never let you down. Working three dead-end jobs to make ends meet and knowing college is a pipe dream, Alix takes nightly refuge in the high-vaulted reading room at the Boston Public Library, escaping into her favorite fantasy novels and dreaming of far-off lands. Until the day she stumbles through a hidden door and meets the Librarian: the ageless, acerbic guardian of a hidden library where the desperate and the lost escape to new lives…inside their favorite books.
The Librarian takes a dazzled Alix under her wing, but before she can escape into the pages of her new life, a shadowy enemy emerges to threaten everyone the Astral Library has ever helped protect. Aided by a dashing costume-shop owner, Alix and the Librarian flee through the Regency drawing rooms of Jane Austen to the back alleys of Sherlock Holmes and the champagne-soaked parties of The Great Gatsby as danger draws inexorably closer. But who does their enemy really wish to destroy—Alix, the Librarian, or the Library itself?
Join us online for a special conversation between award-winning journalist Shoshana Walter and bestselling and award-winning author Barbara Kingsolver as they chat about Walter’s book Rehab: An American Scandal. In this work, Walter, a Pulitzer finalist, exposes the country’s failed response to the opioid crisis, and the malfeasance, corruption, and snake oil which blight the drug rehabilitation industry.
Today, more people have access to treatment than ever before. So why isn’t it working? The answer is that in America—where anyone can get addicted—only certain people get a real chance to recover. Despite record numbers of overdose deaths, our default response is still to punish, while rehabs across the United States fail to incorporate scientifically proven strategies and exploit patients.
In this book, you’ll find the stories of four people who represent the failures of the rehab-industrial complex, and the ways our treatment system often prevents recovery. April is a black mom in Philadelphia, who witnessed firsthand how the government’s punitive response to the crack epidemic impeded her mother’s recovery—and then her own. Chris, a young middle-class white man from Louisiana, received more opportunities in his addiction than April, including the chance to go to treatment instead of prison. Yet the only program the judge permitted was one that forced him to perform unpaid back-breaking labor at for-profit companies. Wendy is a mother from a wealthy suburb of Los Angeles, whose son died in a sober living home. She began investigating for-profit treatment programs—yet law enforcement and regulators routinely ignored her warnings, allowing rehab patients to die, again and again. Larry is a surgeon who himself struggled with addiction, and would eventually become one of the first Suboxone prescribers in the nation, drawing the scrutiny of the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Join us at 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 31 in the UCPL auditorium for an in-person visit from local author Alan Kretchmar, who will discuss his new book, Restoring the Glory: Forest Park from 1986 to 2026.
Coming out just in time for the park’s 150th anniversary this year, the book details the last 40 years of Forest Park as it rose from its run-down condition in the 1980s to a beloved regional destination today.
Alan Kretchmar spent 35 years in St. Louis as a practicing ophthalmologist. As he slowed down in his profession, he began living his dream of world travel, visiting 40 countries on 5 continents. Many of his experiences were on a bicycle with his wife, Karen. These experiences inspired his first book, A Leisurely Ride Across France, which told of the misadventures of two inexperienced, middle-aged travelers as they crossed the French countryside on two wheels.
Since retirement in 2011, Alan has volunteered in Forest Park. He knows the love and admiration the people of St. Louis have for our Forest Park and has seen first-hand the effect our park has on visitors to our city.
This program is intended for adults, but free and open to all. Copies of Restoring the Glory will be available for purchase and signing at the event.
The Friends of University City Public Library will welcome author Sarah Kendzior to discuss her latest book, The Last American Road Trip. The free program will take place at 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 15 in the UCPL auditorium.
This program is intended for adults, but is free and open to all.
