Gina Sheridan, Check These Out: One Librarian’s Catalog of the 200 Coolest, Best, and Most Important Books You’ll Ever Read (Adams Media, 2015): Sheridan’s first book, I Work at a Public Library, is a hilarious recounting of her experiences at the reference desk of a St. Louis library. Now, for her second book, Sheridan provides a brainy but accessible list that includes short-story collections, young-adult fiction, audio books, graphic novels, fiction and nonfiction about dysfunctional families, books about movies, and titles in the “American’t Dream” category—that is, stories of crushed dreams.
Wm. Stage, Creatures on Display (Floppinfish Publishing, 2015). Thanks to Stage’s writing and photographs, we have a record of a city that most never see. (Or in some cases, half-see: He’s our town’s No. 1 photographer of ghost signs.) Stage’s novels capture the grit and weirdness of life on the streets of St. Louis. This latest book, set in the early 1980s, is based on his experiences as a VD investigator with the Centers for Disease Control assigned to the St. Louis Health Department’s STD clinic. Rather than being prurient, though, it captures a fascinating historical moment as the tab came due for the Dionysian revels of the ’60s and ’70s. It’s a fun time-travel trip back to St. Louis in its more feral days.
Opera Theatre of St. Louis, 27 (Albany Records, 2015): The CD captures the 2014 opera based on the life and works of Gertrude Stein, commissioned as part of the company’s “New Works, Bold Voices” program. The title refers to the legendary salons held at 27 rue de Fleurus in Paris, where Stein lived with her partner, Alice Toklas. Written for mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe (who portrays Stein), 27 shows off the talent of the marvelous Elizabeth Futral, who sings the role of Toklas. And though there’s a lot of art in the show, ultimately the opera is about the power of a more formidable force: love.
