St. Louis Public Library

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ST. LOUIS PUBLIC LIBRARY'S AUTHORS @ YOUR LIBRARY MAY LINEUP

The St. Louis Public Library's Authors @ Your Library series is proud to present the Fierce Reads Spring Tour, featuring authors Marie Rutkoski, Cecilia Ahern and Harriet Reuter Hapgood, with special guest Emma Mills, New York Times bestselling author Kiera Cass and the Cinco de Mayo Celebration & Discussion with Dr. David Hayes-Bautista.

All events are FREE and open to the public.

Authors Marie Rutkoski, Cecilia Ahern, Harriet Reuter Hapgood and Emma Mills will speak on May 7 at 3 p.m. at the Schlafly Branch, 225 North Euclid Ave.

Marie Rutkoski is the author of several novels for children and young adults, including The Winner's Curse, The Winner's Crime and The Shadow Society. She is a professor of English literature at Brooklyn College and is currently touring to promote the third book in the Winner's series, Winner's Kiss.

Cecelia Ahern is the author of the international bestsellers PS, I Love You, which became a major motion picture; Love, Rosie and If You Could See Me Now.  Her books, published in 46 countries, have collectively sold more than 16 million copies. The daughter of the former prime minister of Ireland, she lives in Dublin.

Harriet Reuter Hapgood has written and edited for fashion and lifestyle magazines. Her debut novel, The Square Root of Summer, due out May 3, is already being hailed as a complex story of loss, love and learning told in a totally authentic voice that will resonate with teens.

Emma Mills is known to her subscribers as vloggerElmify. She is also co-creator and co-host of the YouTube channel How to Adult. Mills will be introducing her new novel, This Adventure Ends. Although it is not due to be published until October, advance reading copies will be available. Her debut novel, First & Then, is a contemporary novel about falling in love, heartbreak and shifting family dynamics.

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

New York Times bestselling author Kiera Cass will discuss and sign her new book, The Crown on May 9 at 7 p.m. at the Buder Branch, 4401 Hampton Ave.

The Crown is the fifth and final book in the bestselling The Selection series.

Described as a "futuristic version of The Bachelor" with a dystopian caste system and beautiful dresses, the series has sold more than three million copies and has captured the hearts of fans around the world.

Warner Bros holds the film rights to Cass' first book in the The Selection series, and has tapped Black List writer Katie Lovejoy to adapt it.

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

Dr. Hayes-Bautista will lead a lively discussion on the origin of Cinco de Mayo on May 19 at 7 p.m. at the Carpenter Branch, 3309 South Grand Blvd.

Why is Cinco de Mayo—a holiday commemorating a Mexican victory over the French at Puebla in 1862—so widely celebrated in the United States, yet hardly observed in Mexico? In his book El Cinco de Mayo: An American Tradition, Hayes-Bautista explains that the holiday is not Mexican but American and was created by Latinos in California during the mid-nineteenth century. He tells how the meaning of Cinco de Mayo has shifted over time—it embodied immigrant nostalgia in the 1930s, U.S. patriotism during World War II, Chicano Power in the 1960s and 1970s and commercial intentions in the 1980s and 1990s.

Hayes-Bautista is professor of medicine and director of the Center for the Study of Latino Health and Culture at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California in Los Angeles.

This program is part of the Latino Americans: 500 Years of History series in partnership with the Missouri Humanities Council, under the auspices of the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Library Association. It's sponsored by the Latina/Latino Studies Program at the University of Missouri­-St. Louis.

A reception follows the event.

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