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Your Weekly St. Louis Bestseller List

Here's your weekly St. Louis bestseller list for the week ending September 2, as compiled by the St. Louis Independent Booksellers Alliance and based on sales at Left Bank Books, Main Street Books, Pudd'nhead Books and Subterranean Books. We may not have been as clear as we could have been, but we' ... More >>

Every St. Louis Release: July 2012

This is pretty self-explanatory, really -- here you will find every musical project released in the St. Louis area (we're interpreting pretty broadly) in July 2012, listed in alphabetical order. There are links to information about the bands and places to buy these things as well as streaming previe ... More >>

Amazon Ranks St. Louis 18th Most Well-Read City in America

Online retail juggernaut Amazon released its second-annual Most Well-Read Cities list, and St. Louis ended up at number eighteen. Of course, Amazon's basis for the rankings is its own sales figures (print and Kindle) on a per-capita basis for cities with more than 100,000 residents. To which I say, ... More >>

Ten Soups Even Gut Check Won't Try

To help guide our readers through National Soup Month, Gut Check's counting down 15 of our favorite local soups. From light and healthy pho to hearty bisques and chowders, we'll lead you (belly first, of course) to some mighty fine liquid dinners. And while it's all good, delicious fun to eat our ... More >>

Spy Games and Celebrity Sightings at St. Louis-Area Bookstores

image viaWatch out, she may be packing an iPhone.​As everybody knows, the Christmas-shopping season is the most hectic time to be in retail -- as both a seller and as a consumer -- and this year, there's an extra frisson of excitement in St. Louis bookstores, thanks to some corporate espionage ... More >>

All on the Same Page Bookstore to Open in Creve Coeur October 1

image viaRobin Tidwell​Now that Borders has totally collapsed and the economy is still totally in the shitter and nobody likes to read books anymore anyway, the most foolish thing you can do right now is open up a bookstore. Or at least, that's what people keep telling Robin Tidwell. Nonethel ... More >>

What's Cooking? Balkan Power Pop and Burek.

Amazon.com​St. Louis has both a thriving music community and a thriving Balkan community. So why don't we have a thriving food-themed Balkan power pop group of our own, like Las Balkanieras? This Germany-based trio of women from Bosnia, Croatia and Russia not only sing, but sing about food. ... More >>

Spotify's US Launch Approaches; Which Music Service Are You?

​Music fans in the United States don't have a lot to envy of their European brothers and sisters, at least unless they're big fans of Abba or the kind of sticky, glitter-covered dance-pop that usually just makes me really want to leave the youth hostel and brush my teeth. One exception: Spotif ... More >>

Missouri Latest State to Push for Online Sales Tax

Local retailers want to wipe that smug smile off those Amazon.com boxes. ​Two state representatives held a press conference today in the University City Loop, calling attention to legislation that would add sales tax to purchases Missouri residents make over the Internet. State representativ ... More >>

Death of a Bookstore: Piece of Mind Books

image viaPiece of Mind Books in Edwardsville closed down last summer.​When you report a feature story, you don't always have the space to put in all the smaller stories you found, no matter how much you'd like to. Here's one of those that didn't make it into this week's feature, "Band of Books ... More >>

Band of Bookstores: Facing extinction, indies unite to show us everything they bring to St. Louis that Amazon can't

UPDATE: Borders to Declare Bankruptcy This Week

image viaIs this what lies ahead for Borders?​Update February 16, 2 p.m.: Borders in Brentwood has been spared! But on the slated-to-close list are the stores at Central Plaza in Ballwin, Chesterfield Mall and Mid-Rivers Mall in St. Peters. Along with the Brentwood location, the Borders store ... More >>

It's Official (and Even True!): St. Louis is One of America's Most Romantic Cities

photo illustration by Kholood EidSt. Louis is for lovahs!​Last month's craptastic weather may have been good for at least one thing: It helped catapult our fair city onto Amazon.com's list of the Most Romantic Cities in America. St. Louis is now officially the 18th most romantic city in the na ... More >>

Stuff It! Giant Jalapenos Enter the Giant Stuffable Food Market

Paul BoslandThe new jalapeno variety is medium hot with large fruit.​Because the average jalapeno pepper isn't big enough to hold nearly as much cheese as we'd like, the New Mexico State University chile pepper breeding program has genetically engineered the 'NuMex Jalmundo'. It's a hybrid bet ... More >>

Left Bank, Subterranean Books Now Selling Google eBooks

​As of this morning, two of St. Louis's proudly independent bookstores have joined in the digital revolution: Subterranean Books in the Delmar Loop and Left Bank Books in the Central West End and downtown are now offering Google eBooks on their respective websites. Both stores have been selli ... More >>

St. Louis Art Capsules

Jessica Baran encapsulates the St. Louis art scene

St. Louis Art Capsules

Jessica Baran encapsulates the St. Louis art scene

St. Louis Art Capsules

Jessica Baran encapsulates the St. Louis art scene

St. Louis Art Capsules

Jessica Baran encapsulates the St. Louis art scene

St. Louis Online Retailer WOOT.com Acquired By Amazon

​Update 10:35 a.m.: Just got confirmation that Woot will move its St. Louis office -- and all employees -- to Seattle. The move will likely be made this month. ------The paint was barely dry on the walls of Woot.com's new St. Louis office when word spread yesterday afternoon that the online "deal ... More >>

St. Louis Art Caps

Jessica Baran encapsulates the St. Louis art scene

New Album Release Highlights: Tuesday, June 29

(New albums are typically released on Tuesdays, i.e., today. What can you spend your hard-earned pennies on this week? Find out below.) blogs.westword.com3OH!3's Streets of Gold​*3OH!3, Streets Of Gold Ke$ha joins the neon-pop group on its latest release. Stream that track and the rest of the ... More >>

St. Louis Art Capsules

Jessica Baran encapsulates the St. Louis art scene

St. Louis Art Capsules

Jessica Baran encapsulates the St. Louis art scene

New Album Release Highlights: Tuesday, June 15

(New albums are typically released on Tuesdays, i.e., today. What can you spend your hard-earned pennies on this week? Find out below.) amazon.comCowboy Junkies' latest release, Renmin Park, is part one of a three-part series. ​*Cowboy Junkies, The Nomad Series Volume 1: Renmin Park In the ... More >>

Featured Review: Great Rivers Biennial: Martin Brief, Sarah Frost, and Cameron Fuller at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis

St. Louis Art Capsules

Jessica Baran encapsulates the St. Louis art scene

Record Store Day in St. Louis: What's Going on at Vintage Vinyl, Apop Records and Euclid Records?

[Update, April 14, 3 p.m.: Now updated with info on what's going on at Slackers!] On Saturday, April 17, record stores around the country are celebrating Record Store Day -- a time to unplug from iTunes, eMusic and Amazon MP3 (or torrent sites) and purchase tunes in-person. As enticement, Record S ... More >>

Immigration Activists Can't Take Joke; Protest "Illegal Alien" Halloween Costume

​I subscribe to an email list-serve for immigration issues. The email thread can -- at times -- be helpful for discovering news bits on legislative concerns, law enforcement initiatives and social matters important to the foreign-born community. So when the following email showed up four time ... More >>

Pudd'nhead Books is Gett'n Some Love

Pudd'nhead Books​For years, Left Bank Books and Subterranean Books have duked it out for St. Louis' independent book-selling supremacy. But last fall, a third rival entered the mix, Webster Groves' Pudd'nhead Books.Last Friday, the online booksellers' newsletter Shelf Awareness ran a nice profile ... More >>

Transgressions One of Many Gay-Themed Books Stripped of Amazon Sales Ranking

Transgressions, the M/M romance savagely reviewed by Unreal last month, was among the first books stripped of its Amazon.com sales ranking last weekend. (And, no, it did not reveal its firmly-muscled chest.)Amazon's "glitch" or "purge", depending on who you talk to, removed sales rankings from hundr ... More >>

FoodWire: Bravo! Cucina Italiana Opens Today

Ian Froeb Bravo! Cucina Italiana, the first St. Louis-area location of a national chain from the same folks who brought us Brio Tuscan Grill, is slated to open today at West County Shopping Center. The Bravo! menu is marginally shorter than War and Peace and features lots of wood-grilled items. The ... More >>

The Sneak: Who Kolaches the Watchmen?

Fernando de Sousa, Wikimedia Commons Dara Strickland is a leading expert on sneaking food and drink into the movies. She reports on her exploits for Gut Check (from an undisclosed location) every Monday.Show: Watchmen, in all its nearly 3 hours of incomprehensible, geeky glory. No one should ever b ... More >>

My Little Red Book: Not What Mao Had In Mind

Mylittleredbook.netEver wonder when Erica Jong got her period? Or how it was that Joyce Maynard's or Gloria Steinem's monthly "friend" showed up?Unreal is one writer who, for the record, never wondered any such thing about any fellow scribe. But now that there's a 240-page hardcover tome chronicling ... More >>

FoodWire: Rick Bayless in St. Louis March 14

Just learned that noted chef Rick Bayless (Chicago restaurants Topolobampo and Frontera Grill, the PBS show Mexico -- One Plate at a Time with Rick Bayless and numerous cookbooks) will be haivng a book signing Saturday, March 14, at 3 p.m. at the center court of Plaza Frontenac. You can purchase cop ... More >>

Let's Celebrate No Name-Calling Week!

by Mark Zwick, 8, courtesy No Name-Calling Week websiteThe RFT received a press release this morning which informed us that we are in the midst of No Name-Calling Week. Like snow days and certain Federal holidays, No Name-Calling Week applies mostly to schoolchildren, but everybody could probably do ... More >>

7 Shot Screamers, Tony Renner, The Monads and Strawfoot on National Compilations

7 Shot Screamers has contributed a Smiths cover to a compilation called American Psychobilly Archive, Volume One. The collection -- which is released on the Analog Arkives label -- also features covers of tunes by Echo & the Bunnymen, Patti Smith, Talking Heads, and more. Tony Renner has contrib ... More >>

Tonight: Glenn Beck at the Fox; Soon: Glenn Beck on Fox

Conservative wisecrack Glenn Beck will be in St. Louis tonight, performing in a play called The Christmas Sweater, based on a book by Beck of the same name, at the Fabulous Fox Theatre.Beck had a show on CNN Headline News until late October; he moves to the likely more comfortable confines of the F ... More >>

The Morning Brew: Thursday, 9.11

The Morning Brew: Wednesday, 2.27

SonyBMG Launches Platinum MusicPass Album Download Cards

Report: Canseco Claims La Russa Used Steroids!

Report: Canseco Claims La Russa Used Steroids!

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(Received as packaging from Amazon.com)

I Want My MP3

Digital music just gets better. See ya later, major labels.

Still More SXSW Coverage

Manic Monday

The Ashcroft Rap

Side Dish

Even working chefs aren't immune to the lure of those celebrity-chef cookbooks

Booknonsense

Untangling the confusion surrounding Left Bank Books' involvement in BookSense.com