THE ESSENTIALS - The Adventures of Augie March
2025-07-09 18:30 - 20:00 (America/Chicago) | Story Line Books, 214 Fourth Street E Suite 160, Saint Paul, MN, 55101, United States
The Adventures of Augie March, winner of the National Book Award in 1954, and hailed as an all-time great by many of the greatest American authors, is our first book in this series that truly feels obscure. How we haven’t heard of this book, we’re not sure, but we’re going to discover this one together!
Augie March is a Jewish-American boy growing up fatherless and poor in Depression-era Chicago. He seeks a “special destiny,” although his circumstances seem to position him for a uniquely disappointing life: his family consists of a simple-minded mother, a brother and “grandmother” who prove to be Machiavellian in their intentions, and an “idiot” youngest brother, Georgie.

STORIES AT THE STATION - Sally Franson
2025-07-10 18:00 - 20:00 | 1881 Eating House, 214 4th Street E, Saint Paul, MN, 55101, United States
Help us welcome to the Stories at the Station series Sally Franson, Swedish-reality TV star and award-winning author to share with us her two hilarious novels: Big in Sweden and A Lady’s Guide to Selling Out. This event is not to be missed – Sally’s work is heartwarming, charming, and funny in that uniquely Swedish-Minnesotan way.
To Pre-Order Your Copies:
Big in Sweden Paperback, $18.99, Pre-Order for Release 7/1
Big in Sweden Hardcover, $28.00
A Lady’s Guide to Selling Out, Paperback, $18.99

STAFF CHOICE - Jezebel
2025-07-16 08:00 - 17:00 | Story Line Books, 214 Fourth Street E Suite 160, Saint Paul, MN, 55101, United States
Jezebel. We know the word, but not the woman who wore the name long before it was an epithet. Now, we’ll learn her story, told in the style of Madeline Miller’s Circe, as a triumphant feminist warcry for a queen who deserved more than history gave her.
About the Book
With a bold voice reminiscent of Madeline Miller’s Circe, a stunning reimagining of the story of a fierce princess from Tyre and her infamous legacy
Jezebel was born into the world howling. She intends to leave it the same way.
When Jezebel learns she can’t be a king like her father simply because she’s a girl, she vows never to become someone’s decorative wife, nameless and lost to history. At fifteen she’s married off, despite her protests, to Prince Ahab of Israel. There, she does what she must to gain power and remake the dry and distant kingdom in the image of her beloved, prosperous seaside homeland of Tyre, beginning by building temples to the gods she grew up worshipping. As her initiatives usher in an era of prosperity for Israel, her new subjects love her, and her name rings through the land.
Then Elijah, the prophet of Yahweh and her former lover, begins to speak out against her. Bitter at having been abandoned by Jezebel, he lashes out, calling her a slut. Harlot. Witch. And the people, revering their prophet’s message, turn on her.
As ancient powers and faiths are pitted against each other, bloodshed descends on Israel and Jezebel faces the fall of her legacy. Determined despite the odds to make Israel a great nation, she must decide how far she’s willing to go to protect her family, her throne—her name. A stunning revision of a notorious queen’s story, Jezebel is a thrilling lyrical debut about a fierce woman who refuses to be forgotten.

CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE - The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
2025-07-23 18:30 - 20:00 | Story Line Books, 214 Fourth Street E Suite 160, Saint Paul, MN, 55101, United States
Join me and Katie as we revisit one of our all-time favorites. This book makes me buy everything that V.E. Schwab writes, sight unseen. It’s perfect and beautiful and heartbreaking and everything you could want in a novel.

About the Book
France, 1714: in a moment of desperation, a young woman makes a Faustian bargain to live forever―and is cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets.
Thus begins the extraordinary life of Addie LaRue, and a dazzling adventure that will play out across centuries and continents, across history and art, as a young woman learns how far she will go to leave her mark on the world.
But everything changes when, after nearly 300 years, Addie stumbles across a young man in a hidden bookstore and he remembers her name.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
USA TODAY BESTSELLER
NATIONAL INDIE BESTSELLER
THE WASHINGTON POST BESTSELLER
In the vein of The Time Traveler’s Wife and Life After Life, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is New York Times bestselling author V. E. Schwab’s genre-defying tour de force.
Recommended by Entertainment Weekly, Real Simple, NPR, Slate, and Oprah Magazine
#1 Library Reads Pick―October 2020
#1 Indie Next Pick―October 2020
BOOK OF THE YEAR (2020) FINALIST―Book of The Month Club
A “Best Of” Book From: Oprah Mag * CNN * Amazon * Amazon Editors * NPR * Goodreads * Bustle * PopSugar * BuzzFeed * Barnes & Noble * Kirkus Reviews * Lambda Literary * Nerdette * The Nerd Daily * Polygon * Library Reads * io9 * Smart Bitches Trashy Books * LiteraryHub * Medium * BookBub * The Mary Sue * Chicago Tribune * NY Daily News * SyFy Wire * Powells.com * Bookish * Book Riot * Library Reads Voter Favorite *
A Life No One Will Remember. A Story You Will Never Forget.

NONFICTION - Autocracy, Inc.
2025-07-30 18:30 - 20:00 | Story Line Books, 214 Fourth Street E Suite 160, Saint Paul, MN, 55101, United States
Jimmy leads our quarterly Nonfiction book club with a meeting about Autocracy, Inc. Fair warning, this one hits a little close to home.
About the Book
From the Pulitzer-prize winning, New York Times bestselling author, an alarming account of how autocracies work together to undermine the democratic world, and how we should organize to defeat them
We think we know what an autocratic state looks like: There is an all-powerful leader at the top. He controls the police. The police threaten the people with violence. There are evil collaborators, and maybe some brave dissidents.
But in the 21st century, that bears little resemblance to reality. Nowadays, autocracies are underpinned not by one dictator, but by sophisticated networks composed of kleptocratic financial structures, surveillance technologies, and professional propagandists, all of which operate across multiple regimes, from China to Russia to Iran. Corrupt companies in one country do business with corrupt companies in another. The police in one country can arm and train the police in another, and propagandists share resources and themes, pounding home the same messages about the weakness of democracy and the evil of America.
International condemnation and economic sanctions cannot move the autocrats. Even popular opposition movements, from Venezuela to Hong Kong to Moscow, don’t stand a chance. The members of Autocracy, Inc, aren’t linked by a unifying ideology, like communism, but rather a common desire for power, wealth, and impunity. In this urgent treatise, which evokes George Kennan’s essay calling for “containment” of the Soviet Union, Anne Applebaum calls for the democracies to fundamentally reorient their policies to fight a new kind of threat.

Meet the Author - Heather Texle!
2025-08-02 11:00 - 14:00 | Story Line Books, 214 Fourth Street E Suite 160, Saint Paul, MN, 55101, United States
Join us Saturday, August 2 to welcome award-winning local author Heather Texle as she continues her launch tour for On Impact, the second book in the Reliance Sinclair series. This is an adrenaline-fueled science-fiction-espionage-thriller-police-drama-murder-mystery series about a young woman navigating the underbelly of interplanetary human civilization. Think The Expanse meets Honor Harrington with a heavy dose of Jason Bourne. These books were a dream come true even before the reveal that Sinclair’s spaceship is run by an AI with a very feline “personality.”

Heather will be signing her books from 11-2, so don’t miss this chance to grab an autograph from a local author who is going places!

Reserve your copy of On Impulse here
or Pre-Order On Impact here!

Stories at the Station - Mubanga Kalimamukwento
2025-08-07 18:00 - 20:00 | 1881 Eating House, 214 4th Street E, Saint Paul, MN, 55101, United States
Winner of the 2025 Minnesota Book Award in the Novel and Short Story category, Obligations to the Wounded is an extraordinary collection of stories about Zambian women, all of whom are adjusting to circumstances far outside of their control, either in the United States or in Kalimamukwento’s birth nation of Zambia.

“While providing a sense of the ancient traditions of the various ethnic groups of the landlocked south-central African nation, the stories in Obligations to the Wounded have a universal appeal. Who wouldn’t feel vulnerable in the face of authority, especially when you’re young and female? Kalimamukwento’s characters face daunting odds while trying to do the right thing, in a way that feels so familiar, so compelling. So many of Mubanga Kalimamukwento’s characters are vulnerable, conflicted, wounded. Very few are evil or malevolent. Everyone can use a little help, human or divine. We feel that obligation, reading these stories.” – Charles Rammelkamp, The Hopkins Review

Join us for the latest iteration of Stories at the Station – light appetizers and a cash bar provided!

Happy 75th Birthday, Snoopy!
2025-08-10 10:00 - 14:00 | Story Line Books, 214 Fourth Street E Suite 160, Saint Paul, MN, 55101, United States
Charlie Brown first met his best friend, Snoopy in the August 10, 1950 edition of the Peanuts daily comic strip, brought to life by St. Paul’s own Charles Schultz.

To celebrate 75 years of Snoopy, we’ll be having a little party at the store for ol’ Snoopy, with cake, dancing, entertainment, and (of course) Snoopy’s favorite – root beer floats! Swing by any time between 10 and 2 on Sunday, August 10 to join in the fun!

THE ESSENTIALS - The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
2025-08-13 18:30 - 20:00 | Story Line Books, 214 Fourth Street E Suite 160, Saint Paul, MN, 55101, United States
We didn’t even need to see the Essentials List before we knew that we’d be reading this one. Join us to discuss this all-timer, and share the story with the whole family with our collection of Huckleberry Finn adaptations suitable for readers of all ages!

STAFF CHOICE - When Women Were Dragons
2025-08-20 18:30 - 20:00 | Story Line Books, 214 Fourth Street E Suite 160, Saint Paul, MN, 55101, United States
The short description is “A rollicking feminist tale set in 1950s America where thousands of women have spontaneously transformed into dragons“. 10/10 Perfect. No notes.
It’s a book about rage, memory, and violently enforced limitations where women are forced to stay small – crushed and crushed until the pressure causes them to explode into the space they deserve.

CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE - Small Mercies
2025-08-27 18:30 - 20:00 | Story Line Books, 214 Fourth Street E Suite 160, Saint Paul, MN, 55101, United States
We’re all familiar with the story of American desegration in the South, but many fewer of us are as familiar with what desegration looked like in relatively “progressive” places like Boston. Hint: it wasn’t good. Set against the hot, tumultuous months when the city’s desegregation of its public schools exploded in violence, Small Mercies is a superb thriller, a brutal depiction of criminality and power, and an unflinching portrait of the dark heart of American racism. It is a mesmerizing and wrenching work that only Dennis Lehane could write.

100 ESSENTAILS - All The King's Men
2025-09-11 18:30 - 20:00 | Story Line Books, 214 Fourth Street E Suite 160, Saint Paul, MN, 55101, United States
Meet the original American demagogue. All the King’s Men is a Pulitzer Prize winning novel about the corrupt, populist political rise and fall of fictional Governor Willie Stark, loosely based on Louisiana Governor Huey Long.
The story is told through the perspective of journalist Jack Burden, exploring themes of power, corruption, and morality in the 1930s American South. The novel was adapted into a classic 1949 film that won three Oscars, and a later 2006 film adaptation.
Bonus: Jimmy had already read this one, so he’s going to be joining us!

STAFF CHOICE: Atmosphere
2025-09-17 18:30 - 20:00 | Story Line Books, 214 Fourth Street E Suite 160, Saint Paul, MN, 55101, United States
Taylor Jenkins Reid comes back onto the scene with another heartbreaker – this time set against the backdrop of early-space-age Houston. It’s space month, y’all! Come cry with us!

CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE: Orbital
2025-09-24 18:30 - 20:00 | Story Line Books, 214 Fourth Street E Suite 160, Saint Paul, MN, 55101, United States
We continue space month with Orbital, the spectacular novel by Samantha Harvey, in which she looks at us and our planet through the eyes of astronauts orbiting. It’s gorgeous, and like 130 pages. Definitely read this one!
About the Book:
A slender novel of epic power and the winner of the Booker Prize 2024, Orbital deftly snapshots one day in the lives of six women and men traveling through space. Selected for one of the last space station missions of its kind before the program is dismantled, these astronauts and cosmonauts–from America, Russia, Italy, Britain, and Japan–have left their lives behind to travel at a speed of over seventeen thousand miles an hour as the earth reels below. We glimpse moments of their earthly lives through brief communications with family, their photos and talismans; we watch them whip up dehydrated meals, float in gravity-free sleep, and exercise in regimented routines to prevent atrophying muscles; we witness them form bonds that will stand between them and utter solitude. Most of all, we are with them as they behold and record their silent blue planet. Their experiences of sixteen sunrises and sunsets and the bright, blinking constellations of the galaxy are at once breathtakingly awesome and surprisingly intimate.
Profound and contemplative, Orbital is a moving elegy to our environment and planet.

100 ESSENTIAL NOVELS - American Pastoral
2025-10-08 18:30 - 20:00 | Story Line Books, 214 Fourth Street E Suite 160, Saint Paul, MN, 55101, United States
This month, Story Line Books is diving into American Pastoral by Philip Roth — a Pulitzer Prize–winning novel that explores family, identity, and the unraveling of the American dream. We’ll gather to share thoughts, questions, and insights in a welcoming, conversational setting. Whether you’ve read Roth before or are picking him up for the first time, we’d love to have you join the discussion.
📖 Bring your copy, your curiosity, and your perspective — everyone’s voice adds something unique to the conversation.

STAFF CHOICE: The Cloisters
2025-10-15 18:30 - 20:00 | Story Line Books, 214 Fourth Street E Suite 160, Saint Paul, MN, 55101, United States
Step into the shadowy, enchanting world of The Cloisters by Katy Hays — a novel brimming with secrets, tarot cards, and a hint of the supernatural. This darkly atmospheric tale follows a young scholar drawn into the mysterious research halls of a gothic museum in New York City, where the line between scholarship and magic begins to blur.
It’s a perfect October read — lush, eerie, and spellbinding — the kind of book that begs to be read with a cup of tea, a cozy blanket, and maybe a flickering candle or two. If you love stories about hidden histories, secret societies, and the seductive pull of the unknown, you won’t want to miss this one.

STORIES AT THE STATION - William Kent Krueger and Sarah Stonich
2025-10-16 18:00 - 20:00 | 1881 Eating House, 214 4th Street E, Saint Paul, MN, 55101, United States
An Evening with William Kent Krueger & Sarah StonichThursday, October 16 6:00 pmUnion Depot, St. Paul
Join us for a special night of conversation and readings with two of Minnesota’s finest authors: William Kent Krueger and Sarah Stonich.
The evening will begin with brief opening remarks and introductions. Each author will read a selection from their work, followed by reflections on craft, place, and how Minnesota shapes their storytelling. We’ll follow with a conversation between them, touching on their different approaches, shared themes, and what’s next for each. Audience Q&A will follow, and there will be a book signing and book sale afterward. This event offers a rare opportunity to hear directly from two voices deeply rooted in Minnesota’s literary landscape — one of them a master of atmospheric mystery and the other a chronicler of northern lives and landscapes. You’ll come away with new insights into how place shapes narrative, along with fresh enthusiasm for their newest works. Seating is first-come, first-served (if you need special accommodations, please let us know in advance). Admission is free with registration, and light appetizers and a cash bar will be available.

About the Authors
William Kent Krueger lives in St. Paul, Minnesota, and has long made the state his literary home, setting many of his novels in northern Minnesota. Krueger is best known for his Cork O’Connor mystery series, but also writes stand-alone novels like This Tender Land and Ordinary Grace (which won the Edgar Award for Best Novel in 2013).His latest Cork O’Connor installment, Apostle’s Cove, is expected to continue his tradition of weaving suspense, place, and moral ambiguity.
Sarah Stonich was born in Duluth, Minnesota, and currently resides in Minneapolis.Her fiction often explores small towns in northern Minnesota, where she mines the tensions between place, identity, industry, and nature. Stonich’s first novel, These Granite Islands, was published in 2001 and went on to international translation and critical acclaim (including a Loft McKnight Award and a Minnesota State Arts Board Award). She recently published Fishing!, a sharp, funny novel about family, culture, and the outdoors.

CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE: The Warm Hands of Ghosts
2025-10-22 18:30 - 20:00 | Story Line Books, 214 Fourth Street E Suite 160, Saint Paul, MN, 55101, United States
As Halloween approaches, we’re reading something hauntingly beautiful — The Warm Hands of Ghosts: A Novel by Katherine Arden. Set in the aftermath of World War I, this lyrical novel weaves history and the supernatural into a story about love, loss, and the lingering spirits of the past.
With its mist-covered battlefields, ghostly encounters, and aching humanity, The Warm Hands of Ghosts feels like a candlelit séance between memory and myth. It’s the perfect October read — eerie enough to raise goosebumps, tender enough to break your heart, and best enjoyed with a mug of something warm while the wind rattles the windows.

NONFICTION- Just Mercy
2025-10-29 18:30 - 20:00 | Story Line Books, 214 Fourth Street E Suite 160, Saint Paul, MN, 55101, United States
This month, we’re reading Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson — a powerful true story about justice, redemption, and the fight for dignity in America’s criminal legal system. Stevenson’s memoir is both heartbreaking and deeply inspiring, showing how compassion and courage can change lives even in the face of impossible odds.
We’re especially excited that Jimmy, who is a public defender in Hennepin County, will be leading the discussion! His real-world perspective promises an engaging, thought-provoking conversation about fairness, reform, and what mercy really means. Join us for an evening of good company, honest dialogue, and big ideas that stay with you long after you leave.

Halloween Trivia Night
2025-10-31 19:00 - 22:00 | 1881 Eating House, 214 4th Street E, Saint Paul, MN, 55101, United States
Do you know which real-life member of the European nobility inspired Bram Stoker’s Dracula? Do you prefer a big, old, classy, and very haunted train station to the crowded bar scene? Join us for a celebration of all things spooky on Halloween night! There will be food and drink specials all evening, and our 3.5 round trivia game will start at 8, with the winners taking home a $30 gift card to SLB!
It’s not required, but if you RSVP below you’ll get 10% off your first cocktail of the evening!
Trivia Rules

Teams of between 1-4 people
Three full rounds of 10 questions each: Scary Movies; Horror in Literature; and Hauntings IRL.
+ 5 question bonus round of questions about ghosts haunting St Paul. Everything you need to know to ace this round will be talked about on the CynCity Union Depot Ghost Tour, offered several times a week all October long!
Once per round, you can send a team member into the bookstore to look up an answer in the books! Otherwise, this is a closed book test!
The questions will increase in difficulty within each round – harder questions are worth more points!
The winning team will get a $40 gift card to SLB, which can be split into up to four $10 cards!

100 ESSENTIALS: An American Tragedy
2025-11-12 18:30 - 20:00 | Story Line Books, 214 Fourth Street E Suite 160, Saint Paul, MN, 55101, United States
This month, Story Line Books is reading An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser — a landmark novel first published in 1925 that still resonates today. Based on real events, the story follows Clyde Griffiths, a young man yearning for success and respectability, who finds himself torn between love, ambition, and the crushing weight of his choices. Dreiser’s sweeping narrative explores the stark divides of class, the allure and danger of the American dream, and the moral struggles that can shape — or shatter — a life.
We’ll come together to reflect on the novel’s themes, its historical context, and the questions it raises about ambition, morality, and fate. Whether you’re encountering this powerful work for the first time or revisiting it with fresh eyes, we’d love to have you join the conversation.
📖 Bring your copy, your curiosity, and your perspective — everyone’s voice adds something unique to the discussion.

STORIES AT THE STATION - Pete Gallagher
2025-11-20 18:00 - 20:00 | 1881 Eating House, 214 4th Street E, Saint Paul, MN, 55101, United States
Join us to meet local St. Paul author Pete Gallagher whose debut novel Backwashed was featured in Mary Ann Grossman’s column in the Pioneer Press.
Mr. Gallagher will read from his novel and then we will open the floor to questions and answers. As always, light appetizers will be served alongside a cash bar.
RSVPs appreciated for headcount purposes. but not required!

THE ESSENTIALS - Animal Farm
2026-01-14 18:30 - 20:00 | Story Line Books, 214 Fourth Street E Suite 160, Saint Paul, MN, 55101, United States
This extraordinary book does in 120 pages what it would take most people a treatise to do – deliver a clear-eyed and devastating takedown of authoritarianism and, more specifically, Soviet-style “communism.” Let’s talk about what it says, what it doesn’t say, and whether we should still be listening more than thirty years after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

STAFF CHOICE - Circe
2026-01-21 18:30 - 20:00 | Story Line Books, 214 Fourth Street E Suite 160, Saint Paul, MN, 55101, United States

CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE - The Life Impossible
2026-01-28 18:30 - 20:00 | Story Line Books, 214 Fourth Street E Suite 160, Saint Paul, MN, 55101, United States

NONFICTION - On Tyranny
2026-02-04 18:30 - 20:00 | Story Line Books, 214 Fourth Street E Suite 160, Saint Paul, MN, 55101, United States

The League of Minnesota Poets - Poetry Reading
2026-02-07 12:00 - 14:00 | Story Line Books, 214 Fourth Street E Suite 160, Saint Paul, MN, 55101, United States
Join us Saturday, February 7 at noon as we welcome the League of Minnesota Poets to the store! Six of their members will be sharing their work with us, and there will be light snacks provided. We’ll get started at noon, be sure to arrive a little early to snag a seat! Poets will be reading from their own collections and will have books available for sale!
Poets:
Kathleen Wedl
Dralandra Larkins
Dennis Maulsby
Mary Joe Robinson-Jamison
Connie Bogard
Annette Gagliardi, Poet Laureate for the League of Minnesota Poets

THE ESSENTIALS - Fahrenheit 451
2026-02-11 18:30 - 20:00 | MN

STAFF PICK - Legendborn
2026-02-18 18:30 - 20:00 | Story Line Books, 214 Fourth Street E Suite 160, Saint Paul, MN, 55101, United States

CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE - The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store
2026-02-25 18:30 - 20:00 | Story Line Books, 214 Fourth Street E Suite 160, Saint Paul, MN, 55101, United States
