Main Street Books

Cozy, Warm and Independently Owned

We appreciate your support of your local independent bookstore. Please come see us again this year.

At Main Street Books we specialize in St. Charles' local history and guidebooks, Western history (including Civil War and Lewis and Clark) and children's books, but our store inventory includes all categories. We also offer selected used books.

We host two book clubs each month and frequent special events. Don't forget our Frequent Buyer Program. Buy 12 books and receive the 13th free (average of prior 12 purchases). Ask for your card today.

The store is located in the Historic District in St. Charles, Missouri. You can find directions on the sidebar to the left. Our building is more than 190 years old and was the residence of the first Secretary of State of Missouri, William Pettus. Want to know more about historic St. Charles and what has survived until today? See below.

It's great to run a bookstore. Recently, author Susan Vreeland dropped by. Not only did she autograph copies of her newest book, CLARA AND MR. TIFFANY, she saw something she liked and bought it. Here's what Susan had to say:

"Here I am in Main Street books, St. Charles, buying a new debut novel, GIRL READING, by Katie Ward, seven stories developed from real paintings of women reading. Congratulations to Katie. I read the first two on the plane on the way home. Fascinating."

You can buy them both at our store.

Co-Owner Jim Erwin's New Book

Jim Erwin, co-owner of Main Street Books, joins Vicki as a published author (he is only 23 behind her now) with Guerrillas in Civil War Missouri from The History Press.

Jim's book is a timely introduction to the brutal war within a war that pitted neighbor against neighbor. After the Union Army successfully squelched the attempt to cause Missouri to join the Confederacy, it had to deal with three years of internal turmoil as guerrillas led by William Quantrill, Bill Anderson, and others (including future Missouri bank and train robbers Jesse and Frank James) carried on hit-and-run warfare against soldiers and civilians. The Border War that resulted in Bleeding Kansas before the Civil War flared up again as Kansans and Missourians traded attacks. The war became increasingly violent -- prisoners were rarely taken and mutilation of the dead by scalping (or worse) became commonplace by both sides. There were over 1000 battles and engagements fought in Missouri -- third most after Virginia and Tennessee -- and almost all of them between guerrillas and Federal troops.

The book is available now from Main Street Books, if you call or e-mail us. It is available for ordering from our website (below).

The cover is below:

For some of Jim's favorite Civil War books, see the sidebar to the left.

World Book Night

World Book Night launched in the UK in 2011 and saw passionate readers across that beautiful country, give 1 million books to light or non readers to spread the joy and love of reading. Reading changes lives and at the heart of World Book Night lies the simplest of ideas and acts - that of putting a book into another person’s hand and saying ‘this one’s amazing, you have to read it’.

For World Book Night, over 150 avid readers gathered on the steps of the Gateway Arch in the area's first Read Mob. See below:

To view a video of the Read Mob, go to the website of the St Louis Independent Bookstore Alliance, the sponsors, at http://www.stlindiebook.com/

Worldwide, over one million free books were given out as part of World Book Night.

HEATHER BREWER

Want an autographed copy of the debut book in her new series, FIRST KILL, THE SLAYER CHRONICLES?You can order it here. Either order now below or call us at 636-949-0105.

If you order on the website, BE SURE TO LEAVE A COMMENT TELLING US YOU WANT AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY.

PLEASE NOTE THAT WE CAN PROVIDE A *PERSONALIZED* AUTOGRAPH *ONLY* WHEN WE SPONSOR AN EVENT WITH HEATHER. WE HAVE NONE SCHEDULED AT THIS TIME, BUT KEEP WATCHING THIS SITE FOR FURTHER INFORMATION.

We Provide E-Commerce Options

You may order books from us online to be picked up at the store or to be shipped direct to your home. Please note that your search on the website will show what is available from our distributor. If you want to know if we have it in stock at the store, please call.

You can also order our autographed books online. Please put in the comments that you want an autographed book.

If you want to buy an e-book for your iPad, Nook, Sony Reader, laptop, smartphone or other device (sorry, not Kindle--send your complaints to Amazon), you can get them here from Google eBooks. We hope to add other new features in the future.

You can now download the IndieBound Reader for your iPhone or Android phone at the App Store.

We are a founding member of the St. Louis Independent Bookstore Alliance, a group of new and used bookstores in the St. Louis Metropolitan area.

For more information on the Alliance and on literary events in the area, check out the website at http://www.stlindiebook.com/ *

St. Charles (Paperback)

By Vicki Berger Erwin, Jessica Dreyer

$21.99

ISBN-13: 9780738583525
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Arcadia Publishing (SC), 2/2011

ST CHARLES THEN AND NOW by Vicki Berger Erwin and Jessica Dreyer, Arcadia, Trade Paper, $21.99.

A shameless plug for the book that Jessica and Vicki (our owner) put together contrasting old St Charles with what exists today. They collected pictures of buildings as they were at an earlier time and Jessica took pictures of them as they appear now. Vicki researched and wrote captions to give a sense of history about the area, relying on a lot of the mythology that exists about the buildings. Hopefully, she didn’t make too many mistakes! Lots of customers have asked for a book like this. Stop by to pick up your copy. And if you have any questions about St Charles either then or now, ask Vicki -- she's here most of the time.

First Kill (Hardcover)

By Heather Brewer

$17.99

ISBN-13: 9780803737419
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Dial, 9/2011

Other Editions of this Title

The Chronicles of Vladmir Tod is still sinking its fangs into readers. Now, "New York Times"-bestselling author Brewer brings fans the other side of the story, from the perspective of Vlad's former friend-turned-mortal enemy, vampire slayer Joss Macmillan.