Reedy Press has released the second edition of “The Making of an Icon: The Dreamers, the Schemers, and the Hard Hats Who Built the Gateway Arch,” by Jim Merkel.

Given the influx of "Girl/Woman in the (you fill in the blank) books," I was anxious to read a mystery not built around a dysfunctional woman.

"All Aboard"

Arcadia Publishing is known for extensively-illustrated books celebrating the history of places, people and cultural institutions. A welcome addition to their “Images of America” series is “Forest Park” by West End Word Editor-in-Chief Don Corrigan and journalist Holly Shanks.

In "The Stars Are Fire," Anita Shreve has once again penned a novel that snares the reader's interest from the first sentence.

After I finished "The Things We Keep" I laid the book down and added another tissue to the pile on my lap.

The rain was heavy now and the hem of her dress was splattered with mud. She'd have to hide it afterwards; no one could know that she'd been out.

“Bettyville” is George Hodgman’s quirky memoir about moving from New York City to his small hometown to care for his aging mother. Hodgman’s story is funny and touching, full of details specific to his own family as well as insights relevant to all.

I had no real interest in reading Harper Lee's "Go Set A Watchman" until my book club chose it, and since I was hostess and had to lead the discussion, I felt it incumbent upon me to read it.

Jon Krakauer is known for delving deep into the subjects of his books such as "Into Thin Air" and "Into the Wild," both books about man versus nature. "Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town" is no different.

Adults:

At age 22, Cheryl Strayed lost her mother to cancer. Her mother was just 44.

St. Louis writer Steve Wiegenstein has crafted a compelling novel about three people hoping to find a life free from the constraints and politics of the outside world — a Utopian Society.

Tony La Russa was ready to retire in 2010. After 33 seasons managing Major League Baseball, and as the third winningist baseball manager in history, he felt he had given all he had and now was the time to bow out. But at the end of that season, he was unsatisfied with the 2010 year and did n…

"Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History" delves into the detailed history of the Comanche Indian and how the tribe came close to stopping westward expansion.

It's 1955. Five sophomore girls involved in a project with their social studies teacher wake up one morning and find themselves 55 years into the future. How could that happen?

Kate: "I had been married three years when I fell in love. Fell, collapsed, stepped off the curb and found nothing but air."

A poet, an essayist and a working ranch woman, Linda Hasselstrom knows about the joys, sorrows, hardships and triumphs of working a ranch. She shares these with readers in "Going Over East," a memoir of her life on a South Dakota ranch.

Small books can convey big messages. "The Reader" is one of those books.