Top Six Reads for 2012

St. Louis County Library has announced its 2012 winners for the annual Read St. Louis initiative.

Not only are the six books great reads, but the library hosts a whole program of discussions and activities around each book.

First up on the library's pick includes a description and meeting the author.

• Memoir: Some Assembly Required: A Journal of My Son's First Son by Anne Lamott. The author partners with her son, who became a father at 19, to tell the story of her new grandchild. Lamott's lyrical, intimate writing guides the reader through her struggles with alcoholism and drugs to find happiness in her work, religion and family.

Lamott and her son, Sam, will be in Ladue, March 24, discussing her memoir, 7pm at the St. Louis County Library headquarters, 1640 S. Lindbergh Blvd.

Here are the rest of the 2012 Read St. Louis picks.

• Non-Fiction: The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration, by Isabel Wilkerson 

• Fiction/New Voices: Kapitoil by Teddy Wayne

• Distinguished Literary Achievement: The Outlaw Album by Daniel Woodrell
  

• Teen Fiction: Thou Shalt Not Road Trip by Antony John

• Children’s Non-Fiction: A Boy Called Dickens by Deborah Hopkinson.

The library will develop programs, like the discussion with author Lamott, for each book as part of the Read St. Louis initiative.

"At the core of the program is a belief that making reading fun, exciting and occasionally educational, will stimulate a passion for lifelong learning in all of us," the library said.