Thomasville native and author Pamela D. Arceneaux returns to her hometown to discuss her book, “Guidebooks to Sin: The Blue Books of Storyville, New Orleans,” to kick off the Summer Reading Program at the Thomas County Public Library on Friday, June 2.

“Guidebooks to Sin” is the first contemporary study of blue books, the notorious guides to Storyville, a legal red-light district that thrived on the edge of the French Quarter from 1898 to 1917. Curious pieces of Americana, Storyville’s blue books functioned as consumer guides that promoted commercialized prostitution as bourgeois leisure, promising lavish goods and services, without mentioning sex. Because they were originally created as disposable resources, few copies exist today — 100 years after Storyville’s closure. The Historic New Orleans Collection has amassed what is considered among the largest collections of these rare documents.

“Guidebooks to Sin” incorporates Arceneaux’s decades of research on the blue books and features more than 300 images, including full-color facsimiles of these rare artifacts. Together with a foreword by Emily Epstein Landau, placing the books in their historical context, the new archival-quality art book is the ultimate guide to these artifacts, which provide a unique window into this chapter of American history.

The program will take place at noon at the Thomas County Public Library at 201 N. Madison St. in Thomasville. It is free and open to the public.