The Library Book is history and a love story to books.

The Los Angeles Public Library sustained a devastating fire in 1986, damaging or burning more than one million books. Susan Orlean weaves the investigation and aftermath of the 1986 fire, along with alternating chapters providing the ongoing history of the library from its start.

The reader gets to experience the support of the Los Angeles community for its much loved library; we learn the stories of some of the librarians and the mental anguish caused by the wreckage of books. As we learn the overall history of the library, we are also introduced to the stories behind Los Angeles itself.

As a book lover, I avidly enjoyed Susan Orlean's writing and her deft handling of history and emotions. The Library Book is going to be a win for all book lovers.

This book details the events surrounding the fire that destroyed a major part of the Los Angeles Library in 1986 and recovery efforts in saving a large portion of the material damaged by smoke and water and those impacted by the fire who work at the library. The author also spends significant time covering the history of the library along with similar events of library/book destruction through the course of history. 

Her writing style is engaging and informative making this an enjoyable read that is hard to put down. That is impressive in considering that this is a work of nonfiction. She definitely has a passion for the subject about which she is writing.

I recommend this book for anyone with an interest in the story behind the Los Angeles Library or libraries in general.

I received a free Kindle copy of The Library Book by Susan Orlean courtesy of Net Galley  and Simon and Schuster, the publisher. It was with the understanding that I would post a review on Net Galley, Goodreads, Amazonand my fiction book review blog. I also posted it to my Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google Plus pages.

I requested this book as the description sounded interesting and I have always been fascinated with libraries.  This is the first book I have read by the author.

It's a mystery what happened at the Central Public Library in Los Angeles on April 29 1986, when a big fire took place destroying many and many books. The author investigates the events of that day, trying to find an explanation, but in the meanwhile she tells a universal story of all libraries in the world, rediscovering their importance and their role in the society, in the past and in modern times. We go back and forth through the history of libraries, focusing more on the one in Los Angeles, but Orlean finishes to celebrate such an important institution, underlining the cultural baggage of books. Reading this book is like stopping at once, sitting still and beginning a journey through time where books are always around you and explain you different point of views, remembering past memories and foreseeing the near future. A future where maybe the library has to reinvent itself and struggle to find its place in the heart of people, competing with new ways of bringing knowledge, now passed down to ebooks as well. But is it a real battle? Will libraries become old-fashioned? It's with these questions in mind that "The library book" becomes a book worth reading.

I thank NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for the opportunity to read an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

È un mistero che cosa è successo alla Central Public Library di Los Angeles il 29 aprile 1986, quando un incendio di vaste dimensioni ha distrutto moltissimi libri. L'autrice investiga sugli eventi di quel giorno, cercando di trovare una spiegazione e nel frattempo racconta la storia universale delle biblioteche in tutto il mondo, riscoprendo la loro importanza e il ruolo che ricoprono nella società, allora come ora, in tempi moderni. Andiamo avanti e indietro nella storia delle biblioteche con una maggiore attenzione a quella di Los Angeles, ma Orlean finisce per celebrare un'istituzione così importante, sottolineando il bagaglio culturale lasciato dai libri. Leggere questo libro è come fermarsi improvvisamente, mettersi seduti tranquilli e cominciare un viaggio attraverso il tempo dove i libri sono sempre attorno a te e ti spiegano punti di vista diversi, ricordando memorie passate e prevedendo il futuro più vicino. Un futuro dove forse la biblioteca dovrà reinventarsi e combatterà per trovare il suo posto nel cuore delle persone, conteso da nuovi metodi di sapere, trasmesso ora anche con gli ebook. Ma si tratta davvero di una battaglia? Le biblioteche diventeranno fuori moda? È tenendo a mente queste domande che "The Library book" diventa un libro che merita una lettura.

Ringrazio NetGalley e Simon and Schuster per avermi dato l'opportunità di poter leggere un ARC di questo libro in cambio di una recensione onesta.

Susan Orlean's latest book, The Library Book, was a hot ticket at Book Expo this year. I didn't get a hard copy, which was a bummer, but I was approved for an electronic copy so I jumped for joy. And what a joy this book was.

One spring morning in 1986, a fire broke out at the main Los Angeles Public Library. It was so intense, so all-consuming that 30 years later, residents remember it well. No one knows exactly how or where it started, only that it was arson. A suspect began to emerge — a man named Harry Peak, an aspiring actor and a generally confusing man who lived to spin tall tales. Orlean, a recent Los Angeles transplant, hears about the story after re-finding her childhood love of libraries at the venerable Los Angeles institution. Part narrative non-fiction, part historical record of the Los Angeles Public Library, and part love letter to libraries everywhere, this book focuses in on a place we all know and love yet rarely dig deep into: the oublic library.

I wanted to read this book, but I can also say from looking into the rear view mirror that I wasn’t quite expecting what I got with this book. It was so much more than I was expecting, which was an historical account of this fire that destroyed millions of books and brought out the best in Los Angelenos. Orlean has put together a beautiful book that closely examines the history of libraries in general and the LAPL in terms of its origins, it’s sexist history, and the current societal position it holds as a welcome mat for the masses regardless of race, color, creed, gender, or even itinerancy. The library is open to all who can get through their doors while they are open. Orlean focuses on this and breathes life into a building that is so much more than that, as it is the lifeblood of the city to so many.

The trips that Orlean takes with the staff of the LAPL, to other branches both closed and in use; into meetings about how to better serve their constituencies; and to library conferences where staff from all over the world seek ways to improve what they do in a changing world all serve to elevate the story of the fire and give us, the readers, a full-bodied and overt understanding of why we need public libraries. This was an absolutely fascinating read, and I can’t recommend it highly enough. And if you aren’t already a partron of your local public library, make it a point to go before the month is out. See the good these places do for all of our communities, no matter where we are in the United States.

“All the things that are wrong in the world seem conquered by a library’s simple unspoken promise: Here is my story, please listen; here I am, please tell me your story.”

And that is the simple premise of a library’s place in society – and just why we need them. Stories to transport, inform, enlighten and perhaps even to start on that tricky path to building a community. I don’t know about you -but libraries have been a place in my life that have always felt like home – from working with my mother and the other ladies on the town’s library committee to clean, refresh and update the lending catalog in the little town library, to losing myself in the stacks at the university, Boston, New York and London public libraries, and always finding something to capture attention and imagination – I have memories of library withdrawals that haunt me.

Susan Orlean tells the story of a devastating fire in Los Angeles in the public library in 1986. Still questions (and effects) survive that fire- damaging or destroying over one million works. One Million. Let that sink in. My heart still hurts to think of the works lost – perhaps someone needed JUST that book at the moment to help answer a question, or propel them along a journey….. But this isn’t simply a book about the fire and an investigation – but a pointed (and often humorous) look at patrons and librarians, history of the prime suspect in the case, and details from different books that play a role in the chapter as well as the overall story arc. If you, like me, are still aggravated by the devastation of the Library of Alexandria, there is so much to love in this book – and taking this further out:, further fixing the need and place for libraries in today’s society.

Told with wit, humor, incredible research and a take on the function, form and place in the world as we live it today, this book manages to provide insight, new ‘oh I didn’t know” moments and celebrates the joy of literature in all forms. Perhaps this may even stir a new desire for you to avail yourself of the joys found in a library – bring your children and let them get a lending card – I know that my daughter could not wait until she was enrolled in first grade to get her card – in fact, we went as soon as her class assignment page was in her hand. Libraries provide words… and words are the key to everything in this life.

I received an eArc copy of the title from the publisher via NetGalley for purpose of honest review. I was not compensated for this review: all conclusions are my own responsibility

Review first appeared at <a href=”https://wp.me/p3OmRo-a44 /”> <a> I am, Indeed </a> .

This is a must read for a book lover and anyone who has used the library throughout their lives. Susan Orlean captures so much of how I feel about books and libraries from when I was a young child and my mother was constantly telling me to get my nose out of the book I was reading. I wasn't brought up in a home with books, so for me the local library was a place of wonder and comfort, and libraries have continued to be a well loved friend throughout my life, I am sure I would never have been the first person in my family to go to university without them. Orlean takes us through the story of the fire that consumed the Los Angeles Library and follows up on the suspected perpetrator. What shines through this book is the love of books, libraries, and reading!! This is my kind of book and I recommend it highly to all those to whom books and libraries play an integral part of their lives. Brilliant and Magical Thanks to Simon and Schuster for an ARC of this superb book.

Who would've thought that "delightful" and "deeply pleasurable" would be honest reactions to a book about -- LIBRARIES??? And yet, In Susan Orlean's capable hands, that is what happened as I read The Library Book.

It's part true-crime mystery, part sociological overview of 20th Century America, part literary travelogue and part oral history of the quirky people who staff and use libraries in countries around the world. These sections circle around each other, with a starring role given to the chief suspect for the disastrous 1986 fire at the Los Angeles Central Library.

I. LOVED. THIS. BOOK. Thanks to NetGalley for an advance readers copy.

I love Susan Orlean's writing. This was a fascinating look at libraries and the Los Angeles Public Library in particular. Very engaging. Really kept me turning pages. A fascinating history. I visited the main branch of the Los Angeles Public Library not that long ago. It was great to read this and be able to see in my mind what she was talking about. It is a beautiful library and this is a beautiful book to tell its story.

This is Banned Books Week. As part of my own personal Banned Books Week celebration I read and review at least one book about libraries, or books, or a book that has been banned. Or Fahrenheit 451 which kind of hits the trifecta.

The Library Book is not about book banning. Instead, it’s about book burning. Not the kind of book burning that occurs in Fahrenheit 451, but something less political but unfortunately just as deliberate.

It’s about a real-life case that definitely involved the perfect temperature, and conditions, for burning books. An awful lot of books.

But that’s not the only thing in The Library Book. A big part of the story revolves around that calamitous fire, the ultimately inconclusive investigation into its cause, and the massive amount of effort required in its aftermath for the Los Angeles Public Library’s Central Library to open for business once more.

In the process of investigating the fire, the author also took a deep dive into the current operations of LAPL. In the end, this book serves as a love letter to one of the great public libraries in the United States, and ultimately to all public libraries.

The process of looking at and into LAPL as it is today, the way that its mission has changed and adapted, and all of the many ways that it continues to serve its rich and varied community, showcases the vital work that libraries perform in the 21st century. And makes the case, yet again, that libraries are not dusty repositories of books.

That the author also rediscovered her own love of libraries, and the sweetness of the childhood memories she had wrapped around them, was the icing on the cake.

Reality Rating A: When I first picked this up I was expecting more than a bit of “insider baseball” – but I’m happy to report that is not the case. The author is looking at the library’s operation from the point of view of an interested bystander, a user of libraries, and not someone on the inside.

That being said, the operations she described will be familiar to anyone who has ever worked in a library, particularly those of us who have worked in some of the large urban libraries. While the Los Angeles community served by LAPL is different from Chicago, many of the internal workings of a large urban library seem to be the same.

The story of the fire is fascinating and heartbreaking. Like the author, I wondered why I did not remember the events when they occurred. I was a working librarian at the time. But the fire, as big as it was (and it was HUGE) could not eclipse the news of the Chernobyl disaster. Not much can compete with the potential end of the world as we know it.

Readers will find the investigation frustrating, as did investigators at the time. The story has all the elements of a true crime thriller – but with no definitive ending. Somebody set this fire, but we’ll never know who. This part of the story lacks closure but is true to life. There was a strong suspect with a weak alibi, but ultimately it’s a mystery.

What emerges from The Library Book, along with smoke that can still be sniffed between the pages of those books that survived the fire, is a portrait of libraries as community institutions, and just how vital they can be when they reach out and serve.

In the end, the story in some ways reminds me of the recent events in Brazil and the fire that consumed the National History Museum in Rio de Janeiro. Both fires were the largest of their kind. Both took place in buildings that were known to be firetraps – places where maintenance and prevention had been neglected for years. And both were conflagrations that caused incalculable losses of knowledge and history.

LAPL rose from its ashes, with a lot of blood, sweat, tears and above all, effort. Perhaps someday the National History Museum of Brazil will as well.

This is a book that every Librarian should own, not because it is called the Library Book but the fact it is such an inspiring story how a well-known library came back from a devastating fire to establish one of the most well-known libraries in the country. Every Librarian can find something in this book they can relate to and also take with them and implement in their jobs such as me. Also, the community will also appreciate a book like this to see the value of libraries and what they provide for the community overall and not just books.

The Library Book tells the story of the Los Angeles Public Library (LPL) that had a devastating fire in one of their stacks that just grew and grew destroying every book and material the library had in their collection. The question still remains who set the library on fire? Susan Orlean takes it upon herself to investigate this atrocious event and get to the bottom of why someone would damage such a treasure to the city. Susan later finds from all the employees and members of the community that libraries are more than just books growing into a multimodal conglomerate.

This book was just so captivating and interesting that it just kept me glued to my seat. Not only will I consider purchasing this book for my collection, but I might end up buying a copy for myself! That is why I am definitely giving this book and the brilliant work of Susan Orlean 5 stars!

This book started out strong and really caught my attention with the true story of the Library Fire in Los Angeles. However, it meandered around a bit too much for me, and I lost interest.

Brilliant. I found this to be captivating and incredibly well written. The descriptions of how a fire burns and the spread as it encompassed the LA Library made my heart race with anxiety. Told in alternating chapters about the fire, about the author, the history of the LA Central Library and also about the arson investigation and it's ultimate target, each story line was interesting and well paced. As a librarian, perhaps I am biased, but Susan Orlean's excitement about libraries and their past and future feels contagious and certainly well placed. She outlines her reasons for writing so well at the very end of the book, I will leave you with her own words:
"this is why I wanted to write this book, to tell about a place I love that doesn't belong to me but feels like it is mine, and how that feels like a marvelous and exceptional thing. All the things that are wrong in the world seem conquered by a library's simple unspoken promise: Here is my story, please listen; here I am, please tell me your story."

with thanks to NetGalley.com, the author (Susan Orlean), and the publisher, Simon & Schuster, for the Advanced Reader Copy.

The Library Book by Susan Orlean reads like a smooth beautifully written documentary on the background, building and almost desttruction in the fire of the Central Library in downtown Los Angeles on April 29, 1086. This was a horrifying event for all book lovers and readers - 400,000 books burned and 700,000 books were damaged. Ray Bradbury who started his writing career and wrote many books in this library was quoted "the library was my nesting place, my birthing place; it was my growing place. The story is gripping and full of wonderful information, written so well you smell the smoke. Ms. Orlean starts the story from her own growning up years at the library with her mother. She says' it was an indulgence in the library and the books" and 'I turned into a revenous buyer of books'along with this lovey phrase, "the library is a gathering pool of narratives and the people who come to find them. Absolutely lovely. Thank you to #netgalley and #susanorlean #thelibrarybook

"The Library Book" tells the story about a massive fire at the Los Angeles Public Library in 1986. Like the author, I had never heard about the fire, which destroyed 400,000 books and damaged 700,000 more. The description of the fire spreading is painful to anyone who loves books. Orlean looks at the case of the man suspected of starting the fire and what could possibly have motivated him. Besides covering the fire, the history and the rebuilding of the library, this book is also a love letter to libraries in general. At the start of each chapter, the author lists three or four books or other reading materials, including their Dewey decimal numbers, that relate to that chapter. It's very effective. I've already started recommending this book to friends and family.

(**I received my free advanced readers copy of this release at Book Expo**)
The Library Book by award-winning journalist and New York Times bestselling author Susan Orlean (releasing October 16, 2018 from @SimonandSchuster) tells the story of one of the most catastrophic library fires in American history, the 1986 Los Angeles Public Library fire.

This is a book for book and library lovers. Peek behind the scenes of some modern libraries and take a look at how they are vital to our communities. If you like this book, I suggest you also check out The Card Catalog: Books, Cards, and Literary Treasures by Library of Congress.

All the things that are wrong in the world seem conquered by a library's simple unspoken promise: Here is my story, please listen; here I am, please tell me your story.

Journalist and author Susan Orlean began investigating the devastating 1986 fire at Central Library in Los Angeles. By the time the fire was brought under control, half a million books were destroyed and 700,000 more damaged: "It was one of the biggest fires in the history of Los Angeles and the single biggest library fire in the history of the United States." Looming over this cultural and community tragedy was the implication that it seemed to be arson.

The culprit honed in on during the investigation was a young man named Harry Peak. Peak is a tricky character: he had trouble with the truth, spinning wild yarns for his friends and family and always seeming to prefer embellishments to truth. He went on acting auditions and despite claiming to have appeared on some TV shows, although Orlean didn't find much evidence to support this. He always had exciting tales from his auditioning and Hollywood life though, like becoming friends with Burt Reynolds after meeting him on an audition. Orlean's messages to Reynolds trying to confirm went unanswered, and sadly now we'll never know.

Harry was also a bit of a drifter, so in addition to his exaggerations and lying, he's a difficult person to pin down: "Large blocks of Harry's time during this period are unaccounted for and left no trace. He built no resume, had no steady employment. He was a tumbleweed, lifted and carried wherever the wind took him, alighting briefly in this job and that and then blowing along, leaving little behind as he rolled on."

In the course of following this story, paths suddenly branch out and new stories appear. In a delightful twist, Peak isn't even the quirkiest character to populate this story. Orlean has always had an eye for eccentric but fascinating personalities, and they're wonderfully in abundance here. Orlean also shows what libraries meant to her, covers library history, the lives and jobs of dedicated employees and librarians, and the part the library plays in the community, now and as it adapts for the future. The Los Angeles library is at the center of this story, but the book becomes about libraries themselves, worldwide, how much they contain and how much depends on them. As anyone who loves the library knows, it's never only been about book lending.

It seems simple to describe what a library seems to be - namely, it is a storeroom of books. But the more time I spent at Central, the more I realized that a library is an intricate machine, a contraption of whirring gears. There were days when I came to the library and planted myself near the center of the main corridor and simply watched the whirl and throb of the place.

In characteristic Orlean style, she lets her curiosity take her where it may and it results in so many fascinating tidbits that it's hard to absorb it all in a single read of the book.

In Senegal, the polite expression for saying someone died is to say his or her library has burned. When I first heard the phrase, I didn't understand it, but over time I came to realize it was perfect. Our minds and souls contain volumes made of our experiences and emotions; each individual's consciousness is a collection of memories we've cataloged and stored inside us, a private library of a life lived. It is something that no one else can entirely share, one that burns down and disappears when we die.

Despite this multitude of threads which could have been chaotic and catastrophic - at times it seemed like every chapter headed off in a new direction, this book is simply wonderful. I can't remember feeling so much pure joy while reading a book. I already know I love Orlean's detailed but effortless-seeming writing, as I'm a longtime fan of The Orchid Thief, the book behind the movie Adaptation and what helped solidify her place in creative nonfiction. But The Library Book surpassed that one for me.

I love that her storytelling here begins with one premise, and by the end I'd learned an astonishing amount about topics I wasn't anticipating encountering at all. I know for some readers this isn't preferable, and I've loathed it myself in other books that bait-and-switch, but here it feels instead like the natural extension of curiosity. She has an eye for the quirky but compelling in history and personalities, and always for what makes a good story. Her writing is what makes any topic readable - it's enveloping, detail-filled without being confusing, charmingly funny, smart, and personal without making the story about her.

It's impressive when an author can cover so much ground and still manage to keep it interesting. Whatever thread of the story Orlean tells, I was invested. Her descriptions are what I wish every nonfiction narrative was made of - a passage describing how the fire would've begun is one that will stay with me. Even when she gets into the mechanics of this particularly aggressive and well-conditioned fire, I was intrigued. "A stoichiometric condition is almost impossible to create outside of a laboratory. It requires such an elusive, precise balance of fuel and fire and oxygen that, in a sense, it is more theoretical than actual. Many firefighters have never seen such a blaze and never will."

Orlean is ever detail-oriented, and it even extends to the book's structure: each chapter begins with well-selected actual book titles, hinting and suggesting something of the content to come. These are delightful - Drunk, Divorced & Covered in Cat Hair: The True-Life Misadventures of a 30-Something Who Learned to Knit After He Split was a favorite.

I'm not sure how better to capture what I loved so much about The Library Book than to share some passages that spoke to me - especially those with the ability to tell a complete story in a single paragraph. It's hard to summarize this book succinctly since it's so varying and unusual. I think it's enough to say anyone who loves libraries, history, and a good mystery will connect with this material, and find the celebration of how much a library really means to be comfortingly familiar.

The library is an easy place to be when you have no place you need to go and a desire to be invisible.

It becomes harder all the time to think of places that welcome everyone and don't charge any money for that warm embrace. The commitment to inclusion is so powerful that many decisions about the library hinge on whether or not a particular choice would cause a subset of the public to feel uninvited.

Other books have a tendency to be loaned out and never returned. The library has bought countless copies of Carlos Castaneda's books because so many of them journey out and never come back. Another author, David Icke, who writes about his global conspiracy theories and about a race of reptilian aliens he believes will eventually dominate Earth, has such acquisitive readers that for a while the library simply stopped ordering replacement copies of his books because it was costing too much to keep up. Icke's books are ranked - anecdotally, at least - as the books that most often disappear. The day Elvis Presley died, someone checked out all of the library's Elvis records and never returned them. The files about the Manson Family and about the Black Dahlia murder, which included clippings and ephemera, disappeared decades ago; they are essentially irreplaceable.

Library rules were schoolmarmish and scoldy...patrons were discouraged from reading too many novels, lest they turn into what the association labeled "fiction fiends."

On Charles Lummis, LA librarian, library advocate, all-round fascinating figure: The popularity of pseudo-science books, which he considered "not worth the match to burn them up," worried him. Instead of removing the books from the collection, he established what he called the "Literary Pure Food Act" to warn readers about them. He hired a blacksmith to make a branding in the shape of a skull and crossbones - the poison warning symbol - and used it to brand the frontispiece of the offending books. He also created warning cards to insert in the questionable books. He wanted to cards to say, "This book is of the worst class that we can possibly keep in the library. We are sorry that you have not any better sense than to read it," but he was persuaded to use a more restrained tone. 

People searching for missing loved ones sometimes scribbled messages in library books with the hope that the person they were looking for would see them - as if the library had become a public broadcast system, a volley of calls and wished-for responses. Page margins were dappled with penciled pleas tossed into the wide-open sea of the library. "Dear Jennie: Where are you keeping yourself?" said one note written on a page of a book in the Los Angeles library in 1914. "I have searched three cities for you and advertised in vain. Knowing that you like books, I am writing this appeal in every library book I can get hold of in hope that it may come to your eyes. Write to me at the old address, please."

In the end, coming back to the fire that sparked this story, Orlean admits to a vacillating opinion on Peak's guilt. It's hard not to feel the same, and to be disturbed at what might have motivated the act. As she puts it, "Taking books away from a culture is to take away its shared memory. It's like taking away the ability to remember your dreams." 

An ambitious blend of some Los Angeles history and social portrait of the community, centered around and branching from the library's role, sometimes circling back to the historic, mysterious fire that still haunts those who witnessed it, and an even more mysterious man who may or may not have been involved - all wrapped up in a love letter to libraries, librarians, and the institution's ability to adapt to the community's changing needs.

I read this book with no expectations. And my, was I surprised by how much it opened my eyes!

I'm a lover of books and a big believer of libraries. And Orlean not only did a thorough research on the history in the LA Public Library, what happened before and after it's been burned down and the impact it made, but she all also wrote it beautifully, and introduced us to the passionate and hardworking staff who work tirelessly in keeping the library as welcoming as possible to the public.

Highly recommend this book to all book lovers!

Thank you Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for an eARC of this book. Was so happy when I finally managed to DL it onto my kindle!

A full review will be posted on my blog closer to publication date.

The perfect book to finish reading as I celebrate one year of working within the outreach department of my local library. This book covers so much more than the devastating 1986 Los Angeles Public Library fire and the subsequent investigation of prime suspect Harry Peak; Orlean delves into many related topics to reveal how libraries have evolved from buildings providing a useful community service to a vital piece of our national identity. There are times that Orlean jumps around a little too often for my liking, but she never once loses the thread of her main focus and her writing is truly spectacular. Prefacing each chapter with a short list of library items related to the material covered is a nice, clever touch. Highly recommended for fellow librarians or anyone with a deep love of the library.

Orleans breaks the stereotype of the library being a dusty, staid silent environment - she establishes very early on that the library is NOT quiet. In addition to being a bustling center of activity in every corner, it is constantly re-innovating with the times, and sometimes ahead of them.
I appreciated the weaving in of history, while highlighting some of the library's less obvious services: literacy programs, homeless outreach, ESOL, tax preparation assistance (sometimes for drug dealers living off the grid), along with the characters who run and participate in the programs. And, the unexpected challenges that libraries face alongside these programs, bordering social services. Alongside were vignettes about the crazy, random questions patrons call with, many of them very Google-able, though clearly simply seeking human connection.
My favorite section was the day in the life of the current library director - an exhausting, but fascinating insight into the breadth of his responsibilities, and his passion is inspiring.
Perhaps purposely, the Harry Peak, who was the primary suspect in the 1987 Los Angeles Central Library fire, while the "hook" of the story, took a back seat much of the time. My one criticism was there were sometimes too many chapters between dropping in and out of his narrative, and I"d lose track of where we last left off.
I am a bibliophile and librarianship was my first career, so while non-fiction is not my usual choice, being familiar with Orleans' work and drawn to the subject, and hope it offers appeal to a wider audience, since it's a great story, and a PSA for the modern library.

Book #63 Read in 2018
The Library Book

This is a collection of short essays, written by authors or journalists, of what their libraries meant to them. It is a nice defense of why libraries are important and should be provided with adequate funding. I borrowed this book from the public library.