Susan Orlean writes both a love letter to the public library and a history of the LA Public Library fire. If you love libraries, mysteries, and/or books this is a must read.

First of all, what a stunning cover! Secondly, I loved the unique plot - I think the story is a great tale of identity, and that is always something people ought to read about. I think the subject matter is so different, it's not something I think has ever been done before and that is an excellent selling point - What an brilliant booK!

This was a very interesting book from a genre perspective. A blend between true crime, narrative non-fiction, and memoir, I was delighted to see that Orlean's writing is as lovely as I've always been told. That said, I just couldn't seem to fully get into this book's project. It was a book I ultimately admired more than enjoyed, but I would be interested in reading more from her in the future.

THE LIBRARY BOOK by Susan Orlean is actually a narrative non-fiction work that tells the story of the Los Angeles Public Library fire which occurred in 1986. This text, too, includes a bit of a mystery given that the cause of the fire was suspicious and Orlean deftly explores the story of suspect Harry Peak. She also comments on her own relationship with books and reading, especially reflecting on childhood visits to the library with her mother. Overall, this is a fascinating look at library operations. Please see the video below for more visual detail from a PBS NewsHour interview with author Susan Orlean:

embedded video from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maMYa1trDsc

Like millions of people all over the world, I have a fond, deep attachment to libraries. Author and journalist Susan Orlean is one of those people who grew up loving the library, but found herself not visiting it as much as an adult. But then she had a kid, and started visiting her local branch in Los Angeles, and found out for the first time about a major fire there in the 80s that burned hundreds of thousands of books...assumed to be arson, but never actually solved. This inspired her to write The Library Book, which explores that fire and the recovery afterwards, but also the history of the Los Angeles Public Library in general and the changing role of it and other libraries as the greater world has become a different place.

As you might be able to tell from that description, there's not one particularly strong focus for the book. The closest thing to a through-line is a true-crime-esque accounting of the investigation of the fire, and the primary suspect, a failed actor named Harry Peak. But along the way, Orlean touches on the history of libraries, especially the one in Los Angeles, highlighting several of the more interesting directors it has had along the way. While the image of a library in the popular consciousness tends to be of a somewhat stuffy institution, Orlean talks to librarians on the ground to get a more nuanced view, particularly about the role they play in coordinating community and social programming for their users, from children, to new Americans learning English, to the homeless. And she also includes input from the library staff that were there at the time of the fire, the way it impacted them, and how they and the library itself got back to normal.

Orlean's genuine appreciation and love for reading, books, and libraries shines through the text, making an instant connection with the reader. It's impossible to not happily recall your own wonder at the library the first time you went in and realized that all these books are just here, for anyone to take with them and read. And while it might not work for everyone, I found Orlean's subject-hopping to be refreshing...it kept any one portion from bogging down or getting boring. Her descriptions of how the Los Angeles Public Library came to be designed and built made me want to visit it, to see it for myself, and reflect on the ways that public good buildings like libraries have seen their value, in the eyes of the public, decline over the years. Older libraries were often constructed as grand, their mission seen as important and necessary. Nowadays, it's about how to keep costs down, aiming for sturdy functionality over inspiration.

The way Orlean unwinds her story may prove irritating to a reader who prefers a strictly linear narrative. And after spending quite a bit of time going down a path which makes you think she's relatively convinced of Peak's guilt for setting the library ablaze, she refuses to draw that conclusion, leaving it ambiguous in a way that could be frustrating for someone who really wants closure. But her storytelling skills are top-notch, and if you're willing to follow her, you'll be rewarded by a genuinely compelling work of non-fiction. While I'll admit it didn't have the little something extra that would have pushed it to "great" in my mind, it was very good and I happily and highly recommend it to everyone, especially those who love to read.

Bibliophiles rejoice! Renowned New Yorker reporter Susan Orlean has written something just for us! The Library Book is the perfect choice for all those who love books about books.

It is probable that many people have never even heard of the Los Angeles Public Library fire of 1986. This was a fire that had disastrous consequences, with hundreds of thousands of books destroyed and several more thousand damaged. Arson was immediately suspected, and Orlean spends a fair amount of time diving into the background of the prime suspect, along with his trial. However, this is just one part The Library Book. Along with the investigation, Orlean also effortlessly weaves chapters about the history of the library itself with the institution in modern day. If you've ever wanted to know what it's like to take on such a monumental undertaking as the Los Angelic Public Library system, it's all in here.

Orlean goes to great lengths to explain that a library is so much more than just books. All people are welcomed to take advantage of everything it has to offer, from computer access to just getting out of the cold. This is a wonderful love letter to libraries everywhere.

MY RATING - 4

If you love non-fiction that reads like fiction, this will be your favorite book for a long time. The Los Angeles Public Library serves as the protagonist, fire the antagonist, and every book and person in the library's long history are supporting characters that tell the stories of the building, the books, and of knowledge itself. As a librarian, I wept as the flames stole millions of pages from bookshelves and readers in Los Angeles, and continued to grieve as Orlean details the long history of libraries and fires in human history.

This book is definitely one for bibliophiles, but can find a wider audience with people who are interested in world history. It's a fabulous true crime mystery too. I will be buying this for gifts this year.

I really enjoyed this book. It's not only about the L.A. Library fire that occurred in 1986, but a history of the L.A. Library, libraries in general and the author's remembrances of growing up going to the library with her mother when she was young. It was interesting and a fun to recollect about similar things in my past. If you are a book lover and more specifically a library lover this is a interesting and enjoyable book to read. Definitely recommend reading it.

This is the type of book you never want to end! With beautiful writing, the story of the LA Central Library fire in 1986 comes to life. I enjoyed reminiscing about that time and learning about events which I was not previously aware.

Another revelation this book enabled for me was an appreciation for physical books. I embraced e readers, was an early adopter of the kindle, yet now realize that I may be missing the physical experience of reading.

Overall, this was a wonderful book and will highly recommend it to all readers.

Ironically, as a librarian, I am actually not the intended audience for this book and I feel like I appreciated it less than a lay person would because of my inside knowledge. It started to feel repetitive to me. Overall it felt unresolved and a bit self-indulgent.

That being said, Susan Orlean can write. This was full of fascinating tidbits and was organized in a very readable manner and I will likely recommend it at the desk and try other titles by her.

I though my love for books would evoke some emotion in me while reading about the destruction of books but that wasn’t the case. It just read too slow and I was ready to move on to anything else after the first pages. Just not my style.

My Rating: 4.5 stars

Have you ever come across a book that felt like it was meant for you to read and then afterwards occupies a permanent place in your heart due to the special connection you feel with it? Well, for me, Susan Orlean’s The Library Book was definitely THAT book (the reasons why will become more clear later on in this review).

I’ve had my nose in a book ever since I learned how to read at 5 or 6 years old (though my mom likes to tell people that I might have well been born with a book in my hands, since I was always attracted to books even as an infant – my mom said whenever I cried, she would simply put a baby book in my crib and instantly I would stop crying, lol). One of the fondest memories of my childhood was the bi-weekly trip to the local library that my mom would take me on, where I would always check out a huge stack of books (I remember I would always exceed the limit of books that I was allowed to check out on my card so my mom would end up checking out a few of my books on her card), take them home and read them all in less than a week, then beg my mom to take me back to the library again before our regular “library day” so I could return that stack of books and check out new ones. My thirst for books and reading were insatiable back in those days and so of course, the library became my “candy shop” growing up – it was my “most favorite place on earth,” a place where I could literally spend the entire day browsing through endless shelves of books, looking at covers, reading summaries on the back and pretty much just delight in being surrounded by books at every turn. As I’m sure was the case with many people, when I reached my teenage years and later, adulthood, and started getting caught up in the never ending “busyness” of school and work, my relationship with the library changed. I still loved books of course (I don’t think it was a coincidence that I took practically every literature class that my schools had to offer and veered toward a liberal arts degree with a literature emphasis in college) – but I no longer had the time to go to the library and spend hours on end just “hanging out” there. Instead of being the place of wonder and excitement that it was in my childhood, the library became “the place I went for research” or, when I was in college, the place where I would go to work on a paper or a project if I happened to have some free time between classes. Over the years, as “time” became more and more of a scarcity for me (I’m constantly complaining that 24 hours in a day is not enough for me to finish everything I need/want to get done), the local bookstore(s) eventually replaced the library as my “go-to” source for books because with the limitations on my time, it was much easier for me to buy a book I needed for my classes way in advance and then just pick it up and start reading at the designated time without having to worry about a due date to return the book or even worse, the book not being available when I needed it. It wasn’t until the last 5 years or so that I got “reacquainted” with the library again through my nephew (whom I am proud to say inherited my love for books!) and realized how much I had missed over the years. In the first few chapters of the book, hearing the author recount her relationship with the library – the trips to the library with her mother as a child, growing apart from the library as an adult, getting reacquainted with the library after going there with her child, etc. -- it reminded me of my own journey, of the up-and-down relationship I’ve also had with libraries over the years.

The other reason this book resonated with me so much is because I’ve lived in Los Angeles practically my entire life and so basically “grew up” in the Los Angeles Public Library system – though ironically, despite the close proximity, I’ve actually never been to the Central Library in downtown LA (which is where most of the events in the book take place). Regardless though, it was fascinating to learn about the history of the LA library and how the entire system evolved into what it is today. Like the author, I too had no clue about the fire at Central Library back in 1986 (my love for reading obviously didn’t extend to newspapers back then, lol), but even so, I would’ve been too young anyway to understand exactly what was going on. As a history buff, I also enjoyed the historical background about the city of LA and California as a whole that the author incorporated into her narrative. I actually get really excited when I hear things (whether names or places) that I’m familiar with get mentioned in books, as it makes the reading experience that much more personal for me – in the case of this book, there were actually a few places mentioned where I have friends (or relatives) who live there currently, so it was fun to be able to talk them afterwards about the historical aspects of where they live.

In recounting the story of the Central Library fire, Orlean also gives us the story of Harry Peak – the man largely viewed as responsible for starting the fire but never charged due to lack of evidence. The “true crime” aspect of the story -- including the analysis of the various records as well as all the insights into investigation of past arson cases – was particularly well-done, with the evidence and facts presented in a way that made this as engrossing as reading a good suspense novel. With that said though, this book was so much more than just a chronicle of the Central Library fire or a history of the library’s evolution over the years – in many respects, this was also an ode to libraries and librarians everywhere as well as a testament to the critical role that libraries play in our society – not just locally or in our country, but all around the world.

My one small complaint was that the narrative jumped around a bit too much between the investigation, the historical timeline, and Orlean’s personal interactions with various “characters” she encounters, whether it was people involved with the original investigation or the librarians she talked with in the course of putting together the research for this book. There were a few times, for example, where the chapter that just finished was about a current interaction at the library but the next chapter was back to the investigation, which was last touched upon several chapters ago, so I had to go back and re-read those sections to refresh my memory on where it had left off. Overall though, this is a minor structural issue in the grand scheme of things of course.

Engaging, insightful, and well-written, this book is a wonderful tribute to not just libraries but also books and book lovers from all walks of life. Highly recommended and a must-read for bibliophiles everywhere!

Received ARC from Simon & Schuster via NetGalley

Wonderful book! Informative and captivating. Loaded with interesting facts about many libraries, in addition to the story of the fire at Los Angeles Library.

This is really two books in one. The first is a record of the devastating fire at the Los Angeles Central Library on April 29, 1986 and how the city and library service recovered. The second is a paean to libraries in general: what they offer to society, and how they work, in a digital age. One might assume that Book #1 is of most (or exclusive) interest to Californians, but if you’ve read other work by Orlean you’ll know that her delight in history’s oddballs (here, would-be actor and compulsive liar Harry Peak, who was arrested on suspicion of arson, and 1880s L.A. librarian Charles Lummis, who walked from Ohio to California) and offbeat stories comes through no matter what she’s writing about. And while she doesn’t seem as clued-in about the state of libraries as Marilyn Johnson (This Book Is Overdue!), Book #2 is sure to appeal to any book-lover who shares her childhood memories of trips to the library.

New Yorker staff writer, Susan Orlean write the story of the Los Angles Public Library fire on April 29, 1986. It burned down that day from a fire that starts inside the library. Though no one died from the fire, several people were injured. An actor, Harry Peak is arrested for the fire that destroyed the library. Included in this book, are memoirs, biography, history and science. One learns the history of libraries. One discovers how libraries evolved. Libraries helped people during the depression and wars. You learn how library’s struggle to stay afloat with limited funds. This is a book not to miss!

Susan Orlean’s book can be considered a love letter to libraries or a Mary Roach approach to the many aspects of libraries. Filled with equal parts nostalgia and fun-facts, this is the perfect book for those who consider a library card the most valuable object in their wallet.

In April 1986 a devastating fire raged for over seven hours at the main branch of the Los Angeles Public Library, destroying half a million books and damaging 700,000 more. Were it not for the Chernobyl nuclear disaster occurring at the same time, this act of arson would have occupied front-page news for days.

The 1986 fire is the recurring thread running through the book. Who did it? Why was the fire so hard to extinguish? How are water logged books treated to prevent mold? But arson is only half the story. Orlean interweaves chapters touching on all aspects of library life. How do libraries move books from one branch to another? How do libraries cope with the increasing homeless population? What is it like to be director of a large city library? How are libraries embracing technology?

And then there are library luminaries, such as Mary Foy, the first female head librarian hired at age 18; Ray Bradbury, author of Farenheit 451, who couldn’t afford college so read his way through the library instead; and Andrew Carnegie who built over 2500 libraries.

Whether you desire obscure tidbits for the upcoming Thanksgiving dinner conversation or want to relive your childhood awe of discovering the library, The Library Book will satisfy both.

Recommended to anyone who thinks libraries are no longer needed in today's digital age. Orlean combines the history of the library in Los Angeles, true crime, and a love letter to books in this moving meditation on the power of books and reading.

Susan Orlean is a true genius at bringing seemingly any subject to life in a manner which is utterly fascinating and immensely readable. I’d even read instruction manuals and Congressional reports if she wrote them! Whether it’s orchids, Rin Tin Tin, or unconventional travel adventures, her extensive research, writing style and the manner in which she weaves topics and time periods together results in books I recommend to a wide variety of readers. Her latest book, “The Library Book,” is an examination of libraries and their changing and essential place in communities. For anyone who wonders about the relevance of libraries when books, magazines, and so much information is readily available on-line, Orlean’s exploration of their continuing evolution into a community gathering place, a provider of social and cultural services, a place to find an abundance of printed material along with movies, music, and even musical instruments was captivating and very informative. Orlean also writes extensively about the extremely devastating fire at the Los Angeles Public Library on April 28, 1986 in which over a million books were either damaged or destroyed. Alongside that, she shares her personal experiences with libraries and how important they have been in her life.

“Our visits to the library were never long enough for me. The place was so bountiful. I loved wandering around the bookshelves, scanning the spines until something happened to catch my eye. Those visits were dreamy, frictionless interludes that promised I would leave richer than I arrived. It wasn’t like going to the store with my mom, which guaranteed a tug-of-war between what I wanted and what my mother was willing to buy me, because I could have anything I wanted in the library. After we checked out, I loved being in the car and having all the books we’d gotten stacked on my lap, pressing me under their solid, warm weight, their Mylar covers sticking a bit to my thighs. It was such a thrill leaving a place with things you hadn’t paid for; such a thrill, anticipating the new books we would read.”

Her lyrical and insightful writing about books and how alive they always are should speak to anyone who loves books, reading, and libraries.

“A book feels like a thing alive in this moment, and also alive on a continuum, from the moment the thoughts about it first percolated in the writer’s mind to the moment it sprang off the printing press—a lifeline that continues as someone sits with it and marvels over it, and it continues on, time and time and time. Once words and thoughts are poured into them, books are no longer just paper and ink and glue: They take on a kind of human vitality.”

I recommend this book wholeheartedly to all readers and book lovers. Not to be missed.

My review was posted on Goodreads on 11/12/18

Not only is this the story of the 1968 Los Angeles Library fire, it is also the story of the author's love affair with libraries along with the history of the LA Public Libraries. What isn't there to like?

I must admit to doing a little happy dance when I received a copy of this from Simon & Schuster via Netgalley. As a lifelong lover of the library, I just had a feeling this was right up my alley. Not only was this entertaining, it was filled with fascinating research pertaining to the fire and it's aftermath. A true delight from beginning to end.

Lucky me.

Loved this book. Orlean told a good narrative around the big fire that burned the L.A. Central library. I loved how she added in biographies and history around the Los Angeles Public Library.

And what a unique idea to list a few books with the corresponding Dewey Decimal number right at the beginning of each chapter.

Great read for anyone interested in history and libraries.


Thanks to the publisher Simon & Schuster for the advance review copy. I can't wait to see the print edition with the photographs.