kind of guy, I harbored doubts that even a skilled writer like Susan Orlean, best known for 'The Orchid Thief,' would be able to sustain readers by writing about libraries in general and Los Angeles' Central Library, the crown jewel in a city that has many branch libraries, in particular.Īnd I had a hard time imagining she could come up with a book that would rope in readers outside the city known for freeways, smog and suntans. Though I dig books, am a library nut and an L.A. I waded into 'The Library Book' with trepidation. The book dives deep into the work and devotion of librarians, knowledgeable and ever-patient, whether going through map collections or fielding questions such as, 'How long do parrots live?' Let's just say arson is a difficult crime to prove. The suspect, Harry Peak, suffered from an inability to keep his alibi straight. It would eventually lead investigators to focus on a troubled, rootless, name-dropping would-be actor.

But librarians remembered a blond young man who was shooed out of the closed history stacks. The library staff worried that it might be a disgruntled employee. After the fire, the city posted requests for clues on billboards and on radio ads. Orlean turns this into a whodunnit, focusing on the search for an arson suspect.

One of the most complicated blazes the fire department ever tackled, it exceeded 2,000 degrees and destroyed or damaged more than 1 million books. But, as it turns out, it is so much more.Īt its core, it's the story of one of the worst building fires in L.A. history, a 1986 conflagration in the city's Central Library, an architectural landmark. Just as the name implies, Susan Orlean's 'The Library Book' (Simon & Schuster, 317 pp., ★★★½) celebrates the love of books and the wonder of public libraries.

The library book by susan orlean