Recently, I picked up The Library Book by Susan Orlean from a pile of books at home and decided to read it for this newsletter, putting aside a book on horticulture and the environment. I do not know if our state of ‘stay at home’ affected the decision, but it was a perfect time to read a good book. I loved it.

Orlean's book is part mystery, part memoir and part history book. She develops characters (real people) who we follow through the book with greater and greater interest. She tells the story of the Los Angeles Public Library with the skill of a fine storyteller.

She hooked me right away with her description of visiting her local library as a child with her mother. It reminded me of my visits to the library with my mom. I can still hear the creaking wood floors and inhale the smell of old books. It was a small building, a neighborhood library, across the street from my elementary school. Our father was a librarian, first at the New York Public Library and then at the Purdue University Library. We used to visit him at the reference desk on the third floor and twirl on the wooden desk chairs and play with the erasers and pencils in the drawers. You can understand why I was attracted to this book.

Orlean’s relationship with the Central Library in L.A. began during a visit to the branch Studio City Library with her young son, when she relived her visits to the Bertram Woods branch of the Shaker Heights Library with her mother. Later she took a tour of Central Library and that day learned of the big fire that shut the library down. This is where the mystery starts as she begins to research everything there is to know about the fire and the library.

One of the real characters in the story is the suspected arsonist. Others are many librarians, architects, firefighters, attorneys and family members of the characters. We were introduced to many others, long gone, who Orlean thoroughly researched.

Favorite parts of the book for me were her descriptions of Central Library, when it was mostly empty and the staff was preparing for the day and, then, when full of muted and not so muted voices and sounds of chairs moving, books being placed on tables and bags dropping to the floor.

Orlean moved back and forth in time keeping me alert. The stories of the fire and the library history intertwine with detective work and interviews. Anyone who loves stories, books and libraries will enjoy this read. Orlean ends the Acknowledgments section with “Mom, I made this book for you.”