I started this book thinking it was mainly going to be about the fire at the Los Angeles Public Library in 1986, and got so much more. Yes, it is about the fire and about the main suspect in the suspected arson, but it's also a love letter to libraries and the people who keep them running.

Susan Orlean discovered the LA library—and the story of its fire—when she moved there in the 2010s. For many years, she hadn't been to any library, instead buying all her books and surrounding herself with them (which I can relate to). However, it's when she takes her young son to the library that she remembers how amazing they are as an institution, and how many fond memories she has of going to the library with her own mother. In her search for information on the fire and its aftermath, she digs up the history of the Los Angeles Public Library: how it came to be, who its head librarians have been and what they did for the library, how it's changed in its 100-year history, and the struggles it's faced. Even though it's the story of one library, in many ways it's the story of all libraries. After all, we start with when women weren't even allowed to use the lending library and come all the way to the modern day, when libraries are used for so much more than books, such as providing services like homeless outreach and education opportunities, which I'm sure is paralleled in libraries across the country.

I was initially drawn to this book in part because there was an arson incident at the St. Cloud Library while I lived in the area, and I was curious to see if there were any parallels (spoiler: there weren't, really). Reading about what happened in the LA library during the fire was fascinating and devastating. It's fascinating because of the power of fire and how it spreads, but devastating because of all those books and microfilms and maps and history. Of course, the question in the back of everyone's mind was how the fire started, and it didn't take long for "arson" to be the answer. Alongside the story of rebuilding, Orlean discusses fire investigators' main suspect, a compulsive liar who really doesn't help his own case in any way. At the end of it all, we're left wondering if it was arson at all, or if something else started the fire. I wish it could be wrapped up neatly in a bow, but after so long (and after so much evidence was destroyed in the fire itself), we're still left with questions.

Orlean is a great writer, and the book is very well researched. I very much enjoyed the history of the LA library interspersed with what the library looks like today. There's a little something in this book for everyone who loves libraries.