LIz Whaley Book Group: The Library Book

On the morning of April 29, 1986, a fire alarm sounded in the Los Angeles Public Library. As the moments passed, the patrons and staff who had been cleared out of the building realized this was not the usual fire alarm. As one fireman recounted, “Once that first stack got going, it was ‘Goodbye, Charlie.’” The fire was disastrous: it reached 2000 degrees and burned for more than seven hours. By the time it was extinguished, it had consumed four hundred thousand books and damaged seven hundred thousand more. Investigators descended on the scene, but more than thirty years later, the mystery remains: Did someone purposefully set fire to the library—and if so, who?

Weaving her lifelong love of books and reading into an investigation of the fire, award-winning New Yorker reporter and New York Times bestselling author Susan Orlean delivers a mesmerizing and uniquely compelling book that manages to tell the broader story of libraries and librarians in a way that has never been done before.


Just read the book and join us! All LWBG books are available for attendees at 20% off. No need to RSVP. Email us at info@waterstreetbooks.com for more information.  

Event date: 
Sunday, April 18, 2021 - 2:00pm to 3:15pm
Event address: 
The Library Book By Susan Orlean Cover Image
$17.99
ISBN: 9781476740195
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Simon & Schuster - October 1st, 2019