nomadreader

Yesterday, I reviewed The Library Book , which is partially about the 1986 fire at Los Angeles's Central Library. I realized after I wrote my review that I wanted to see some pictures from the fire, as there wasn't a pdf of images that came with my audiobook as there sometimes is. Orlean describes them vividly, but I still wanted to see for myself. I discovered this wonderful profile of Susan Orlean and The Library Book by Carolyn Kellogg . It has some wonderful pictures, including of the fire and the suspect Harry Peak, but it also includes this great video of Susan Orlean explaining how she came to write the book and highlighting some parts of the library: As an affiliate, I receive a small commission when you make a purchase through any of the above links. Thank you for helping to support my book habits that bring more content to this blog!

The backstory: The Library Book  is the January 2019 pick for the Hello Sunshine book club . I started listening to it December 27th, but it was nice to be well into it when Reese announced the January pick. My thoughts:  I saw Susan Orlean speak at the American Library Association conference in New Orleans last June. I had heard she had a book coming out in the fall called The Library Book , but I didn't know anything else about it. After moving to Los Angeles, her son had an assignment to interview a city employee, and he chose a librarian. While visiting Central Library in Los Angeles, a librarian mentioned to Susan that you can still smell smoke in some of the books. She was shocked to learn there had been a major fire at the library in 1986 and she didn't know about it. The Library Book is an investigation of the fire, which was intentionally set and still unsolved, but it's also an exploration of the long history of the Los Angeles Public Library and the current sta...

The backstory: I enjoyed Rosamund Lupton's debut thriller, Sister  ( my review ), when my book club read it last summer, and I was eager to read her follow-up. The basics: When a fire breaks out during Sports Day at the elementary school where her son, Adam, attends, Grace realizes her daughter Jenny is still inside and rushes in to save her. Soon, Grace and Jenny are both unconscious in the hospital, but they work together in their out of body experience to figure out who started the fire and why. Also on the case is Grace's sister-in-law, Sarah, a police officer. My thoughts: I expected Afterwards  to be a very different novel than Sister , but I was still surprised just how different Afterwards  was. It's not fair to compare these novels simply because they were written by the same author, but given my disparate levels of enjoyment and the differences between their quality, it is somewhat inevitable. In fact, I might have abandoned this book if I hadn't been fasc...