Please join us for an online discussion of The Library Book by Susan Orlean.
Please register to join us for an online discussion of The Library Book by Susan Orlean.
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.
Please visit www.bettendorflibrary.com/adult-programs for more information.
Books are available on a first-come basis at the Information Desk. You may also call the Library at 563-344-4179 to have a book signed out to you and placed on hold.
This meeting will take place online via GoToMeeting. After registering, you will receive an email with the GoToMeeting login information on the day before the discussion.
This program is funded by the Friends of the Bettendorf Public Library.
The Bettendorf Public Library has served the community of Bettendorf since July 12, 1955. We offer Library events for all ages, and our meeting rooms are available for public use. See more information about our meeting room policy at http://www.bettendorflibrary.com/services/meeting-rooms/.