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bookworm_leilani's review against another edition
informative
mysterious
slow-paced
3.0
This book felt to me like it really could have used an editor: it was a bird's eye view of libraries in the US, with a particular emphasis on how they've adjusted to the internet, and a history of the LA library, a summery of the LA Library fire and the accused arsonist Harry Peak, and bordered on being a profile of the modern LA library, all interspersed with personal anecdotes and memoir like passages. None of these are bad things, and they mostly go together, but the way they're mushed up feels less ambling and more disjointed. It doesn't quite do what it says on the tin, so to speak, either in terms of the title of the thing or it's cover copy.
Still, Orlean is an engaging and accessible writer, and humanizes her subjects both living and deceased without making it feel like people are under a microscope.
Still, Orlean is an engaging and accessible writer, and humanizes her subjects both living and deceased without making it feel like people are under a microscope.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Misogyny and Classism
Minor: Emotional abuse and Terminal illness