all your Reads in Here

How many of you had heard of the fire that destroyed almost half a million books and damaged several hundred thousand more at the Los Angeles Central Library? It happened on April 29, 1986, but the Chernobyl accident occurred on April 26, 1986, so the eyes of the world were focused on that earlier accident. But, Susan Orlean covers the library and the fire in  The Library Book . I'll admit, I had a difficult time with the first thirty-nine pages. I had to quit, and come back to the book later because I found a scene too difficult to get through. The library staff had to stand outside and watch the library burn. "According to librarian Glen Creason, the breeze was filled with the smell of hearbreak and ashes." Although Orlean begins with the fire, the subsequent investigation, and the suspicion that a man named Harry Peak started the fire, there's so much more in the book. She covers the history of the Los Angeles Central Library, the eccentric and practical librarians...

Today, David Carlson is my guest blogger and author. He's the author of three mysteries featuring Christopher Worthy, a Detroit police detective, and Father Nicholas Fortis, a Greek Orthodox monk. I reviewed his second book in the series, Let the Dead Bury the Dead , in September 2017,  http://bit.ly/2PQIPjh . Now, as to David Carlson's guest post. A couple weeks ago, twelve authors wrote about the libraries they love for an article in The New York Times,  https://nyti.ms/2QPSC9b . Carlson wrote a piece for us about libraries. Thank you, David. MY DEBT TO LIBRARIES David Carlson                 I think it was Voltaire who wrote that entering a library always humbled him.  Since I was a boy, entering a library has given me a different feeling—excitement.  Perhaps if I’d thought more about it, I would have felt intimidated by all the knowledge stored on the shelves.  But as a boy, I felt a...