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...

I know. We're a day early, so I hope everyone finds the post and tells us what you're reading. Tomorrow is November 1, so Treasures in My Closet will be up. If I'd remembered last Thursday, I would have reminded everyone. I'm starting Jenny Colgan's Christmas on the Island , a novel set on a remote Scottish island. I finished the third in Heather Graham's recent Krewe of Hunters trilogy, Echoes of Evil . And, the real reason I read both of them? Susan Orlean is breaking my heart with her latest, The Library Book . I know it's going to get easier to read, but I found myself gasping and tearing up as I read the first 35 pages, the actual account of the fire at the LA Public Library. I was reading it on my lunch hour, and I was getting too choked up. I needed a couple novels. I'll get back to The Library Book . What are you reading this week? Would you share?