Homer

Samuel Butler

Michael Dirda

Huge Hardcover (6 to 8 lbs)

Illinois

Homer's two epics of the ancient world, The Iliad & The Odyssey, tell stories as riveting today as when they were written between the eighth and ninth century B.C. The Iliad, which tells of the siege of Troy by the Greeks, is an unforgettable tale of nations at war and of the courage and compassion heroic soldiers show upon the field of battle. The Odyssey is the story of the Greek hero Odysseus and the many marvels and challenges he encounters during his ten-year voyage home to Ithaca after the end of the Trojan War. This edition employs Samuel Butler's classic translations of both texts. The Iliad & The Odyssey is part of Barnes & Noble's series of quality leatherbound volumes. Each title in the series presents a classic work in an attractively designed edition bound in durable bonded leather. These books make elegant additions to any home library.

The Iliad and The Odyssey

f05b8363-7e91-4ba5-92f0-8aa090430317-1

Meagan Brandy

Heavy Paperback (2 to 4 lbs)

Say You Swear : Alternate Cover Edition

bf167a0a-97d4-4323-aa70-49356c91257b-0

Ana Huang

The final book in the Twisted series from BookTok sensation Ana Huang, featuring fan favorites Christian and Stella.

Charming, deadly, and smart enough to hide it, Christian Harper is a monster dressed in the perfectly tailored suits of a gentleman.

He has little use for morals and even less use for love, but he can't deny the strange pull he feels toward the woman living just one floor below him.

She's the object of his darkest desires, the only puzzle he can't solve. And when the opportunity to get closer to her arises, he breaks his own rules to offer her a deal she can't refuse.

Every monster has their weakness. She's his.

His obsession.

His addiction.

His only exception.

***

Sweet, shy, and introverted despite her social media fame, Stella Alonso is a romantic who keeps her heart in a cage.

Between her two jobs, she has little time or desire for a relationship.

But when a threat from her past drives her into the arms--and house--of the most dangerous man she's ever met, she's tempted to let herself feel something for the first time in a long time.

Because despite Christian's cold nature, he makes her feel everything when she's with him.

Passionate.

Protected.

Truly wanted.

Theirs is a love twisted with secrets and tainted by lies...and when the truths are finally revealed, they could shatter everything.

Twisted Lies

2ef3e368-bdaf-447a-9af0-6a2b7780790d-0

Freida McFadden

Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

A mind-bending, psychological thriller from the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of The Housemaid! Lesson #1: trust no one Eve has a good life. She gets up each day, gets a kiss from her husband Nate, and heads off to teach math at the local high school. All is as it should be. Except... Last year, Caseham High was rocked by a scandal, with one student, Addie, at its center. And this year, Eve is dismayed to find the girl in her class. Addie can't be trusted. She lies. She hurts people. She destroys lives. At least, that's what everyone says. But nobody knows the real Addie. Nobody knows the secrets that could destroy her. And Addie will do anything to keep it quiet. From the New York Times bestselling author Freida McFadden comes a story of twisting secrets and long-awaited revenge.

The Teacher

4c82a5ce-6c79-4f7a-bb11-eb698fdc7c0e-1

Clare Mackintosh

A Novel

Feels like a blockbuster movie.--Lisa Jewell, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Then She Was Gone Mackintosh is a pro...the final scene in the book almost made me sick as I read it. I mean that as a compliment of the highest order.--The New York Times You can save hundreds of lives. Or the one that matters most... From New York Times bestselling author Clare Mackintosh comes a claustrophobic thriller set over 20 hours on-board the inaugural nonstop flight from London to Sydney. Mina is trying to focus on her job as a flight attendant, not the problems with her five-year-old daughter back home, or the fissures in her marriage. But the plane has barely taken off when Mina receives a chilling note from an anonymous passenger, someone intent on ensuring the plane never reaches its destination: The following instructions will save your daughter's life... Someone needs Mina's assistance and knows exactly how to make her comply. When one passenger is killed and then another, Mina knows she must act. But which lives does she save: Her passengers...or her own daughter and husband who are in grave distress back at home? It's twenty hours to landing. A lot can happen in twenty hours. For fans of the locked-room mystery of One by One and the heart-stopping tension The Last Flight, Hostage is an explosively addictive thriller about one flight attendant and the agonizing decision that will change her life--and the lives of everyone on-board--forever. Praise for Hostage: A banger of a book with a truly agonizing 'what would you do?' --Ruth Ware, #1 New York Times bestselling author of One by One Hypnotically good. Should be a hit, could be a classic... --Lee Child, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Jack Reacher series Fiendishly clever. --Lisa Gardner, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Before She Disappeared A propulsive read. --Karin Slaughter, New York Times bestselling author of The Silent Wife A nail-biter of a thriller. --Shari Lapena, New York Times bestselling author of The Couple Next Door

Hostage

03314873-6cde-42d3-b216-a1b8ed322c6f-1

Grace D. Li

Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

Named A Most Anticipated Book of 2022 by *Marie Claire* *NBC News* *Veranda* *PopSugar* *Paste* *The Millions* *Medium* *Crimereads* Goodreads* Bookbub* *Boston.com* and more! Ocean's Eleven meets The Farewell in Portrait of a Thief, a lush, lyrical heist novel inspired by the true story of Chinese art vanishing from Western museums; about diaspora, the colonization of art, and the complexity of the Chinese American identity. History is told by the conquerors. Across the Western world, museums display the spoils of war, of conquest, of colonialism: priceless pieces of art looted from other countries, kept even now. Will Chen plans to steal them back. A senior at Harvard, Will fits comfortably in his carefully curated roles: a perfect student, an art history major and sometimes artist, the eldest son who has always been his parents' American Dream. But when a mysterious Chinese benefactor reaches out with an impossible—and illegal—job offer, Will finds himself something else as well: the leader of a heist to steal back five priceless Chinese sculptures, looted from Beijing centuries ago. His crew is every heist archetype one can imag­ine—or at least, the closest he can get. A con artist: Irene Chen, a public policy major at Duke who can talk her way out of anything. A thief: Daniel Liang, a premed student with steady hands just as capable of lockpicking as suturing. A getaway driver: Lily Wu, an engineering major who races cars in her free time. A hacker: Alex Huang, an MIT dropout turned Silicon Valley software engineer. Each member of his crew has their own complicated relationship with China and the identity they've cultivated as Chinese Americans, but when Will asks, none of them can turn him down. Because if they succeed? They earn fifty million dollars—and a chance to make history. But if they fail, it will mean not just the loss of everything they've dreamed for themselves but yet another thwarted at­tempt to take back what colonialism has stolen. Equal parts beautiful, thoughtful, and thrilling, Portrait of a Thief is a cultural heist and an examination of Chinese American identity, as well as a necessary cri­tique of the lingering effects of colonialism.

Portrait of a Thief

6af7aae3-7b0b-4bc5-8c18-d772e86f528e-1

Robinne Lee

Solène Marchand begins an impassioned affair with a member of her daughter’s favorite boy band.

The Idea of You

d6c9b263-065a-4877-a225-b7fe2928a666-1

Suzanne Collins

Heavy Hardcover (2 to 4 lbs)

Untitled Panem Novel will revisit the world of Panem sixty-four years before the events of The Hunger Games, starting on the morning of the reaping of the Tenth Hunger Games.

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (A Hunger Games Novel)

d044e433-f0ab-45a7-9e0b-a73a25b0a4af-1

Lily King

An extraordinary new novel of art, love, and ambition from Lily King, the New York Times bestselling author of Euphoria Following the breakout success of her critically acclaimed and award-winning novel Euphoria, Lily King returns with an unforgettable portrait of an artist as a young woman. Blindsided by her mother's sudden death, and wrecked by a recent love affair, Casey Peabody has arrived in Massachusetts in the summer of 1997 without a plan. Her mail consists of wedding invitations and final notices from debt collectors. A former child golf prodigy, she now waits tables in Harvard Square and rents a tiny, moldy room at the side of a garage where she works on the novel she's been writing for six years. At thirty-one, Casey is still clutching onto something nearly all her old friends have let go of: the determination to live a creative life. When she falls for two very different men at the same time, her world fractures even more. Casey's fight to fulfill her creative ambitions and balance the conflicting demands of art and life is challenged in ways that push her to the brink. Writers & Lovers follows Casey--a smart and achingly vulnerable protagonist--in the last days of a long youth, a time when every element of her life comes to a crisis. Written with King's trademark humor, heart, and intelligence, Writers & Lovers is a transfixing novel that explores the terrifying and exhilarating leap between the end of one phase of life and the beginning of another.

Writers and Lovers

c1224d03-c228-420e-832a-b66ab909502f-1

Annabel Monaghan

"An unforgettable love story...Bursting with the magic of first love, it's everything I want in a summer romance."--Carley Fortune, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Every Summer After

Named a Best Book of Summer by Real Simple * Reader's Digest * Country Living * The Skimm

Beach Rules:
Do take long walks on the sand.
Do put an umbrella in every cocktail.
Do NOT run into your first love.

    Sam's life is on track. She has the perfect doctor fiancé, Jack (his strict routines are a good thing, really), a great job in Manhattan (unless they fire her), and is about to tour a wedding venue near her family's Long Island beach house. Everything should go to plan, yet the minute she arrives, Sam senses something is off. Wyatt is here. Her Wyatt. But there's no reason for a thirty-year-old engaged woman to feel panicked around the guy who broke her heart when she was seventeen. Right? 

    Yet being back at this beach, hearing notes from Wyatt's guitar float across the night air from next door as if no time has passed--Sam's memories come flooding back: the feel of Wyatt's skin on hers, their nights in the treehouse, and the truth behind their split. Sam remembers who she used to be, and as Wyatt reenters her life their connection is as undeniable as it always was. She will have to make a choice.

Same Time Next Summer

bfcfa05a-5889-4b67-82b5-fe646a8b8a89-1

Evvie Drake Starts Over meets Beach Read in this heartwarming and hilarious novel about a divorced romance channel screenwriter whose script about her marriage's collapse just might help her reclaim her life and find love.

Nora's life is about to get a rewrite...
 
Nora Hamilton knows the formula for love better than anyone. As a romance channel screenwriter, it's her job. But when her too-good-to work husband leaves her and their two kids, Nora turns her marriage's collapse into cash and writes the best script of her life. No one is more surprised than her when it's picked up for the big screen and set to film on location at her 100-year-old-home. When former Sexiest Man Alive, Leo Vance, is cast as her ne'er do well husband Nora's life will never be the same.
 
The morning after shooting wraps and the crew leaves, Nora finds Leo on her porch with a half-empty bottle of tequila and a proposition. He'll pay a thousand dollars a day to stay for a week. The extra seven grand would give Nora breathing room, but it's the need in his eyes that makes her say yes. Seven days: it's the blink of an eye or an eternity depending on how you look at it. Enough time to fall in love. Enough time to break your heart.
 
Filled with warmth, wit, and wisdom, Nora Goes Off Script is the best kind of love story--the real kind where love is complicated by work, kids, and the emotional baggage that comes with life. For Nora and Leo, this kind of love is bigger than the big screen.

Nora Goes off Script

02d099b4-8f62-495c-958a-68e0a0e486aa-1

Cassandra Clare

Paperback (1 to 2 lbs)

Suddenly able to see demons and the Darkhunters who are dedicated to returning them to their own dimension, fifteen-year-old Clary Fray is drawn into this bizarre world when her mother disappears and Clary herself is almost killed by a monster.

City of Bones

7b2b072d-0364-41b8-be22-c92bc6df3a57-1

Holly Jackson

From the author of the multimillion-copy bestselling A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder series and Five Survive comes a gripping mystery thriller following one teen’s search for the truth about her mother’s shocking disappearance—and even more shocking reappearance—during the filming of a true crime documentary. Lights. Camera. Lies. Eighteen-year-old Bel has lived her whole life in the shadow of her mom’s mysterious disappearance. Sixteen years ago, Rachel Price vanished and young Bel was the only witness, but she has no memory of it. Rachel is gone, long presumed dead, and Bel wishes everyone would just move on. But the case is dredged up from the past when the Price family agrees to a true crime documentary. Bel can’t wait for filming to end, for life to go back to normal. And then the impossible happens. Rachel Price reappears, and life will never be normal again. Rachel has an unbelievable story about what happened to her. Unbelievable, because Bel isn’t sure it’s real. If Rachel is lying, then where has she been all this time? And—could she be dangerous? With the cameras still rolling, Bel must uncover the truth about her mother, and find out why Rachel Price really came back from the dead . . . From world-renowned author Holly Jackson comes a mind-blowing masterpiece about one girl’s search for the truth, and the terror in finding out who your family really is.

The Reappearance of Rachel Price

7b0b7d8c-68ac-4a52-b3fd-c30496af5867-0

Elin Hilderbrand

Beautiful Day

a6580b6f-aeea-4daf-9130-080a1dc66b64-1

In this moving story about losing and finding love again, a woman sets out to find the perfect matches for those closest to her. 48-year-old Nantucketer Dabney Kimball Beech has always had a gift for matchmaking. Some call her ability mystical, while others, her husband, celebrated economist John Boxmiller Beech, and her daughter, Agnes, who is clearly engaged to the wrong man, call it meddlesome. But there's no arguing with her results: With 42 happy couples to her credit and all of them still together, Dabney has never been wrong about romance. Never, that is, except in the case of herself and Clendenin Hughes, the green-eyed boy who took her heart with him long ago when he left the island to pursue his dream of becoming a journalist. Now, after spending 27 years on the other side of the world, Clen is back on Nantucket, and Dabney has never felt so confused, or so alive. But when tragedy threatens her own second chance, Dabney must face the choices she's made and share painful secrets with her family. Determined to make use of her gift before it's too late, she sets out to find perfect matches for those she loves most.

The Matchmaker

fda9da28-fc0d-44b7-9c2b-256812fe783c-1

C.J. Carey

"A compulsive, terrifying read."--Kate Quinn, New York Timesbestselling author of The Rose Code

For readers of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Talecomes a thrilling feminist dystopian novel set in an alternative history that terrifyingly imagines what a British alliance with Germany would look like if the Nazis had won WWII.

To control the past, they edited history. To control the future, they edited literature.

LONDON, 1953. Thirteen years have passed since England surrendered to the Nazis and formed a Grand Alliance with Germany. It was forced to adopt many of its oppressive ideologies, one of which was the strict classification of women into hierarchical groups based on the perceived value they brought to society.

Rose Ransom, a member of the privileged Geli class, remembers life from before the war but knows better than to let it show. She works for the Ministry of Culture, rewriting the classics of English literature to ensure there are no subversive thoughts that will give women any ideas.

Outbreaks of insurgency have been seen across the country with graffiti made up of seditious lines from forbidden works by women painted on public buildings. Suspicion has fallen on Widowland, the run-down slums where childless women over fifty have been banished. Rose is given the dangerous task of infiltrating Widowland to find the source of the rebellion before the Leader arrives in England for the Coronation ceremony of King Edward VIII and Queen Wallis.

Will Rose follow her instructions and uncover the criminals? Or will she fight for what she knows in her heart is right?

Praise for Widowland:

"A mind-bender of a novel about the power of literature to change minds. I loved it!" --Mark Sullivan, bestselling author of The Last Green Valleyand Beneath a Scarlet Sky

"I rarely come across a book I can't put down but I devoured this one." --Rhys Bowen, New York Timesbestselling author of two historical mystery series as well as several internationally bestselling historical novels

"An electrifying, Orwellian dystopia with a thrilling feminist twist." --Lara Prescott, New York Timesbestselling author of The Secrets We Kept

"Tense, thought-provoking, and terrifying." --Natalie Jenner, international bestselling author of The Jane Austen Societyand Bloomsbury Girls

Widowland

3fc8b1b9-050e-422b-a098-c176d9052a31-1

Sarah Pinborough

For fans of Liane Moriarty, Liv Constantine and Lisa Jewell, a twisty psychological thriller about a savvy second wife who will do almost anything to come out on top from the New York Times bestselling author of Behind Her Eyes. Marriage can be murder... SOMETHING OLD Marcie's affair with Jason Maddox catapulted her into the world of the elite. Old money, old ties, old secrets. Marcie may have married into this world-- but she'll never be part of it. SOMETHING NEW Then Jason's boss brings back a new wife from his trip to London. Young, attractive, reckless--nobody can take their eyes off Keisha. Including Marcie's husband. SOMETHING YOU CAN NEVER, EVER UNDO... Some people would kill for the life Marcie has--what will she do to keep it?

Dead to Her

cd27f554-7dd4-401e-89ea-58b7f29f090a-1

Desmond Tutu

Susan Sarandon

Tim Robbins

Helen Prejean

The Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty That Sparked a National Debate

A Catholic nun shares her unique perspective of the death penalty gained through her counseling of death-row inmates

Dead Man Walking

f9e011bb-8327-46ac-868c-b2af9e3fda7e-1

Peter Swanson

Catching a killer is dangerous--especially if he lives next door From the hugely talented author of The Kind Worth Killing comes an exquisitely chilling tale of a young suburban wife with a history of psychological instability whose fears about her new neighbor could lead them both to murder . . . Hen and her husband Lloyd have settled into a quiet life in a new house outside of Boston, Massachusetts. Hen (short for Henrietta) is an illustrator and works out of a studio nearby, and has found the right meds to control her bipolar disorder. Finally, she's found some stability and peace. But when they meet the neighbors next door, that calm begins to erode as she spots a familiar object displayed on the husband's office shelf. The sports trophy looks exactly like one that went missing from the home of a young man who was killed two years ago. Hen knows because she's long had a fascination with this unsolved murder--an obsession she doesn't talk about anymore, but can't fully shake either. Could her neighbor, Matthew, be a killer? Or is this the beginning of another psychotic episode like the one she suffered back in college, when she became so consumed with proving a fellow student guilty that she ended up hurting a classmate? The more Hen observes Matthew, the more she suspects he's planning something truly terrifying. Yet no one will believe her. Then one night, when she comes face to face with Matthew in a dark parking lot, she realizes that he knows she's been watching him, that she's really on to him. And that this is the beginning of a horrifying nightmare she may not live to escape. . .

Before She Knew Him

ce6a3009-7879-42d6-9f60-31c9ac6c39c8-1

Chris Bohjalian

A luxurious African safari turns deadly for a Hollywood starlet and her entourage in this riveting historical thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of The Flight Attendant.
 
"The best possible combination of Hemingway and Agatha Christie -- a gorgeously written story about the landscape and risks of Africa, whose edge-of-your-seat plot makes it impossible to put down."
--Jodi Picoult, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Wish You Were Here

Tanzania, 1964. When Katie Barstow, A-list actress, and her new husband, David Hill, decide to bring their Hollywood friends to the Serengeti for their honeymoon, they envision giraffes gently eating leaves from the tall acacia trees, great swarms of wildebeests crossing the Mara River, and herds of zebras storming the sandy plains. Their glamorous guests--including Katie's best friend, Carmen Tedesco, and Terrance Dutton, the celebrated Black actor who stars alongside Katie in the highly controversial film Tender Madness--will spend their days taking photos, and their evenings drinking chilled gin and tonics back at camp, as the local Tanzanian guides warm water for their baths. The wealthy Americans expect civilized adventure: fresh ice from the kerosene-powered ice maker, dinners of cooked gazelle meat, and plenty of stories to tell over lunch back on Rodeo Drive.
 
What Katie and her glittering entourage do not expect is this: a kidnapping gone wrong, their guides bleeding out in the dirt, and a team of Russian mercenaries herding their hostages into Land Rovers, guns to their heads. As the powerful sun gives way to night, the gunmen shove them into abandoned huts and Katie Barstow, Hollywood royalty, prays for a simple thing: to see the sun rise one more time. A blistering story of fame, race, love, and death set in a world on the cusp of great change, The Lioness is a vibrant masterpiece from one of our finest storytellers.
 

The Lioness

f28ff7b5-8cc3-4604-bf96-07f6db5e608f-1

Maria Amparo Escandon

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK “There’s a 100% chance you’ll be paging through this book to uncover the secrets and deception that could potentially burn everything down!” — Reese Witherspoon “This is by far one of the most endearing L.A. novels in recent memory.”— Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) "A capacious book, chock-full of human drama...Escandón’s narrative voice is often witty and warm, and her meditations on Los Angeles are lush and lyrical...A lively and ambitious family novel." — New York Times Book Review Storm clouds are on the horizon in L.A. Weather, a fun, fast-paced novel of a Mexican-American family from the author of the #1 Los Angeles Times bestseller Esperanza’s Box of Saints L.A. is parched, dry as a bone, and all Oscar, the weather-obsessed patriarch of the Alvarado family, desperately wants is a little rain. He’s harboring a costly secret that distracts him from everything else. His wife, Keila, desperate for a life with a little more intimacy and a little less Weather Channel, feels she has no choice but to end their marriage. Their three daughters—Claudia, a television chef with a hard-hearted attitude; Olivia, a successful architect who suffers from gentrification guilt; and Patricia, a social media wizard who has an uncanny knack for connecting with audiences but not with her lovers—are blindsided and left questioning everything they know. Each will have to take a critical look at her own relationships and make some tough decisions along the way. With quick wit and humor, Maria Amparo Escandón follows the Alvarado family as they wrestle with impending evacuations, secrets, deception, and betrayal, and their toughest decision yet: whether to stick together or burn it all down.

L. A. Weather

e7eeac96-2221-4e9a-956d-f9274ecd39ad

Jesse Q. Sutanto

The aunties are back, fiercer than ever and ready to handle any catastrophe--even the mafia--in this delightful and hilarious sequel by Jesse Q. Sutanto, author of Dial A for Aunties. Meddy Chan has been to countless weddings, but she never imagined how her own would turn out. Now the day has arrived, and she can't wait to marry her college sweetheart, Nathan. Instead of having Ma and the aunts cater to her wedding, Meddy wants them to enjoy the day as guests. As a compromise, they find the perfect wedding vendors: a Chinese-Indonesian family-run company just like theirs. Meddy is hesitant at first, but she hits it off right away with the wedding photographer, Staphanie, who reminds Meddy of herself, down to the unfortunately misspelled name. Meddy realizes that is where their similarities end, however, when she overhears Staphanie talking about taking out a target. Horrified, Meddy can't believe Staphanie and her family aren't just like her own, they are The Family--actual mafia, and they're using Meddy's wedding as a chance to conduct shady business. Her aunties and mother won't let Meddy's wedding ceremony become a murder scene--over their dead bodies--and will do whatever it takes to save her special day, even if it means taking on the mafia.

Four Aunties and a Wedding

d3196ff8-0cb0-4f87-9810-6e58039e6a60-1

Angeline Boulley

Light Hardcover (1 lb or less)

A REESE WITHERSPOON x HELLO SUNSHINE BOOK CLUB YA PICK An Instant #1 New York Times Bestseller Soon to be adapted at Netflix for TV with President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama's production company, Higher Ground. “One of this year's most buzzed about young adult novels.” —Good Morning America A 2021 Kids' Indie Next List Selection An Amazon Best Book of the Month for March Selection An Entertainment Weekly Most Anticipated Books of 2021 Selection A PopSugar Best March 2021 YA Book Selection With four starred reviews, Angeline Boulley's debut novel, Firekeeper's Daughter, is a groundbreaking YA thriller about a Native teen who must root out the corruption in her community, perfect for readers of Angie Thomas and Tommy Orange. Eighteen-year-old Daunis Fontaine has never quite fit in, both in her hometown and on the nearby Ojibwe reservation. She dreams of a fresh start at college, but when family tragedy strikes, Daunis puts her future on hold to look after her fragile mother. The only bright spot is meeting Jamie, the charming new recruit on her brother Levi’s hockey team. Yet even as Daunis falls for Jamie, she senses the dashing hockey star is hiding something. Everything comes to light when Daunis witnesses a shocking murder, thrusting her into an FBI investigation of a lethal new drug. Reluctantly, Daunis agrees to go undercover, drawing on her knowledge of chemistry and Ojibwe traditional medicine to track down the source. But the search for truth is more complicated than Daunis imagined, exposing secrets and old scars. At the same time, she grows concerned with an investigation that seems more focused on punishing the offenders than protecting the victims. Now, as the deceptions—and deaths—keep growing, Daunis must learn what it means to be a strong Anishinaabe kwe (Ojibwe woman) and how far she’ll go for her community, even if it tears apart the only world she’s ever known.

Firekeeper's Daughter

aff1adaf-a1af-4861-a9bd-4532586770f0

Susan Orlean

Susan Orlean’s bestseller and New York Times Notable Book is “a sheer delight…as rich in insight and as varied as the treasures contained on the shelves in any local library” (USA TODAY)—a dazzling love letter to a beloved institution and an investigation into one of its greatest mysteries. “Everybody who loves books should check out The Library Book” (The Washington Post). On the morning of April 28, 1986, a fire alarm sounded in the Los Angeles Public Library. The fire was disastrous: it reached two thousand 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 “delightful…reflection on the past, present, and future of libraries in America” (New York magazine) that manages to tell the broader story of libraries and librarians in a way that has never been done before. In the “exquisitely written, consistently entertaining” (The New York Times) The Library Book, Orlean chronicles the LAPL fire and its aftermath to showcase the larger, crucial role that libraries play in our lives; delves into the evolution of libraries; brings each department of the library to vivid life; studies arson and attempts to burn a copy of a book herself; and reexamines the case of Harry Peak, the blond-haired actor long suspected of setting fire to the LAPL more than thirty years ago. “A book lover’s dream…an ambitiously researched, elegantly written book that serves as a portal into a place of history, drama, culture, and stories” (Star Tribune, Minneapolis), Susan Orlean’s thrilling journey through the stacks reveals how these beloved institutions provide much more than just books—and why they remain an essential part of the heart, mind, and soul of our country.

Browse by categories

Homer; Samuel Butler; Michael Dirda

The Iliad and The Odyssey

Meagan Brandy

Say You Swear : Alternate Cover Edition

Ana Huang

Twisted Lies

Freida McFadden

The Teacher

Clare Mackintosh

Hostage

Grace D. Li

Portrait of a Thief

Robinne Lee

The Idea of You

Suzanne Collins

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (A Hunger Games Novel)

Lily King

Writers and Lovers

Annabel Monaghan

Same Time Next Summer

Annabel Monaghan

Nora Goes off Script

Cassandra Clare

City of Bones

Holly Jackson

The Reappearance of Rachel Price

Elin Hilderbrand

Beautiful Day

Elin Hilderbrand

The Matchmaker

C.J. Carey

Widowland

Sarah Pinborough

Dead to Her

Desmond Tutu; Susan Sarandon; Tim Robbins; Helen Prejean

Dead Man Walking

Peter Swanson

Before She Knew Him

Chris Bohjalian

The Lioness

Maria Amparo Escandon

L. A. Weather

Jesse Q. Sutanto

Four Aunties and a Wedding

Angeline Boulley

Firekeeper's Daughter

Susan Orlean

The Library Book

Get The App