Best bets for your weekend reading: Susan Orlean's 'Library Book,' Ellie Kemper
What should you read this weekend? USA TODAY’s picks for book lovers include Susan Orlean's "The Library Book," a love letter to libraries, and Ellie Kemper's charming memoir, "My Squirrel Days."
"The Library Book" by Susan Orlean; Simon & Schuster, 317 pp.; nonfiction
Just as the name implies, "The Library Book" celebrates the love of books and the wonder of public libraries. But, as it turns out, it is so much more.
At its core, it's the story of one of the worst building fires in Los Angeles history, a 1986 conflagration in the city's Central Library, an architectural landmark. One of the most complicated blazes the fire department ever tackled, it exceeded 2,000 degrees and destroyed or damaged more than 1 million books.
Susan Orlean turns this into a whodunit, focusing on the search for an arson suspect. After the fire, the city posted requests for clues on billboards and on radio ads. The library staff worried that it might be a disgruntled employee. But librarians remembered a blond young man who was shooed out of the closed history stacks.
It would eventually lead investigators to focus on a troubled, rootless, name-dropping would-be actor. The suspect, Harry Peak, suffered from an inability to keep his alibi straight. Case closed? Not quite. Let's just say arson is a difficult crime to prove.
The book dives deep into the work and devotion of librarians, knowledgeable and ever-patient, whether going through map collections or fielding questions such as, "How long do parrots live?"
USA TODAY says ★★★½ out of four. “ ‘The Library Book’ is a sheer delight … as rich in insight and as varied as the treasures contained on the shelves in any local library.”
“My Squirrel Days” by Ellie Kemper; Scribner, 240 pp.; nonfiction
The star of “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” writes an offbeat memoir that uses her naive, wide-eyed, perky image to comedic advantage.
USA TODAY says ★★★. “A breezy read with laugh-out-loud moments.”
"The Fifth Risk" by Michael Lewis; Norton, 219 pp.; nonfiction
The author of "Liar’s Poker" and "The Big Short" critically investigates the Trump administration’s ideological shakeup of the nation’s capital.
USA TODAY says ★★★★. “Spellbinding, alarming ... Lewis reveals so much, and writes so insightfully.”
“Transcription” by Kate Atkinson; Little, Brown, 335 pp.; fiction
In this spy novel, Juliet Armstrong, lying in the road after being struck by a car in 1981, flashes back to World War II, which she spent involved in the complex game of flushing out England’s homegrown enemies
USA TODAY says ★★★. “A joy to read.”
"Reagan: An American Journey" by Bob Spitz; Penguin Press, 880 pp.; nonfiction
New biography digs into the life of Ronald Reagan, a president who served two terms, altered the nation’s political trajectory, moved toward ending the Cold War and remains, remarkably, something of an enigma.
USA TODAY says ★★★½. “A sweeping narration of Reagan’s life, sympathetic but not sycophantic.”
Contributing reviewers: Chris Woodyard, Anika Reed, Don Oldenburg, Charles Finch, Susan Page