Join us for this compelling keynote author talk featuring award-winning author & journalist Susan Orlean and her New York Times bestseller, The Library Book. Registration is required for the zoom link; please register here. You can also attend the event at the viewing party held at the Beech Street Center.

Orlean’s instant New York Times bestseller, The Library Book, is an exploration of the history, power, and future of these endangered institutions, told through the lens of Orlean’s quest to solve a notorious cold case: who set fire to the Los Angeles Public Library in 1986, ultimately destroying 400,000 books? Writing in The Washington Post, Ron Charles urged “Everybody who loves books should check out The Library Book…. You can’t help but finish The Library Book and feel grateful that these marvelous places belong to us all.” It was named one of both The New York Times’ 100 Notable Books of 2018, The Washington Post’s Best Books of 2018, and was awarded the California Book Award and Marfield Prize for Arts Writing. Orlean will adapt The Library Book for a forthcoming series with Paramount TV.

You can request a copy of the book here. The audiobook can be requested here.

Thanks to the Newton Free Library, the Friends of the Belmont Public Library and our community co-sponsors who make this amazing series of events possible.