Booklist – April 2024
National Library Week is April 7-13! The United States has observed National Library Week the second week of April since 1958 to promote library use, motivate people to read, and show support for public libraries. Libraries are magical places that have long held a place in the human imagination. They are an institution that truly exists almost everywhere. We are grateful to open the doors to that magic for all the patrons we serve.
Celebrate National Library Week with us by reading some of these books that express the profound meaning of libraries in worlds both real and imagined.
Nonfiction
The Library Book by Susan Orlean
A look at the unsolved mystery of the most catastrophic library fire in US history. On April 29, 1986, a fire broke out at the Los Angeles Public Library and destroyed or damaged more than a million books. Examines the evolution of public libraries while celebrating their value in society.
BiblioTech: Why Libraries Matter More than Ever in the Age of Google by John Palfrey
Former law professor and founding chairman of the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) examines the importance and role and core strengths of public libraries in the twenty-first century and beyond.
Dark Archives: A Librarian’s Investigation into the Science and History of Books Bound in Human Skin
A macabre, but scientific look at the unique and disturbing history of anthropodermic bibliography (books bound in human skin). Untangles the myths around their creation and discusses the ethics of custodianship while telling the stories of the origins of the books.
Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World by Vicki Myron
In 1988 librarian Vicki Myron found an abandoned kitten in the book drop of the Iowa public library where she worked. They named the cat Dewey Readmore Books. He became an increasingly famous mascot over the next 19 years and a source of inspiration in Myron’s personal life.
Fiction
The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict
In 1906, Belle da Costa Greene was hired by J. P. Morgan to curate a collection of rare manuscripts, books, and artwork for his newly built Pierpont Morgan Library. Belle becomes a fixture in New York City society, but she is African American passing as white. Some descriptions of sex.
LP017097, Digital Download BARD
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
Discovering a medieval book and a cache of letters, a motherless American girl becomes the latest in a series of historians, including her father, who investigates the possible existence of a secret library and archive belonging to Vlad the Impaler, a quest that takes her across Europe and into her parents past.
The Paris Library by Janet Skeslien Charles
When Nazis march into Paris Odile Souchet joins the Resistance to protect the books at the American Library where she works. But when the war ends, instead of freedom, Odile tastes the bitter sting of betrayal. Flash forward to Montana in 1983 where a lonely, small-town teenager finds she has a lot in common with her elderly neighbor.
Ink and Bone by Rachel Caine
In a world where the personal ownership of a physical book is illegal, the Great Library controls content by using alchemy to deliver books via tablets. Black market smuggler Jess Brightwell is sent to the Great Library as a trainee and as a spy. Violence.
The Last Chance Library
Lonely librarian June Jones has never left the English village where she grew up. But when her library is threatened with closure, June is forced to emerge from behind the shelves to save the heart of her community and the place that holds the dearest memories of her mother.
Image Description: A color illustration of a library. A window with a computer desk underneath is framed by bookshelves. The one on the left is tall, the one on the right is short and has potted plants on top.