Renee Mazin
Was it Colonel Mustard in the library with a candlestick? We don’t have a “clue,” but we do know that the library has been a place of mystery, knowledge, refuge, and romance. Many authors have recognized the library’s allure and used it as a setting for their books. SaddleBrooke community libraries offers you titles that will get you to rethink and appreciate the libraries you remember.
Authors of nonfiction stick to the facts. The Catalogue of Shipwrecked Books chronicles Columbus’ quest to create the greatest library of all time. In more recent times, The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu and The Book Collectors (in Syria) strived to save precious manuscripts and books from destruction during wartime. In The Library Book, the fire in the Los Angeles library and its effect on the people and community is explored. Overdue focuses on the role of libraries and librarians in today’s communities. But what about a cat who loves libraries? Read Dewey, about a kitten whose fame spreads from Iowa.
Libraries give readers lots of choices. If you think of libraries as a cozy place, read Killer Research or Broken Spine, lighter mysteries at SaddleBrooke One. But if cozies aren’t for you, try Woman in the Library, a thriller in the Boston Public Library. Libraries are places where fantasy takes flight. Cloud Cuckoo Land explores storytelling and libraries through mystery, history, and science fiction in a tri-part narrative. In The Midnight Library, truths are revealed about lives if other choices were made.
Historical fiction is fertile ground for books about libraries. New York City in the early 20th century tells mysteries based on actual people and places: The Personal Librarian, about the Pierpont Morgan Library, and Lions of Fifth Avenue, about the 42nd Street Library. Traveling south to Kentucky, during the Roosevelt administration, meet The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, The Book Woman’s Daughter, and The Giver of Stars. World War II sets the stage for The Paris Librarian, The Book of Lost Names, and Librarian Spy.
Sometimes a character’s background as a librarian shows her to be feisty, resilient, and intelligent. All our library volunteers have those traits! In Shrines of Gaiety, a former nurse and librarian rises to the occasion in post-World War I London, where criminals abound. In Shadows Reel, MaryBeth Pickett shows what a librarian can do to solve and stop crime.
Hoping you find a favorite library setting book when you visit one of SaddleBrooke’s libraries. Just beware of Professor Plum if he sneaks out of the conservatory wielding a nasty wrench! Here’s a “clue” on how to keep our libraries stocked with the latest books, audios, and DVDs: Join and support the Friends of SaddleBrooke Libraries at sbfsl.org. Thank you.