Susan Orleans' story about the LAPL fire in the 1980s is really an amazing piece of writing. It not only is a great book advocating and promoting public libraries and their mission, but also is a harrowing telling of the fire that destroyed a huge amount of the library's collection and almost the library itself.

The way she weaves the library, it's history, it's mission, and the fire and its subsequent investigation is, honestly, one of the best pieces of writing I have read about libraries.  Her interviews with the librarians, the library staff, the patrons, and those who helped save LAPL is really wonderful and heart-felt and reinforced why I love libraries and wanted to be a librarian in the first place.