The Librarian, the Firefighters, and the Arsonist


Book Description

She walked up to the door, unlocked it, and began to enter, but froze standing just outside her door. It was getting dark outside, but the darkness inside her house was black as tar and suffocating. She felt a sudden panic of fear, gasping, trying to breathe. She stood there staring into her house (that she loved so much), but felt an evil presence, everything inside her telling her to turn and run. Then she felt like she couldn't catch her breath and thought she was seeing a blanket of black darkness moving around her house. Twila, a young adult librarian, feels she is being haunted by her past, and also, dealing with the possibility of a slow-going romance. Caleb, Twila's brother's best friend since childhood, finds himself involved with a gorgeous woman that no one seems to trust or like. The thought of living in utopia has changed dramatically for the town of Cornerstone, NC. A series of strange, maybe supernatural fires have wreaked havoc on this too-good-to-be-true town, taking the life of their beloved Obadiah. All that is happening creates some serious and silly discussions of families and friends on current events and causes them to evaluate their own Christian characteristics, realizing the majority of Christians have lost those characteristics described in the Bible and have been wrongfully judgmental to their own brothers and sisters in the Lord. Will Cornerstone lose their faith in God or will they seek Him even more? You may have to read the next book to find out.




The Librarian, the Firefighters and the Arsonist


Book Description

Twila and her family and friends are unaware of spiritual presence in their everyday lives. Good and bad. Is that really a branch scratching the window? Just out of nowhere, where did that stabbing pain come from? Could it, perhaps, really be supernatural forces at work!? At what cost will it take for them to fight spiritual warfare effectively? Do our five senses play a role in discernment?




The Library Book


Book Description

Susan Orlean’s bestseller and New York Times Notable Book is “a sheer delight…as rich in insight and as varied as the treasures contained on the shelves in any local library” (USA TODAY)—a dazzling love letter to a beloved institution and an investigation into one of its greatest mysteries. “Everybody who loves books should check out The Library Book” (The Washington Post). On the morning of April 28, 1986, a fire alarm sounded in the Los Angeles Public Library. The fire was disastrous: it reached two thousand degrees and burned for more than seven hours. By the time it was extinguished, it had consumed four hundred thousand books and damaged seven hundred thousand more. Investigators descended on the scene, but more than thirty years later, the mystery remains: Did someone purposefully set fire to the library—and if so, who? Weaving her lifelong love of books and reading into an investigation of the fire, award-winning New Yorker reporter and New York Times bestselling author Susan Orlean delivers a “delightful…reflection on the past, present, and future of libraries in America” (New York magazine) that manages to tell the broader story of libraries and librarians in a way that has never been done before. In the “exquisitely written, consistently entertaining” (The New York Times) The Library Book, Orlean chronicles the LAPL fire and its aftermath to showcase the larger, crucial role that libraries play in our lives; delves into the evolution of libraries; brings each department of the library to vivid life; studies arson and attempts to burn a copy of a book herself; and reexamines the case of Harry Peak, the blond-haired actor long suspected of setting fire to the LAPL more than thirty years ago. “A book lover’s dream…an ambitiously researched, elegantly written book that serves as a portal into a place of history, drama, culture, and stories” (Star Tribune, Minneapolis), Susan Orlean’s thrilling journey through the stacks reveals how these beloved institutions provide much more than just books—and why they remain an essential part of the heart, mind, and soul of our country.




American Fire: Love, Arson, and Life in a Vanishing Land


Book Description

A New York Times Notable Book of the Year A Washington Post Notable Book of the Year One of Amazon’s 20 Best Books of the Year Named one of the Best Books of the Year by Buzzfeed, Bustle, NPR, NYLON, and Thrillist Finalist for the Goodreads Book Award (Nonfiction) Finalist for the Edgar Award (Best Fact Crime) A Book of the Month Club Selection A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice Selection “A brisk, captivating and expertly crafted reconstruction of a community living through a time of fear.... Masterful.” —Washington Post The arsons started on a cold November midnight and didn’t stop for months. Night after night, the people of Accomack County waited to see which building would burn down next, regarding each other at first with compassion, and later suspicion. Vigilante groups sprang up, patrolling the rural Virginia coast with cameras and camouflage. Volunteer firefighters slept at their stations. The arsonist seemed to target abandoned buildings, but local police were stretched too thin to surveil them all. Accomack was desolate—there were hundreds of abandoned buildings. And by the dozen they were burning. “One of the year’s best and most unusual true-crime books” (Christian Science Monitor), American Fire brings to vivid life the reeling county of Accomack. “Ace reporter” (Entertainment Weekly) Monica Hesse spent years investigating the story, emerging with breathtaking portraits of the arsonists—troubled addict Charlie Smith and his girlfriend, Tonya Bundick. Tracing the shift in their relationship from true love to crime spree, Hesse also conjures the once-thriving coastal community, decimated by a punishing economy and increasingly suspicious of their neighbors as the culprits remained at large. Weaving the story into the history of arson in the United States, the critically acclaimed American Fire re-creates the anguished nights this quiet county lit up in flames, evoking a microcosm of rural America—a land half-gutted before the fires began.




The Arsonist


Book Description

The true story of one of the most devastating wildfires in Australian history and the search for the man who started it. On the scorching February day in 2009, a man lit two fires in the Australian state of Victoria, then sat on the roof of his house to watch the inferno. What came to be known as the Black Saturday bushfires killed 173 people and injured hundreds more, making them among the deadliest and most destructive wildfires in Australian history. As communities reeling from unspeakable loss demanded answers, detectives scrambled to piece together what really happened. They soon began to suspect the fires had been deliverately set by an arsonist. The Arsonist takes readers on the hunt for this man, and inside the puzzle of his mind. But this book is also the story of fire in the Anthropocene. The command of fire has defined and sustained us as a species, and now, as climate change normalizes devastating wildfires worldwide, we must contend with the forces of inequality, and desperate yearning for power, that can lead to such destruction. Written with Chloe Hooper’s trademark lyric detail and nuance, The Arsonist is a reminder that in the age of fire, all of us are gatekeepers.




The Esperanza Fire


Book Description

When a jury returns to a packed courtroom to announce its verdict in a capital murder case every noise, even a scraped chair or an opening door, resonates like a high–tension cable snap. Spectators stop rustling in their seats; prosecution and defense lawyers and the accused stiffen into attitudes of wariness; and the judge looks on owlishly. In that atmosphere of heightened expectation the jury entered a Riverside County Superior Court room in southern California to render a decision in the trial of Raymond Oyler, charged with murder for setting the Esperanza Fire of 2006, which killed a five–man Forest Service engine crew sent to fight the blaze. Today, wildland fire is everybody's business, from the White House to the fireground. Wildfires have grown bigger, more intense, more destructive—and more expensive. Federal taxpayers, for example, footed most of the $16 million bill for fighting the Esperanza Fire. But the highest cost was the lives of the five–man crew of Engine 57, the first wildland engine crew ever to be wiped out by flames. They were caught in an "area ignition," which in seconds covered three–quarters of a mile and swept the house they were defending on a dry ridge face, where human dwellings chew into previously wild and still unforgiving territory. John Maclean, award–winning author of three previous books on wildfire disasters, spent more than five years researching the Esperanza Fire and covering the trial of Raymond Oyler. Maclean offers an insider's second–by–second account of the fire and the capture and prosecution of Oyler, the first person ever to be found guilty of murder for setting a wildland fire.




Blaze


Book Description

A true tale of modern science and a deadly killer traces the twenty-five-year war on fire waged by forensic experts who cut the fire-related mortality rate from 12,000 to 5,000.




The Library Book


Book Description

From Alan Bennett's Baffled at a Bookcase, to Lucy Mangan's Library Rules, famous writers tell us all about how libraries are used and why they're important. Tom Holland writes about libraries in the ancient world, while Seth Godin describes what a library will look like in the future. Lionel Shriver thinks books are the best investment, Hardeep Singh Kohli makes a confession and Julie Myerson remembers how her career began beside the shelves. Using memoir, history, polemic and some short stories too, The Library Book celebrates 'that place where they lend you books for free' and the people who work there. All royalties go to The Reading Agency, to help their work supporting libraries.




Burn Boston Burn


Book Description




Consumed


Book Description

'Raw, gritty, and gripping' Library Journal 'Addictive and explosive' Ana's Attic From the author of the bestselling Black Dagger Brotherhood series comes a new band of brothers. And a firestorm . . . _______________ Anne Ashburn is a woman consumed - by her bitter family legacy, by her scorched career as a firefighter, by her obsession with department bad-boy Danny McGuire, and by a new case that pits her against a fiery killer. Strong-willed Anne was fearless and loved the thrill of fighting fires, pushing herself to be the best. But when one risky decision at a warehouse fire changes her life forever, Anne must reinvent not only her job, but her whole self. Shattered and demoralised, Anne finds her new career as an arson investigator a pale substitute for the adrenaline-fueled life she left behind. She doesn't believe she will ever feel that same all-consuming passion for her job again--until she encounters a string of suspicious fires setting her beloved city ablaze. Danny McGuire is a premiere fireman, best in the county, but in the midst of a personal meltdown. Danny is taking risks like never before and seems to have a death wish until he teams up with Anne to find the fire starter. But Danny may be more than a distraction, and as Anne narrows in on her target, the arsonist begins to target her. _______________ Join other readers in discovering the thrill of Consumed: 'Raw, gritty, and gripping, this adrenaline-laced tale is impossible to put down' Library Journal 'Stunning . . . the story line was so intense and fluid that I didn't see the final shocking surprise until the last minute . . . relatable and gut-wrenching' Harlequin Junkie 'A fantastic blend of romance, action and suspense' All About Romance 'Addictive and explosive' Ana's Attic 'Pure adrenaline' The Good the Bad and the Unread 'A thick plot, suspense, a beautiful romance, well fleshed-out characters . . . it almost feels like we're watching an action blockbuster unfolding in our heads . . . a complex, badass, gritty female character who refuses to wait for a knight in shining armour' Natasha is a Book Junkie