Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

The Library Book by Susan Orlean

10 reviews

sarahb919's review against another edition

informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.5

2nd time reading this book. Still really good and interesting. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury and Grief

Moderate: Homophobia, Terminal illness, Sexism, and Drug use

Minor: Classism, Sexual harassment, Death of parent, and Violence

librerin's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing medium-paced

5.0

This book was fascinating. I normally have a hard time reading non-fiction, but this book was so well written and so interesting that I savored every moment of it! The flow between following the library's history, it's present, and the fire was so smooth. The cast of real human characters was also wild! The book spoke to my love of libraries, even getting me teary-eyed at some points. One of my favorite books ever!

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Content Warnings

Minor: Cultural appropriation, Drug use, Homophobia, and Mental illness

emilylovesgoodbooks's review against another edition

informative inspiring relaxing slow-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Drug abuse and Drug use

zivareads's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Grief, Drug use, and Panic attacks/disorders

unhallowing's review against another edition

hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Medical content and Drug use

Minor: Homophobia

lunep's review against another edition

informative mysterious slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Terminal illness

Minor: Alcoholism, Violence, Homophobia, Addiction, Drug use, Police brutality, Racism, and Sexism

edie_reads's review against another edition

informative reflective medium-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Death of parent, Drug use, Homophobia, and Racism

katschm's review against another edition

emotional informative inspiring slow-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Racism

Minor: Drug use, Chronic illness, and Death

quasinaut's review against another edition

informative slow-paced

3.5

I wasn't expecting to learn so much about fire damage and arson from a book about libraries -- though I suppose that's because The Library Book centers around the devastating 1986 fire at Central Library in LA. I appreciate the depth and details about the library's history, including the many eccentric characters that have crossed paths with the library through the years, but most of the time, the book didn't hold my attention for long. Whenever I was reading it, I enjoyed it, but as soon as I put it down I didn't feel much incentive to pick it up again. But it was worth finishing (eventually)!

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Content Warnings

Minor: Homophobia, Drug use, and Terminal illness

hmatt's review

informative slow-paced

3.0

This could have been a product of listening the audiobook or picking up and putting down the book over a 15 month period, but I didn't find this book very cohesive. Some chapters carry on from the previous one in a linear story, and some go off about random historical topics. I can see what the author was trying to do by "interweaving" the non-linear chapters into the narrative, but I don't think it was effective. These odd chapters didn't add any value to my reading of the book - in fact I felt like they distracted me from the narrative. I would have much rather read the fully linear account of the LAPL fire on its own - it was interestingly told, it just didn't need the weird bells and whistles.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Drug use