Susan Orlean writing a book about Central Library

Author and New Yorker writer Susan Orlean has a deal with Simon & Schuster to write a nonfiction book about urban libraries, based around the Los Angeles Public Library downtown. Apparently her starting point is the fire in 1986 that almost consumed the Central Library, and which led to the building's expansion into the beauty we have today. (See The other horrible April 29 date in Los Angeles history.) Orlean is a staff writer at the New Yorker who moved to Los Angeles in 2011 and lives in a Schindler house in the hills of Studio City.

Her latest book is "Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend." She is also the author of "The Orchid Thief," "Saturday Night," "Animalish," "Lazy Little Loafers," "Throw Me a Bone," "The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup" and "Red Sox and Bluefish."

LA Observed photo of the Central Library atrium, downtown Los Angeles