This may seem like an odd place to start this list, but when I think of this comic about a teenage assassin living in a Gotham where Batgirl has gone missing, I think of the library. That’s because Cassandra Cain – on the run from the crime boss who raised her – seeks refuge in Gotham’s library, where Barbara Gordon happens to work as a librarian. When Cassandra hears Barbara’s stories about all the good Batgirl has done for the city, she wonders if she could follow in Batgirl’s footsteps. Could she build a new life for herself that focuses on helping others instead of hurting them?

I love how crazy Gentill’s books are. Have you read The mystery author still?? This wild ride aside, The woman in the library was the first Gentill book I read, and I enjoyed it a lot. Four strangers are sitting at a table in the Boston Public Library (one of my favorite places) when a bloodcurdling scream shatters the silence. It seems as though someone has been murdered, and now they are all suspects. They decide to solve the crime together, but each of them has secrets, and one of those secrets might be death.

There’s a new librarian at the local library, but she’s hiding a dark past. It turns out she’s actually an “angel of death” – a nurse hellbent on killing her patients – and hopes a new life among the shelves might help her quell her obsession. And that’s where it starts. This book jumps back and forth between the point of view of the secret serial killer and the point of view of another librarian who has developed a dangerous fascination with her new colleague. Given what’s at stake, things aren’t likely to end well.

I’m not quite sure how to classify Pokwatka’s books other than to call them quirky. In her first novel Self-portrait with nothing, An artist’s paintings summon doppelgängers of their subjects from other dimensions. I mean… what?!? In her second book, a group of people become trapped in their hometown’s library when tens of thousands of murderous owls attack the building. Again… what!? Eventually, resources run out and the trapped people become desperate, especially when they realize their city has failed them. Can they find a solution to their dilemma and get out alive?

This young adult novel is about a high school library that has recently been the target of a wave of attempted book bans. Horrified by her principal’s hit list of “forbidden media,” our well-read protagonist creates an underground library that she runs out of her locker. But with her high school graduation looming and her entire future on the line, the pressure of dealing contraband on campus becomes too much for her to handle. This book was a delight that I couldn’t put down.

I am a fan of Tokuda Hall’s Squadand that’s how I came across this book for younger readers. This story takes place after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, when many Japanese-Americans were forced to live in “war relocation centers.” The protagonist of this book works in the small library of her prison camp, where she finds comfort in the books that line the shelves. Eventually, she begins to wonder if her most regular library user is there not for the books, but for her. This book is based on the true love story of Tokuda-Hall’s grandparents. I’m not crying; you are Cry.

The action of this book begins in my other favorite library, the New York Public Library. When the protagonist’s father, a legendary cartographer, is found dead in his office at the NYPL, he leaves behind a map that he once told his daughter was completely worthless. But she realizes that the map contains more than she ever imagined, and she soon finds herself on the trail of some dark family secrets that could put her in danger.

This last title is not a novel, but I loved it, and I love Susan Orlean’s work in general, so it has to be here. In this work of narrative journalism, Orlean pays tribute to libraries, showing readers that these institutions are far more than mere repositories for books. Rather, they are vital community centers, the beating heart at the center of cities around the world. Orlean’s book begins with a mystery—did someone intentionally set fire to the Los Angeles Public Library on the morning of April 29, 1986?—but she and the reader soon discover that there are far more important things to uncover.