Susan Orlean

"Travel is not about finding something. It's about getting lost -- that is, it is about losing yourself in a place and a moment. The little things that tether you to what's familiar are gone, and you become a conduit through which the sensation of the place is felt." -- from the introduction by Susan Orlean The twenty pieces in this year's collection showcase the best travel writing from 2006. George Saunders travels to India to witness firsthand a fifteen-year-old boy who has been meditating motionless under a tree for months without food or water, and who many followers believe is the reincarnation of the Buddha. Matthew Power reveals trickle-down economics at work in a Philippine garbage dump. Jason Anthony describes the challenges of everyday life in Vostok, the coldest place on earth, where temperatures dip as low as minus-129 degrees and where, in midsummer, minus-20 degrees is considered a heat wave. David Halberstam, in one of his last published essays, recalls how an inauspicious Saigon restaurant changed the way he and other reporters in Vietnam saw the world. Ian Frazier analyzes why we get sick when traveling in out-of-the-way places. And Kevin Fedarko embarks on a drug-fueled journey in Djibouti, chewing psychotropic foliage in "the worst place on earth." Closer to home, Steve Friedman profiles a 410-pound man who set out to walk cross-country to lose weight and find happiness. Rick Bass chases the elusive concept of the West in America, and Jonathan Stern takes a hilarious Lonely Planet approach to his small Manhattan apartment.

'An exuberant, inspiring memoir' Guardian 'Brilliant... A high-spirited, exhilarating memoir' Wall Street Journal 'In Joyride, the takeaway often has as much to do with the art of living as the art of writing' Elle 'Wise and exuberant... It's funny, as well. Just masterful' David Sedaris 'Superbly good... Ebullient, frank, moving, and inspiring' Booklist (starred review) 'The story of my life is the story of my stories,' writes Susan Orlean in this exhilarating memoir from one of the greatest practitioners of narrative nonfiction of our time. Joyride is Orlean's most personal book ever, a searching journey through finding her feet as a journalist, recovering from the excruciating collapse of her first marriage, falling head over heels in love again, becoming a mother while mourning the decline of her own mother, sojourning to Hollywood for films based on her work (including Adaptation and Blue Crush) and confronting mortality. Joyride is also a time machine to a bygone era of journalism, from Orlean's bright start in the golden age of alt-weeklies to her careermaking days working alongside such icons as Tina Brown, David Remnick, Anna Wintour and Sonny Mehta, forces who shaped the media industry as we know it today. Infused with Orlean's signature warmth and wit, Joyride is a must-read for anyone who hungers to start, build and sustain a creative life.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER - NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY NPR, TIME, OPRAH DAILY, KIRKUS REVIEWS, GOODREADS, AND MORE "Brilliant... A high-spirited, exhilarating memoir." --The Wall Street Journal - "In Joyride, the takeaway often has as much to do with the art of living as the art of writing." --Elle - "Wise and exuberant... It's funny, as well. Just masterful." --David Sedaris - "Superbly good... Ebullient, frank, moving, and inspiring." --Booklist (starred review) From Susan Orlean, the beloved New Yorker writer and bestselling author of The Orchid Thief and The Library Book who has been hailed as "a national treasure" by The Washington Post, comes a masterful memoir of finding her creative calling and purpose that invites us to approach life with wonder, curiosity, and an irrepressible sense of delight. "The story of my life is the story of my stories," writes Susan Orlean in this extraordinary, era-defining memoir from one of the greatest practitioners of narrative nonfiction of our time. Joyride is a magic carpet ride through Orlean's life and career, where every day is an opportunity for discovery and every moment holds the potential for wonder. Throughout her storied career, her curiosity has drawn her to explore the most ordinary and extraordinary of places, from going deep inside the head of a regular ten-year-old boy for a legendary profile ("The American Man Age Ten") to reporting on a woman who owns twenty-seven tigers, from capturing the routine magic of Saturday night to climbing Mt. Fuji. Not only does Orlean's account of a writing life offer a trove of indispensable gleanings for writers, it's also an essential and practical guide to embracing any creative path. She takes us through her process of dreaming up ideas, managing deadlines, connecting with sources, chasing every possible lead, confronting writer's block and self-doubt, and crafting the perfect lede--a Susan specialty. While Orlean has always written her way into other people's lives in order to understand the human experience, Joyride is her most personal book ever--a searching journey through finding her feet as a journalist, recovering from the excruciating collapse of her first marriage, falling head-over-heels in love again, becoming a mother while mourning the decline of her own mother, sojourning to Hollywood for films based on her work including Adaptation and Blue Crush, and confronting mortality. Joyride is also a time machine to a bygone era of journalism, from Orlean's bright start in the golden age of alt-weeklies to her career-making days working alongside icons such as Robert Gottlieb, Tina Brown, David Remnick, Anna Wintour, Sonny Mehta, and Jonathan Karp--forces who shaped the media industry as we know it today. Infused with Orlean's signature warmth and wit, Joyride is a must-read for anyone who hungers to start, build, and sustain a creative life. Orlean inspires us to seek out daily inspiration and rediscover the marvels that surround us.

Susan Orlean—the beloved New Yorker staff writer and the author of the New York Times bestsellers Rin Tin Tin, The Orchid Thief, and On Animals—selects twenty science and nature essays that represent the best examples of the form published in 2024. The Best American series, launched in 1915, is the premier annual showcase for the country’s finest short fiction and nonfiction, and it is the most respected—and most popular—of its kind. New York Times bestselling author Susan Orlean selects twenty pieces that represent the best science and nature writing published the previous year and explores our ever-changing world.

'The story of my life is the story of my stories,' writes Susan Orlean in this extraordinary, era-defining memoir from one of the greatest practitioners of narrative nonfiction of our time. While Orlean has always written her way into other people's lives in order to understand the human experience, Joyride is her most personal book ever - a searching journey through finding her feet as a journalist, recovering from the excruciating collapse of her first marriage, falling head-over-heels in love again, becoming a parent while mourning the decline of her own mother, sojourning to Hollywood for films based on her work including Adaptation and Blue Crush, and confronting mortality. Joyride is also a time machine to a bygone era of journalism, from Orlean's bright start in the golden age of alt-weeklies to her career-making days working alongside icons such as Robert Gottlieb, Tina Brown, David Remnick, Anna Wintour and Sonny Mehta - forces who shaped the media industry as we know it today. Infused with Orlean's signature warmth and wit, Joyride is a must-read for anyone who hungers to start, build and sustain a creative life.

A New York Times Bestselling Author "The story of my life is the story of my stories," writes Susan Orlean in this extraordinary, era-defining memoir from one of the greatest practitioners of narrative nonfiction of our time. Joyride is a magic carpet ride through Orlean's life and career, where every moment holds the potential for wonder. She takes us through her process of dreaming up ideas, managing deadlines, connecting with sources, chasing every possible lead, confronting writer's block, and crafting the perfect lede. Infused with Orlean's signature warmth and wit, Joyride is a must-read for anyone who hungers to start, build, and sustain a creative life.

'Every essay in this book is magnificent... Mesmerizing.' New York Times'How we interact with animals has preoccupied philosophers, poets, and naturalists for ages,' writes Susan Orlean. Since the age of six, when Orlean wrote and illustrated a book called Herbert the Near-Sighted Pigeon, she's been drawn to stories about how we live with animals, and how they abide by us. Now, in On Animals, she examines animal-human relationships through the compelling tales she has written over the course of her celebrated career. These stories consider a range of creatures - the household pets we dote on, the animals we raise to end up as meat on our plates, the creatures who could eat us for dinner, the various tamed and untamed animals we share our planet with who are central to human life. In her own backyard, Orlean discovers the delights of keeping chickens. In a different backyard, in New Jersey, she meets a woman who has twenty-three pet tigers - something none of her neighbours knew about until one of the tigers escapes. In Iceland, the world's most famous whale resists the efforts to set him free; in Morocco, the world's hardest-working donkeys find respite at a special clinic. We meet a show dog and a lost dog and a pigeon who knows exactly how to get home. Equal parts delightful and profound, enriched by Orlean's stylish prose and precise research, these stories celebrate the meaningful cross-species connections that grace our collective existence.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER "Magnificent." --The New York Times * "Beguiling, observant, and howlingly funny." --San Francisco Chronicle * "Spectacular." --Star Tribune (Minneapolis) * "Full of astonishments." --The Boston Globe Susan Orlean--the beloved New Yorker staff writer hailed as "a national treasure" by The Washington Post and the author of the New York Times bestseller The Library Book--gathers a lifetime of musings, meditations, and in-depth profiles about animals. "How we interact with animals has preoccupied philosophers, poets, and naturalists for ages," writes Susan Orlean. Since the age of six, when Orlean wrote and illustrated a book called Herbert the Near-Sighted Pigeon, she's been drawn to stories about how we live with animals, and how they abide by us. Now, in On Animals, she examines animal-human relationships through the compelling tales she has written over the course of her celebrated career. These stories consider a range of creatures--the household pets we dote on, the animals we raise to end up as meat on our plates, the creatures who could eat us for dinner, the various tamed and untamed animals we share our planet with who are central to human life. In her own backyard, Orlean discovers the delights of keeping chickens. In a different backyard, in New Jersey, she meets a woman who has twenty-three pet tigers--something none of her neighbors knew about until one of the tigers escapes. In Iceland, the world's most famous whale resists the efforts to set him free; in Morocco, the world's hardest-working donkeys find respite at a special clinic. We meet a show dog and a lost dog and a pigeon who knows exactly how to get home. Equal parts delightful and profound, enriched by Orlean's stylish prose and precise research, these stories celebrate the meaningful cross-species connections that grace our collective existence.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER "Magnificent." --The New York Times * "Beguiling, observant, and howlingly funny." --San Francisco Chronicle * "Spectacular." --Star Tribune (Minneapolis) * "Full of astonishments." --The Boston Globe Susan Orlean--the beloved New Yorker staff writer hailed as "a national treasure" by The Washington Post and the author of the New York Times bestseller The Library Book--gathers a lifetime of musings, meditations, and in-depth profiles about animals. "How we interact with animals has preoccupied philosophers, poets, and naturalists for ages," writes Susan Orlean. Since the age of six, when Orlean wrote and illustrated a book called Herbert the Near-Sighted Pigeon, she's been drawn to stories about how we live with animals, and how they abide by us. Now, in On Animals, she examines animal-human relationships through the compelling tales she has written over the course of her celebrated career. These stories consider a range of creatures--the household pets we dote on, the animals we raise to end up as meat on our plates, the creatures who could eat us for dinner, the various tamed and untamed animals we share our planet with who are central to human life. In her own backyard, Orlean discovers the delights of keeping chickens. In a different backyard, in New Jersey, she meets a woman who has twenty-three pet tigers--something none of her neighbors knew about until one of the tigers escapes. In Iceland, the world's most famous whale resists the efforts to set him free; in Morocco, the world's hardest-working donkeys find respite at a special clinic. We meet a show dog and a lost dog and a pigeon who knows exactly how to get home. Equal parts delightful and profound, enriched by Orlean's stylish prose and precise research, these stories celebrate the meaningful cross-species connections that grace our collective existence.

"Jag älskar den här boken. Den är helt förtrollande och handlar om kärleken till böcker." - Ingalill Mosander, Aftonbladet "Resultatet har blivit en imponerande välskriven och mycket underhållande bok som innehåller otroligt mycket information om bibliotekets historia, dess excentriska personal och speciella plats som samlingspunkt i staden. En plats som författaren understryker innehas av alla bibliotek, små som stora. Biblioteket är en underbar bok för alla bok-och biblioteksälskare." - BTJ 5/5 En vårdag 1986 börjar en tunn, genomskinlig rök sprida sig i nordöstra bokmagasinet i Los Angeles centralbibliotek. Branden utvecklar sig snabbt till den största biblioteksbranden i USA:s historia, med en halv miljon förstörda böcker. Trettio år senare försöker journalisten Susan Orlean lösa frågan om vem som startade branden. Hon finner sig snart djupt nedsänkt i bibliotekets historia: från det sena 1800-talets excentriska bibliotekschefer till den misslyckade Hollywoodskådespelaren som häktades som misstänkt för branden. Detta är en kärleksförklaring till boken men också en berättelse om staden Los Angeles, lika soldränkt som hård. Och i dess centrum: Biblioteket. "Hoppfull och vacker faktabok som börjar i en omfattande biblioteksbrand och skildrar drivkraften hos människor och kulturen." - Västerbottens-kuriren "Oavsett om Orlean ger sig i kast med gäckande växter i Floridas träskdjungler eller med ett stadsbib-lioteks brokiga historia uppvisar hon samma muntra och smittande fascination inför de människoöden som flätar sig samman med de ämnen hon valt." - Svenska Dagbladet "Susan Orlean har skrivit en kärleksförklaring till böcker, bibliotek och bibliotekarier. Då samhällets resurser tryter, vill politiker gärna spara på kulturen. Men historien visar på bibliotekens betydelse i kris-tider." - Gefle Dagblad "Orleans Biblioteket är spännande läsning. (…) För en person med ett varmt förhållande till bibliotek är Orleans reportage en rörande, bekräftande och kanske även tröstande bok." - Borås Tidning "Utsökt skriven, oavbrutet underhållande." - The New York Times "En ren njutning." - USA Today "En kärleksfull hyllning till bibliotek överallt." - The New York Review of Books "En av årets 10 bästa böcker." - The Washington Post "En bokälskares dröm." - Minneapolis Star Tribune "Alla som älskar böcker borde läsa Biblioteket." - The Washington Post

A New York Times Book of the Year, 2018A REESE WITHERSPOON x HELLO SUNSHINE BOOK CLUB PICKA dazzling love letter to a beloved institution - our libraries. After moving to Los Angeles, Susan Orlean became fascinated by a mysterious local crime that has gone unsolved since it was carried out on the morning of 29 April 1986: who set fire to the Los Angeles Public Library, ultimately destroying more than 400,000 books, and perhaps even more perplexing, why? With her characteristic humour, insight and compassion, Orlean uses this terrible event as a lens through which to tell the story of all libraries - their history, their meaning and their uncertain future as they adapt and redefine themselves in a digital world. Filled with heart, passion and extraordinary characters, The Library Book discusses the larger, crucial role that libraries play in our lives.

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.

This one-of-a-kind collaboration between acclaimed author Susan Orlean and celebrated artist Philip Taaffe unites the literary and the visual, the nostalgic and the optimistic, and brings greenery to your bookshelf. Taking inspiration from the rapidly dwindling "flower district" of New York City, Orlean and Taaffe offer tandem musings on the conceit of "the floral ghost." Orlean's essay, one of her first botanically themed writings since she penned the widely lauded "The Orchid Thief," reflects on a poignant moment when she first visited the district in its resplendent heyday. Her text is accompanied by Taaffe's colorful silkscreen monotypes-a bouquet of paper and ink recalling the unique yet universal nature of time passing and petals fading. An evocative rendering of both the memories of youth and the ephemeral nature of the cityscape, "The Floral Ghost" makes an elegant gift for every aspiring writer, artist and dreamer who moves to a city to make his or her mark or who admires its mutable glory from afar. Susan Orlean (born 1955) is the bestselling author of eight books, including "The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup"; "My Kind of Place"; "Saturday Night"; and "Lazy Little Loafers." In 1999, she published "The Orchid Thief," a narrative about orchid poachers in Florida, which was made into the Academy Award-winning film "Adaptation," written by Charlie Kaufman and directed by Spike Jonze. Her 2011 book, "Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend," was a "New York Times" bestseller. Orlean has been a staff writer for the "The New Yorker" since 1992. She lives in Los Angeles and upstate New York. Philip Taaffe was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, in 1955, and studied at the Cooper Union in New York. He has exhibited worldwide since his first solo exhibition in New York, in 1982. Taaffe has traveled widely in the Middle East, South America and Morocco, where he collaborated with Mohammed Mrabet on the 1993 book "Chocolate Creams and Dollars," translated by Paul Bowles. His work is in numerous public collections, including The Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Taaffe lives and works in New York and West Cornwall, Connecticut.

One of the most acclaimed nonfiction books of 2011, Susan Orlean's New York Times bestseller Rin Tin Tin is "an unforgettable book about the mutual devotion between one man and one dog" (The Wall Street Journal). He believed the dog was immortal. So begins Susan Orlean's sweeping, powerfully moving account of Rin Tin Tin's journey from abandoned puppy to movie star and international icon. Spanning almost one hundred years of history, from the dog's improbable discovery on a battlefield in 1918 to his tumultuous rise through Hollywood and beyond, Rin Tin Tin is a love story about "the mutual devotion between one man and one dog" (The Wall Street Journal) that is also a quintessentially American story of reinvention, a captivating exploration of our spiritual bond with animals, and a stirring meditation on mortality and immortality.

From Susan Orlean, the bestselling author of The Orchid Thief and Rin Tin Tin, comes a new edition of her first book, a quirky classic of narrative journalism that offers an irresistible portrait of how Saturday night in America is lived--with a new Afterword by the author. Twenty years ago, before she wrote The Orchid Thief or was hailed as "a national treasure" by The Washington Post, Susan Orlean was a journalist with a question: What makes Saturday night so special? To answer it, she embarked on a remarkable journey across the country and spent the evening with all sorts of people in all sorts of places--hipsters in Los Angeles, car cruisers in small-town Indiana, coeds in Boston, the homeless in New York, a lounge band in Portland, quincea era revelers in Phoenix, and more--to chronicle the one night of the week when we do the things we want to do rather than the things we need to do. The result is an irresistible portrait of how Saturday night in America is lived that remains.

Cooper Gillespie, an extremely intelligent and handsome Welsh springer spaniel, is a dog of discriminating taste and strong opinions. Now Cooper, with the assistance of cookbook author Sally Sampson and the transcription services of his favorite human, Susan Orlean, has put together 50 delectable recipes for snacks, meals, and treats for your canine companion. Maybe you're cooking everything because your collie has colitis or your Akita has a wheat allergy or your older dog just isn't thriving on commercial kibble. Maybe you're mixing up the occasional biscuit or treat to help your best fur-bearing friend over that I-just-ate-a-tennis- ball-and-don't-feel-so-good episode. Whatever the reason, the recipes in this book (which have been approved by dog trainer and nutritional consultant Stacy Alldredge) will satisfy the most discerning doggie palate. Many of them, in fact, can be shared with a favorite human (though preferably not from the same dish). Illustrated with more than 50 endearing black-and-white photographs of Cooper and friends by Cami Johnson, and liberally seasoned with stories, quotes, and nutrition tips, Throw Me a Bone makes a dog's dinner something to look forward to.