Susan Orlean

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.

From the moment in 1918 when Corporal Lee Duncan discovers Rin Tin Tin on a World War I battlefield, he recognizes something in the pup that he needs to share with the world. Rin Tin Tins improbable introduction to Hollywood leads to the dogs first blockbuster film and over time, the many radio programs, movies, and television shows that follow. The canine heros legacy is cemented by Duncan and a small group of others who devote their lives to keeping him and his descendants alive. At its heart, Rin Tin Tin is a poignant exploration of the enduring bond between humans and animals. But it is also a richly textured history of twentieth-century entertainment and entrepreneurship and the changing role of dogs in the American family and society. Almost ten years in the making, Susan Orleans first original book since The Orchid Thief is a tour de force of history, human interest, and masterful storytelling - the ultimate must-read for anyone who loves great dogs or great yarns.

Every essay in this book is magnificent... Mesmerizing.New York TimesHow 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, shes 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 worlds most famous whale resists the efforts to set him free; in Morocco, the worlds 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 Orleans stylish prose and precise research, these stories celebrate the meaningful cross-species connections that grace our collective existence.

«Fusiona la historia, la realidad y la ficción sin hacer visibles las costuras… Susan Orlean escribe con una prosa sabia, vigorosa, eficaz para disparar la imaginación» (Robert Saladrigas, La Vanguar

The Fakahatchee Strand, Florida, once a vast swamp awash with indiginous orchids, was plundered during the orchid boom of the 1890s. Its remaining plants, now fiercely protected by law, still attract the unwelcome attentions of thieves. John Laroche is one such self-confessed and convicted thief. Intrigued by newspaper reports of his trial, Susan Orlean followed Laroche on an enthralling exploration into the eccentric world of the obsessive orchid collectors; a subculture of aristocrats, enthusiasts and smugglers whose passion for plants is all-consuming.

The bestselling author of The Orchid Thief reopens the unsolved mystery of one of the most catastrophic library fires in history and delivers a dazzling love letter to a beloved institution - our libraries.Selected by Reese Witherspoon to be the first 2019 title in Reeses Book Club - Hello SunshineAfter 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.

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 peoples 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 Orleans 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 Orleans signature warmth and wit, Joyride is a must-read for anyone who hungers to start, build and sustain a creative life.

«Cada uno de estos ensayos es magnífico.»The New York TimesEn Fez, una clínica muy peculiar se encarga de ofrecer descanso a los burros que llevan toda su vida abasteciendo el gran mercado. En Island

¿Por qué nos gustan tanto los sábados por la noche? Antes de convertirse en la exitosa escritora de El ladrón de orquídeas y La biblioteca en llamas, Susan Orlean se hizo esa misma pregunta. Así que se embarco en un viaje a traves de Estados Unidos que la llevo a conocer y compartir su fin de semana con lo mas variado del territorio americano: desde adolescentes adinerados en Los Angeles a indigentes en Nueva York, bailarines de polka en Maryland o universitarias de Boston. Un mosaico de voces para definir esa noche de la semana en la que anteponemos lo que nos apetece a lo que deberiamos hacer. En Sabado noche, Susan Orlean despliega una vez mas su capacidad para narrar la realidad con excepcional magnetismo. El resultado es un retrato cautivador de las personas, lugares y costumbres de los Estados Unidos de las ultimas decadas.

«Fusiona la historia, la realidad y la ficción sin hacer visibles las costuras… Susan Orlean escribe con una prosa sabia, vigorosa, eficaz para disparar la imaginación» (Robert Saladrigas, La Vanguar

«Cada uno de estos ensayos es magnífico.» The New York Times En Fez, una clínica muy peculiar se encarga de ofrecer descanso a los burros que llevan toda su vida abasteciendo el gran mercado. En Isla

¿Por qué nos gustan tanto los sábados por la noche? Antes de convertirse en la exitosa escritora de El ladrón de orquídeas y La biblioteca en llamas, Susan Orlean se hizo esa misma pregunta. Así que se embarco en un viaje a traves de Estados Unidos que la llevo a conocer y compartir su fin de semana con lo mas variado del territorio americano: desde adolescentes adinerados en Los Angeles a indigentes en Nueva York, bailarines de polka en Maryland o universitarias de Boston. Un mosaico de voces para definir esa noche de la semana en la que anteponemos lo que nos apetece a lo que deberiamos hacer.En Sabado noche, Susan Orlean despliega una vez mas su capacidad para narrar la realidad con excepcional magnetismo. El resultado es un retrato cautivador de las personas, lugares y costumbres de los Estados Unidos de las ultimas decadas.

«Fusiona la historia, la realidad y la ficción sin hacer visibles las costuras… Susan Orlean escribe con una prosa sabia, vigorosa, eficaz para disparar la imaginación» (Robert Saladrigas, La Vanguar

En 1986 tuvo lugar el mayor incendio de un edificio público en Estados Unidos. Nunca nos enteramos.La historia de cualquier incendio es la historia de un olvido, por eso casi nadie recuerda lo que ocurrio el 29 de abril de 1986. Aquel dia la Biblioteca Publica de Los Angeles amanecio consumida por el fuego, cuatrocientos mil libros se convirtieron en cenizas y otros setecientos mil quedaron irremediablemente dañados. Siete horas ardieron las estanterias y las mesas y los ficheros, pero ningun periodico cubrio la noticia porque al otro lado del mundo, entre los bosques densos de la Union Sovietica, ocurria el mayor accidente nuclear hasta la fecha: Chernobil.¿Quien querria quemar una biblioteca? ¿Por que? Susan Orlean se hizo esas dos preguntas y al poco tiempo entendio que el fuego seria apenas un rastro, una linea punteada sobre la que dibujar su personalisima vision del conocimiento y de las personas que creen en el.La biblioteca en llamas es un homenaje a la lectura y el relato de una periodista obsesionada por encontrar al culpable de un crimen contra la memoria. Una investigacion que se extendio mas de una decada y que a cambio nos revela personajes desopilantes, inverosimiles y tiernos.