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Susan Orlean

Goodreads Author

Born

in Cleveland, OH (CLE), The United States

October 31

Website

http://www.susanorlean.com/

Twitter

susanorlean

Member Since

March 2010

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/susanorlean

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I'm the product of a happy and uneventful childhood in the suburbs of Cleveland, followed by a happy and pretty eventful four years as a student at University of Michigan. From there, I wandered to the West Coast, landing in Portland, Oregon, where I managed (somehow) to get a job as a writer. This had been my dream, of course, but I had no experience and no credentials. What I did have, in spades, was an abiding passion for storytelling and sentence-making. I fell in love with the experience of writing, and I've never stopped. From Portland, I moved to Boston, where I wrote for the Phoenix and the Globe, and then to New York, where I began writing for magazines, and, in 1987, published my first piece in The New Yorker. I've been a staff wr ...more

168 posts
Susan Orlean's Blog

Nicolas Cage Is Still Evolving

The actor talks about the origins of ��Adaptation,�� his potential leap to television, and the art of ��keeping it enigmatic.��

View more on Susan Orlean's website »

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Published on July 08, 2024 03:00

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Susan Orlean’s books

Average rating: 3.84 · 155,510 ratings · 23,725 reviews · 41 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Library Book 3.89 avg rating — 117,466 ratings — published 2018 — 40 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Orchid Thief 3.67 avg rating — 20,226 ratings — published 1998 — 13 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	On Animals 3.83 avg rating — 5,499 ratings — published 2021 — 17 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend 3.53 avg rating — 4,879 ratings — published 2011 — 33 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup: My Encounters With Extraordinary People 3.80 avg rating — 1,450 ratings — published 2001 — 15 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	My Kind of Place: Travel Stories from a Woman Who's Been Everywhere 3.56 avg rating — 845 ratings — published 2004	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	You Are Ready For Takeoff: A Short Trip 3.66 avg rating — 495 ratings — published 2021 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Saturday Night 3.60 avg rating — 447 ratings — published 1990 — 14 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Best American Essays 2005 by Susan Orlean (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Robert Atwan (Series Editor) 4.02 avg rating — 321 ratings — published 2005 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Best American Travel Writing 2007 by Susan Orlean (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Jason Wilson (Goodreads Author) (Series Editor) 3.82 avg rating — 331 ratings — published 2007 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Susan Orlean…

The internet, on balance, has been something of a mixed-blessing for our species. But one thing everyone agrees on: It’s a great place to watch...

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Susan Orlean is currently reading

Is Everyone Really Equal?: An Introduction to Key Concepts in Social Justice Education (Multicultural Education Series)

by Özlem Sensoy

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Jun 18, 2019 05:48PM

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UnSouled (Unwind, #3)

by Neal Shusterman (Goodreads Author)

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Oct 06, 2018 05:43AM

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Washington Black

by Esi Edugyan

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Sep 26, 2018 06:49AM

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Susan’s Recent Updates

Susan Orlean wrote a new blog post Nicolas Cage Is Still Evolving The actor talks about the origins of ��Adaptation,�� his potential leap to television, and the art of ��keeping it enigmatic.��
Jul 09, 2024 09:14AM · 2 likes · like

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Quotes by Susan Orlean (?)

“In Senegal, the polite expression for saying someone died is to say his or her library has burned. When I first heard the phrase, I didn’t understand it, but over time I came to realize it was perfect. Our minds and souls contain volumes inscribed by our experiences and emotions; each individual’s consciousness is a collection of memories we’ve cataloged and stored inside us, a private library of a life lived.”
― Susan Orlean, The Library Book

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“The library is a gathering pool of narratives and of the people who come to find them. It is where we can glimpse immortality; in the library, we can live forever.”
― Susan Orlean, The Library Book

125 likes

“The world is so huge that people are always getting lost in it. There are too many ideas and things and people too many directions to go. I was starting to believe that the reason it matters to care passionately about something is that it whittles the world down to a more manageable size. It makes the world seem not huge and empty but full of possibility.”
― Susan Orlean , The Orchid Thief

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Polls

October 2019 True Crime Poll

We ask that you only vote if you are planning on participating in our discussion should your choice win.

Which True Crime book would you like to read in October 2019?

The Library Book by Susan Orlean

11 votes, 33.3%

Bitter Harvest by Ann Rule

9 votes, 27.3%

The Road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and Peoples Temple by Jeff Guinn

6 votes, 18.2%

Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith by Jon Krakauer

4 votes, 12.1%

And Every Word Is True And Every Word Is True by Gary McAvoy

3 votes, 9.1%

33 total votes

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