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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

165 posts
Susan Orlean's Blog

The Salmon in the Sky

A painted plane that flew the Alaskan coast.

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Published on May 17, 2023 10:06

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Susan Orlean’s books

Average rating: 3.84 · 143,967 ratings · 22,178 reviews · 53 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Library Book 3.89 avg rating — 109,259 ratings — published 2018 — 39 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 3.68 avg rating — 18,459 ratings — published 1998 — 9 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 3.81 avg rating — 4,427 ratings — published 2021 — 16 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 3.52 avg rating — 4,705 ratings — published 2011 — 31 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 — 1,406 ratings — published 2001 — 18 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 3.57 avg rating — 821 ratings — published 2004 — 8 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
	You Are Ready For Takeoff: A Short Trip 3.65 avg rating — 459 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 3.61 avg rating — 423 ratings — published 1990 — 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
	The Best American Essays 2005 by Susan Orlean (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Robert Atwan (Series Editor) 4.02 avg rating — 313 ratings — published 2005 — 7 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) 3.83 avg rating — 321 ratings — published 2007 — 5 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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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 08:48AM

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UnSouled (Unwind, #3)

by Neal Shusterman (Goodreads Author)

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Oct 05, 2018 08:43PM

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Washington Black

by Esi Edugyan

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Sep 25, 2018 09:49PM

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Susan Orlean wrote a new blog post The Salmon in the Sky A painted plane that flew the Alaskan coast.
May 18, 2023 12:18AM · 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

151 likes

“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

118 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

97 likes

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Polls

Which nonfiction work would you like to read with the group during December 2018 and January 2019? Please vote here.

The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester

54 votes, 36.5%

Always Looking Up: The Adventures of an Incurable Optimist by Michael J. Fox

29 votes, 19.6%

My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell

25 votes, 16.9%

Origin Story: A Big History of Everything by David Christian

15 votes, 10.1%

Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend by Susan Orlean

14 votes, 9.5%

The Physics of Everyday Things: The Extraordinary Science Behind an Ordinary Day by James Kakalios

11 votes, 7.4%

148 total votes

17 comments

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Topics Mentioning This Author

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The Seasonal Read...: * Readerboard - Winter Challenge 2010-2011	6	496	Feb 14, 2011 05:24PM
The Seasonal Read...: Winter Challenge 2010-2011 Completed Tasks (do not delete any posts)	2589	1060	Feb 28, 2011 09:05PM
flight paths: Week of Aug. 14-20	11	5	Aug 18, 2011 10:25AM
The Life of a Boo...: EllieNYC 200 Books to Love!	389	299	Dec 29, 2011 12:43PM
You'll love this ...: Kimberly's Reporting Thread	15	67	Jan 03, 2012 07:45AM
The Seasonal Read...: Spring Challenge 2012: Completed Tasks -DO NOT DELETE ANY POSTS IN THIS TOPIC	2302	754	May 31, 2012 09:02PM

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