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Susan Orlean

Goodreads Author

Born

in Cleveland, OH (CLE), The United States

October 31

Website

http://www.susanorlean.com/

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susanorlean

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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

162 posts
Susan Orlean's Blog

A Long Life as a Disney Animator

For nearly seventy years, Burny Mattinson drew many of the studio��s best-loved characters.

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Published on March 14, 2023 15:00

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Susan Orlean’s books

Average rating: 3.85 · 148,091 ratings · 22,520 reviews · 51 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Library Book 3.90 avg rating — 107,741 ratings — published 2018 — 38 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 — 18,201 ratings — published 1998 — 42 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 — 4,678 ratings — published 2011 — 27 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 — 4,198 ratings — published 2021 — 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
	The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup: My Encounters With Extraordinary People 3.80 avg rating — 1,400 ratings — published 2001 — 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
	My Kind of Place: Travel Stories from a Woman Who's Been Everywhere 3.57 avg rating — 814 ratings — published 2004 — 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
	You Are Ready For Takeoff: A Short Trip 3.65 avg rating — 451 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 — 422 ratings — published 1990 — 11 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 — 2 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 — 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

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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 A Long Life as a Disney Animator For nearly seventy years, Burny Mattinson drew many of the studio��s best-loved characters.
Mar 15, 2023 12:16AM · 1 like · 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

149 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

115 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

95 likes

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Polls

May 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 May?

The Orchid Thief: A True Story of Beauty and Obsession by Susan Orlean

12 votes, 27.9%

The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century by Kirk Wallace Johnson

11 votes, 25.6%

All the President's Men by Carl Bernstein

8 votes, 18.6%

American Heiress: The Wild Saga of the Kidnapping, Crimes and Trial of Patty Hearst by Jeffrey Toobin

6 votes, 14.0%

Fatal Vision by Joe McGinniss
(Note: If selected this will be a two month read).

6 votes, 14.0%

43 total votes

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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	1055	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	752	May 31, 2012 09:02PM

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