Susan Orlean has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 1992. She is the New York Times bestselling author of seven books, including The Library Book, Rin Tin Tin, Saturday Night, and The Orchid Thief, which was made into the Academy Award-winning film Adaptation. She lives with her family and her animals in Los Angeles and may be reached at SusanOrlean.com and on Substack at SusanOrlean.Substack.com.
"Every essay in the book is magnificent. . . . Part of what makes
this book so immensely readable is the coupling of a brilliant
essayist's friendly, funny voice with a committed generalist's
all-embracing curiosity. There appears to be nothing in the world
that doesn't interest Orlean, and she has such a companionable way
of conveying her fascinations that readers can't help being
fascinated too. . . . [Orlean] is a writer who sees crucial
connections between animals and people. This emphasis on
interconnectedness emerges not just from one essay after another
but also from the cumulative effect of the collection as a whole.
Even more than the linguistic pyrotechnics, the friendly wit or the
mesmerizing storytelling, that's the true gift of On Animals."
--Margaret Renkl, The New York Times Book Review "Original,
perceptive, and clever . . . Orlean excels as a reporter. . . . Her
pages are crammed with quirky characters, telling details, and
flabbergasting facts. Readers will find these pages full of
astonishments. . . . Even though Orlean claims the animals she
writes about remain enigmas, she makes us care about their fates.
Readers will continue to think about these dogs and donkeys, tigers
and lions, chickens and pigeons long after we close the book's
covers."
--Sy Montgomery, Boston Globe "Beguiling, observant, and howlingly
funny . . . Beware: Cuddling up with On Animals is even more
absorbing than watching a bear rummage through a Tahoe kitchen on
YouTube."
--Rachel Levin, San Francisco Chronicle "A close read of her new
book suggests that beneath the surface variety of subjects and
locales in her writing, there's an underlying unity: heedless,
headlong enthusiasm. . . . She is a moth drawn to moths who are
drawn to the flame. . . . Ms. Orlean has a rare knack for finding
these people, and an even rarer one for starting them talking. . .
. Do not underestimate her curiosity, or the sharpness of her
eyes."
--Jeremy McCarter, The Wall Street Journal "Spectacular . . . One
is likely to imagine Susan Orlean's eyes sparkling as she composed
the essays in On Animals. . . . Orlean strikes a perfect balance
between hilarious and informative. . . . Orlean has a gift for the
indelible detail. . . . Readers fond of seemingly effortless
writing about animals will savor this book."
--Minneapolis Star Tribune "She relies on her powers of
observation, conveyed with unflappable curiosity. . . . Orlean is
committed to investigating the dizzying multiplicity of roles
animals serve--employee, best friend, harbinger of climate
change--and the places where those functions intersect."
--Margaret Wappler, Los Angeles Times "A broad meditation on how
the connections we make, or fail to make, with animals mark us
profoundly along our human journey . . . Orlean's tone is
conversational and self-questioning."
--USA Today (4 out of 4 stars) "Fabulously fun . . . Orlean is such
a virtuoso of unexpected joys and delights that she can make even
the story of a lost dog read like a thriller. . . . Orlean's
high-octane enthusiasm never wanes. . . . Orlean's readers will
find themselves completely diverted by On Animals' irresistible
menagerie."
--BookPage (starred review) "Delightful . . . Another winner
featuring the author's trademark blend of meticulous research and
scintillating writing."
--Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "Entertaining and informative . .
. Orlean's prose dazzles . . . Animal lovers will find much to
savor."
--Publishers Weekly "Vibrant . . . A revelry for readers wild for
animals . . . Orlean's deep pleasure in learning startling facts,
her often wry tales about her personal life, her omnivorous
attention to detail, and her juggler's skill with words yield
vivid, provocative, amusing, and wondrous stories."
--Booklist PRAISE FOR THE LIBRARY BOOK: "Moving . . . A constant
pleasure to read . . . Everybody who loves books should check out
The Library Book. . . . Orlean, a longtime New Yorker writer, has
been captivating us with human stories for decades, and her latest
book is a wide-ranging, deeply personal, and terrifically engaging
investigation of humanity's bulwark against oblivion: the library.
. . . As a narrator, Orlean moves like fire herself, with a
pyrotechnic style that smolders for a time over some ancient
bibliographic tragedy, leaps to the latest technique in book
restoration, and then illuminates the story of a wildly eccentric
librarian. Along the way, we learn how libraries have evolved,
responded to depressions and wars, and generally thrived despite a
constant struggle for funds. Over the holidays, every booklover in
America is going to give or get this book. . . . You can't help but
finish The Library Book and feel grateful that these marvelous
places belong to us all."
--Ron Charles, The Washington Post
"A flitting and meandering masterpiece . . . Compelling and
undeniably riveting . . . This is a joyful book, and among its many
pleasures is the reader's ability to palpate the author's thrill as
she zooms down from stratospheric viewings of history, to
viscerally detailed observations of events and people, and finally
to the kind of irresistibly offbeat facts that create an equally
irresistible portrait of the author herself."
--J. C. Hallman, San Francisco Chronicle
"A sheer delight. . . . Orlean has created a book as rich in
insight and as varied as the treasures contained on the shelves in
any local library."
--Chris Woodyard, USA Today
"Captivating . . . A delightful love letter to public libraries . .
. In telling the story of this one library, Orlean reminds readers
of the spirit of them all, their mission to welcome and equalize
and inform, the wonderful depths and potential that they--and maybe
all of us, as well--contain. . . . In other hands the book would
have been a notebook dump, packed with random facts that weren't
germane but felt too hard-won or remarkable to omit. Orlean's
lapidary skills include both unearthing the data and carving a
storyline out of the sprawl, piling up such copious and relevant
details that I wondered how many mountains of research she
discarded for each page of jewels."
--Rebekah Denn, Christian Science Monitor
"Exquisitely written, consistently entertaining . . . A loving
tribute not just to a place or an institution but to an idea . . .
What makes The Library Book so enjoyable is the sense of discovery
that propels it, the buoyancy when Orlean is surprised or moved by
what she finds. . . . Her depiction of the Central Library fire on
April 29, 1986, is so rich with specifics that it's like a blast of
heat erupting from the page. . . . The Library Book is about the
fire and the mystery of how it started--but in some ways that's the
least of it. It's also a history of libraries, and of a particular
library, as well as the personal story of Orlean and her mother,
who was losing her memory to dementia while Orlean was retrieving
her own memories by writing this book."
--Jennifer Szalai, The New York Times
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