One might say that SUSAN ORLEAN has devoted her entire literary career to one simple—and yet not so simple—philosophical idea: “An ordinary life examined closely reveals itself to be exquisite and complicated and exceptional, somehow managing to be both heroic and plain.” Again and again in her celebrated New Yorker profiles and in books such as The Library Book and The Orchid Thief, she has shown herself to be a master of description at once slangy and poetic, possessing a flawless ear for dialogue, and deadpan-whimsical humor. And, most important, Orlean has shown a sensitivity to the darker currents that run through some of her subjects’ lives. Join one of our most vividly curious chroniclers of American life as Orlean tells tales large and small, short and tall, about the most ordinary extraordinary folks she has ever met and explains why she feels she has the best job in the world.

Read more about Susan Orlean here.