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Orlean went to Florida to write about a man arrested for taking rare orchids out of a state preserve, discovered she knew nothing whatever about orchids, and decided that was the point. The Orchid Thief (1998) came out of it, and then Adaptation (2002), a film about a screenwriter who cannot work out how to adapt the book, in which she is played by Meryl Streep and Chris Cooper won an Academy Award. She has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 1992 and has written eight books: Saturday Night (1990), on how Americans spend one evening; Rin Tin Tin (2011), on a dog rescued from a French battlefield in 1918 who became a film star; The Library Book (2018), built around the 1986 fire that gutted the Los Angeles Central Library; On Animals (2021). In October 2025 she published Joyride, a memoir that is really a book about method — where the ideas come from, how the reporting works, how a first line is built — and it was named a book of the year by NPR, Time, Oprah Daily and others. Her position on expertise is unusual and worth knowing before you read her: not knowing, she has said, is a superpower. The ten below are chosen on curiosity and on how they treat a stranger.
By Lisanne Swart · 10 authors · Magazine non-fiction · Obsessives and animals · Eight books · Updated September 2026
Quick answer
If you love Susan Orlean, the closest match is Mary Roach: the same cheerful expertise-free plunge into a subject, with jokes and real reporting. John McPhee and Joseph Mitchell are the ancestors of the form, and Calvin Trillin the funniest practitioner of it. Jon Mooallem and Bill Bryson share the appetite, and Sy Montgomery is where to go after On Animals. And Joan Didion is the argument against her: the same magazine assignments, with all the warmth taken out.
10 authors like Susan Orlean
Where to start if you loved Susan Orlean
If you want the closest match, read Mary Roach.
Stiff. What happens to donated bodies, reported in person and very funny.
If you loved Joyride, read John McPhee.
Draft No. 4. Sixty years of method, explained by the man who invented most of it.
If you want the ancestor, read Joseph Mitchell.
Joe Gould's Secret. A man writing the longest book in the world, and what the reporter learned.
If you loved On Animals, read Sy Montgomery.
The Soul of an Octopus. Years with an animal, and what it might be experiencing.
If you want the argument against her, read Joan Didion.
Slouching Towards Bethlehem. The same assignments, thirty degrees colder.
If you want more non-fiction of this kind
My shelf has the rest.
Frequently asked questions about authors like Susan Orlean
Who should I read if I love Susan Orlean?
Mary Roach is the closest — the same delighted plunge into a subject she knows nothing about, with real reporting underneath. John McPhee and Joseph Mitchell are the ancestors of the form and Calvin Trillin the funniest practitioner of it. Jon Mooallem is the nearest contemporary in temperament, Bill Bryson shares the enthusiastic-amateur position, Craig Brown is the British equivalent and Sy Montgomery the place to go after On Animals. David Grann applies the same magazine training to obsession rather than eccentricity. Joan Didion is the argument against her, being the same assignments with the warmth removed.
What is Susan Orlean's new book?
Joyride: A Memoir, published by Avid Reader Press at Simon & Schuster on 14 October 2025 and by Atlantic Books in Britain that November, with a paperback in November 2026. It became a national bestseller and was named a book of the year by NPR, Time, Oprah Daily and Goodreads. It opens with the line that the story of her life is the story of her stories, and reviewers have repeatedly noted that it doubles as one of the best books on the craft of narrative non-fiction.
Which Susan Orlean book should I start with?
The Orchid Thief (1998) if you want the famous one: John Laroche, the orchid poacher, the Fakahatchee Strand swamp, and a reporter who arrived knowing nothing about plants. The Library Book (2018) if you want the best-loved one, built around the 1986 fire that destroyed much of the Los Angeles Central Library and expanding into a history of libraries themselves. Joyride (2025) if you write, or want to.
Is Adaptation based on The Orchid Thief?
Loosely, and self-consciously. Charlie Kaufman was hired to adapt the book, could not find a way to do it, and wrote a film about a screenwriter failing to adapt it, with himself and an invented twin brother as characters. Meryl Streep plays Orlean and Nicolas Cage plays Kaufman; Chris Cooper won the Academy Award for best supporting actor in 2003 as Laroche. The film invents a great deal about Orlean personally, which she has discussed with more good humour than most subjects would.
What does Susan Orlean mean about not knowing being a superpower?
That arriving without expertise is what makes the reporting work. She has said that ignorance brings a voraciousness to learn and that it makes her a proxy for the reader — she has to ask how orchids reproduce, and endure the look she gets from the head of the orchid society, but the answer then belongs to the reader too. It is the opposite of the specialist's approach, and it is the through-line from The Orchid Thief to Joyride.
What is The Library Book about?
The fire that burned through the Los Angeles Central Library on 29 April 1986, destroying or damaging a million books, and the man who was arrested and never charged. Around that, Orlean writes a history of the library itself, its more eccentric directors, the smell of burnt paper, and what libraries do for the people who have nowhere else to be during the day. It is her most affectionate book and probably her best structured.
How many books has Susan Orlean written?
Eight, alongside a long career of magazine pieces. In order: Saturday Night (1990), The Orchid Thief (1998), The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup (2001), My Kind of Place (2004), Rin Tin Tin (2011), The Library Book (2018), On Animals (2021) and Joyride (2025). Two of those are collections of magazine work, which is the fastest way to sample her range. She has been a New Yorker staff writer since 1992 and also writes a Substack.
What order should I read her books in?
No order is required. A good route is The Orchid Thief, then The Library Book, then Joyride, because the memoir is far richer once you know the stories it describes making. If you would rather sample first, The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup collects the magazine profiles — a ten-year-old boy, a taxidermy championship, a Spanish woman bullfighter — and shows the range in an afternoon.
Sources
- Bestselling author Susan Orlean discusses her new memoir, Joyride — NPR, 11 October 2025
- Joyride — Simon & Schuster, publication details and author biography
- Joyride — Atlantic Books, UK editions and dates
- Book review: Joyride — The Week
- Susan Orlean — Wikipedia
List last reviewed 9 September 2026.
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“I think the lack of knowledge is a superpower.”
— Susan Orlean, interview with NPR, 2025.
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