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In the early 1990s a Florida plant dealer named John Laroche was arrested with three Seminole men for taking rare orchids out of a state swamp preserve. Susan Orlean, born in Cleveland in 1955 and a staff writer at The New Yorker since 1992, read a short news item about the case and went to Florida to meet him. The result, The Orchid Thief (1998), became her best-known book and the starting point for the film Adaptation (2002). Her other subjects are just as specific: how Americans spend Saturday night, a German shepherd who became a film star, a fire at the Los Angeles Central Library. This guide covers her eight key books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 8 key books · 1990–2025 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Susan Orlean’s best-known books are The Orchid Thief (1998), about an orchid poacher in Florida, The Library Book (2018), about the 1986 Los Angeles Central Library fire, and Rin Tin Tin (2011). Start with The Orchid Thief; her memoir Joyride (2025) tells the story behind the books.
Where to Start with Susan Orlean
If you want her defining book
→ The Orchid Thief (1998) — the orchid poacher, and the book behind Adaptation.
If you want a true mystery about a public place
→ The Library Book (2018) — the 1986 Los Angeles library fire.
If you want her magazine profiles in one volume
→ The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup (2001) — including “The American Man, Age Ten”.
If you want her own story
→ Joyride (2025) — the 2025 memoir of her working life.
8 Susan Orlean Books, in Order
Saturday Night
Orlean travelled around the United States to report how people spend Saturday night: at dances, bowling alleys, quinceañeras, drive-ins and on the night shift. Published by Knopf, it was a New York Times Notable Book of 1990.
The Orchid Thief
John Laroche, a plant dealer working for the Seminole Tribe, was arrested for taking rare orchids, including the ghost orchid, from the Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve in southern Florida. Orlean follows him through the swamps and into the world of orchid collectors, and through him into the history of orchid hunting. Charlie Kaufman and Spike Jonze turned the book, and the difficulty of adapting it, into the film Adaptation (2002), with Meryl Streep as Orlean.
The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup
Profiles from her magazine work, from the Spanish matador Cristina Sánchez in the title piece to “The American Man, Age Ten”, her Esquire portrait of an ordinary ten-year-old boy in New Jersey. Most of the subjects are not famous; the book is a good sample of how she chooses them.
My Kind of Place
A second collection of magazine pieces, built around places rather than people: trips abroad and reporting closer to home, gathered by Random House.
Rin Tin Tin
The American soldier Lee Duncan found a German shepherd puppy in France during the First World War and brought him home to California, where Rin Tin Tin became a star of silent films. Orlean follows the dog and his successors through talkies and the 1950s television series The Adventures of Rin-Tin-Tin, and Duncan’s life-long attachment to the legend.
The Library Book
On 29 April 1986 a fire at the Los Angeles Central Library destroyed about 400,000 books and damaged hundreds of thousands more. Orlean investigates the case against Harry Peak, an aspiring actor who was arrested but never charged, and mixes it with the history of the library and of public libraries in general. It became a New York Times bestseller.
On Animals
Pieces from about two decades of her magazine writing about people and the animals they live with, work with and obsess over, from pets and show animals to livestock, alongside her own life with animals.
Joyride
Orlean’s memoir, published by Avid Reader Press in October 2025: growing up in Shaker Heights, Ohio, her start at alternative weeklies, the end of her first marriage, her years at The New Yorker and the films made from her work, Adaptation and Blue Crush.
In What Order to Read Susan Orlean
Her books do not continue one another, so you can read by subject. Publication order does show a pattern: the early books are built from many short encounters, the middle books follow one obsessive subject for years, and the latest, Joyride, turns the reporting on herself.
If you want to try her before committing to a full book, start with a piece from The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup. Read Joyride last: much of it is the story of how the other books were made.
A reading path
1. The Orchid Thief (1998)
2. The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup (2001)
3. The Library Book (2018)
4. Rin Tin Tin (2011)
5. Joyride (2025)
Everything Else Susan Orlean Published
Beyond the 8 key books: 3 more, grouped by kind.
Open a group with the + to see every book in it.
Other books
3
3 books · 1987–2008
- 1987Red Sox and Bluefishher first book, short pieces on what makes New England New England
- 2003Throw Me a Bonea dog-food cookbook written with Sally Sampson under the pen name Cooper Gillespie
- 2008Lazy Little Loafersa picture book for children
The years · 1955–2025
Quick facts about Susan Orlean
- Known for
- She finds large stories in small, specific subjects, most famously an orchid poacher in Florida, which became The Orchid Thief and the film Adaptation.
- 1955
- Born in Cleveland, Ohio
- 1998
- The Orchid Thief
- 2002
- Adaptation and Blue Crush released
- 2018
- The Library Book
- 2025
- Publishes her memoir Joyride
- Born
- 31 October 1955, Cleveland, Ohio; grew up in Shaker Heights
- Education
- University of Michigan, BA 1976
- Worked
- Willamette Week, The Boston Phoenix, The Boston Globe, Rolling Stone
- The New Yorker
- Staff writer since 1992
- Married
- John Gillespie, in 2001; one son, Austin
- On screen
- Adaptation (2002) and Blue Crush (2002) came from her work
The red mark is 1998: The Orchid Thief, the book that became Adaptation.
How Susan Orlean Writes: Following a Small Story Further
Orlean usually starts from something small and specific: a news item about orchid poachers, a dog, a library fire she had never heard of before moving to Los Angeles. She then stays with it for years. The Orchid Thief began as a New Yorker article; she kept going back to Florida to follow Laroche through the swamp, the orchid shows and the courtroom.
She is present in her books, but as a curious visitor rather than the main character. In The Orchid Thief she admits she wants to feel the kind of passion the collectors feel; in The Library Book she connects the fire to her own memories of going to the library with her mother. The digressions into history, from Victorian orchid hunters to the origins of the Los Angeles library, are part of the structure, not padding.
Her method is close to that of Gay Talese and John McPhee: long reporting, few famous subjects, and scenes rather than arguments. For writers who work in the same way, see Authors like Susan Orlean.
Watch
Susan Orlean on The Library Book
In an author talk for the Santa Monica Public Library, Susan Orlean discusses The Library Book, the unsolved 1986 fire at the Los Angeles Central Library and the role public libraries play in people’s lives. From the official Santa Monica Public Library channel.
Frequently asked questions about Susan Orlean’s books
How many books has Susan Orlean written?
Eleven under her own name. Eight are the key books on this page, from Saturday Night (1990) to Joyride (2025); the other three are her first book, Red Sox and Bluefish (1987), the dog-food cookbook Throw Me a Bone (2003) and the children’s book Lazy Little Loafers (2008).
What are Susan Orlean’s books 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).
What is the best Susan Orlean book to start with?
The Orchid Thief. It is her best-known book and the clearest example of her method: finding a large story inside a small, unusual subject.
What is Susan Orlean’s most famous book?
The Orchid Thief (1998), about the Florida orchid poacher John Laroche. The Library Book (2018) is her biggest recent bestseller.
Was The Orchid Thief made into a movie?
Yes, though loosely. Adaptation (2002), directed by Spike Jonze and written by Charlie Kaufman, is about the difficulty of adapting the book. Meryl Streep plays a fictionalised Orlean and Chris Cooper plays Laroche, a role that won him the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Which other film is based on Susan Orlean’s writing?
Blue Crush (2002), the surfing film, is based on her magazine article about young women surfers on Maui.
Was the Los Angeles library fire ever solved?
No. Harry Peak was arrested as a suspect but never charged, because the evidence was weak. He died in 1993. In The Library Book Orlean examines the case against him without reaching a firm verdict.
What is Joyride about?
Joyride (2025) is her memoir: growing up in Shaker Heights, Ohio, her early years at alternative weeklies, her two marriages and motherhood, her work at The New Yorker and the films made from her writing.
Does Susan Orlean still write for The New Yorker?
Yes. She has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 1992, after earlier work for Willamette Week, The Boston Phoenix, The Boston Globe and Rolling Stone.
Is Susan Orlean still alive?
Yes. She was born on 31 October 1955 in Cleveland, Ohio. Her most recent book is the memoir Joyride (2025).
Footnotes
- Orlean, Susan — Encyclopedia.com (Contemporary Authors)
- The Library Book — Wikipedia
- The Library Book — Publishers Weekly
- Rin Tin Tin — Kirkus Reviews, 2011
- Joyride — Kirkus Reviews, 2025
- Joyride: A Memoir — Bookreporter
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“John Laroche is a tall guy, skinny as a stick, pale-eyed, slouch-shouldered, and sharply handsome, in spite of the fact that he is missing all his front teeth.”
— Susan Orlean, The Orchid Thief (1998), the first line
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