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UNITED STATES AUTHOR · CHILDREN

Susan Orlean

13
BOOKS
3.6
AVG RATING (11)
1
READERS
Cleveland, United States
Wikipedia

A SATURDAY EVENING IN MAY, 1949, and I am taking a moonlight leak in the garden at Ditchley.

— from The best American essays 2005

Most acclaimed

#1

The Orchid Thief

3.4 (7)

The orchid thief in Susan Orlean's true story of beauty and obsession is John Laroche, a renegade plant dealer and sharply handsome guy, in spite of the fact that he is missing his front teeth and has the posture of al dente spaghetti. In 1994, Laroche and three Seminole Indians were arrested with rare orchids they had stolen from a wild swamp in south Florida that is filled with some of the world's most extraordinary plants and trees. Laroche had planned to clone the orchids and then sell them for a small fortune to impassioned collectors. After he was caught in the act, Laroche set off one of the oddest legal controversies in recent memory, which brought together environmentalists, Native American activists, and devoted orchid collectors. The result is a tale that is strange, compelling, and hilarious.

#2

Saturday Night

1986

4.0 (1)

This was no ordinary Saturday night. Five girls. They couldn't have been more different, but they shared a common dream -- a perfect Saturday night at the Autumn Leaves Dance. For each of them, the night meant something different: It was a chance to be beautiful -- or dangerous; it was a time to reveal a secret, to even a score, or to fall in love. Of course their paths crossed. And for some, their dreams came true. But none of them could have guessed the surprises the night would hold -- surprises that would change their lives. Because for Beth, Anne, Molly, Emily, and Kip, nothing would be the same after Saturday night.

#3

The library book

4.0 (1)

Whether brand new or steeped in history, real or imagined, libraries feature in everyone's lives. In memoirs, essays and stories that are funny, moving, visionary or insightful, twenty-three famous writers celebrate these places where minds open and the world expands. Public libraries are lifelines, to practical information as well as to the imagination, but funding is under threat all over the country. This book is published in support of libraries, with all royalties going to The Reading Agency's library programmes.

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