Allegedly found in the ruins of a bombed-out dog kennel in France during World War I, then brought to Los Angeles by Lee Duncan, the soldier who found and trained him, by 1927 Rin Tin Tin had become Hollywood's number one box-office star. Susan Orlean's book--about the dog and the legend--is a poignant exploration of the enduring bond between humans and animals. It is also a richly textured history of twentieth-century entertainment and entrepreneurship....

From Florida's swamps to its courtrooms, the New Yorker writer follows one deeply eccentric and oddly attractive man's possibly criminal pursuit of an endangered flower. Determined to clone the rare ghost orchid, Polyrrhiza lindenii, John Laroche leads Orlean on an unforgettable tour of America's strange flower-selling subculture, along with the Seminole Indians who help him and the forces of justice who fight him. In the end, Orlean -- and the reader...

Susan Orlean re-opens the unsolved mystery of the most catastrophic library fire in American history, and delivers a dazzling love letter to the beloved insitution of libraries.

Film watchers view the story of a nonfiction book about a "crazy" orchid dealer and at the same time the story of a screenwriter who turns to his twin brother for help in adapting the book. An original comedy-drama that seamlessly blends fictional characters and situations with the lives of real people: obsessive orchid hunter John Laroche, journalist Susan Orlean, Hollywood screenwriter Charlie Kaufman, and his twin brother Donald. As Charlie struggles...