On Animals, Susan Orlean
On Animals, Susan Orlean
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On Animals

Author: Susan Orlean

Narrator: Susan Orlean

Unabridged: 10 hr

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/12/2021


Synopsis

NATIONAL BESTSELLER

“Magnificent.” —The New York Times * “Beguiling, observant, and howlingly funny.” —San Francisco Chronicle * “Spectacular.” —Star Tribune (Minneapolis) * “Full of astonishments.” —The Boston Globe

Susan Orlean—the beloved New Yorker staff writer hailed as “a national treasure” by The Washington Post and the author of the New York Times bestseller The Library Book—gathers a lifetime of musings, meditations, and in-depth profiles about animals.

“How we interact with animals has preoccupied philosophers, poets, and naturalists for ages,” writes Susan Orlean. Since the age of six, when Orlean wrote and illustrated a book called Herbert the Near-Sighted Pigeon, she’s been drawn to stories about how we live with animals, and how they abide by us. Now, in On Animals, she examines animal-human relationships through the compelling tales she has written over the course of her celebrated career.

These stories consider a range of creatures—the household pets we dote on, the animals we raise to end up as meat on our plates, the creatures who could eat us for dinner, the various tamed and untamed animals we share our planet with who are central to human life. In her own backyard, Orlean discovers the delights of keeping chickens. In a different backyard, in New Jersey, she meets a woman who has twenty-three pet tigers—something none of her neighbors knew about until one of the tigers escapes. In Iceland, the world’s most famous whale resists the efforts to set him free; in Morocco, the world’s hardest-working donkeys find respite at a special clinic. We meet a show dog and a lost dog and a pigeon who knows exactly how to get home.

Equal parts delightful and profound, enriched by Orlean’s stylish prose and precise research, these stories celebrate the meaningful cross-species connections that grace our collective existence.

About Susan Orlean

Susan Orlean has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 1992. She is the New York Times bestselling author of seven books, including The Library Book, Rin Tin Tin, Saturday Night, and The Orchid Thief, which was made into the Academy Award–winning film Adaptation. She lives with her family and her animals in Los Angeles and may be reached at SusanOrlean.com and on Substack at SusanOrlean.Substack.com.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Krista on June 22, 2021

I think I’ll always have animals and I think I’ll always write about them. Their unknowability challenges me. Our affection for them intrigues me. I resist the urge to anthropomorphize them, but I do think they know something we don’t about living elementally. I’m happy to be in their company. I......more

Goodreads review by Darla on October 03, 2021

What animals have been a part of your life? If you grew up on a farm (like me) and have also raised three active boys (also me), then chances are you have observed and/or had ownership of a wide variety. There are animals who give us companionship, those who provide sustenance, those who provide ser......more

Goodreads review by Linda on January 15, 2022

" If therapists didn't charge you and were willing to chase sticks, they would be dogs. The kindly and receptive silences, the respect for secrets, the inexhaustible supply of attention-- these are a dog's and a therapist's finest qualities. Dogs, though, are more fun than therapists, more dear, and......more

Goodreads review by Jim on February 18, 2023

A collection of essays by Susan Orlean, most of which appeared in "The New Yorker" between 2002 and 2020. They all include stories about animals and our interactions--good and bad--with them. We have stories about orcas, pigeons, tigers, donkeys, pandas, rabbits, and, of course, dogs--and more. A mo......more

Goodreads review by Sue Em on November 08, 2021

First and foremost, Susan Orleans is an incredible writer and an Indefatigable researcher. Her THE LIBRARY BOOK was simply riveting. This book collected her articles published over the years that focused on animals combined with ones about her personal experiences as an animal lover and caretaker of......more


Quotes

"Orlean has a flattened, nasal voice that is nonetheless engaging. She reads clearly at an unrushed pace with a downbeat delivery that suits the book’s funny situations and quirky, occasionally bizarre, characters. The woman with tigers in rural New Jersey is definitely bizarre, while the owners of the show dog are a tad quirky. As for Orlean herself, she is thrilled when the post office calls to say, 'You have a package here, and it’s clucking.'"