18 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY APRIL 17-23, 2025 www.montereycountynow.com Acclaimed writer Susan Orlean brings her observations about life to the Sunset Center. By Agata Popęda The world without Susan Orlean and her curiosity would be less interesting. Even if you are not a reader of her regular contributions to The New Yorker or her books—eight to date, two of which became bestsellers, The Orchid Thief and The Library Book—you have likely encountered Orlean’s work in some form. It could have been a 2002 movie, Adaptation with Nicholas Cage playing the orchid thief and Meryl Streep as Orlean, or perhaps Blue Crash, based on her 1998 article about surfer girls in Maui, titled “Life’s Swell.” There’s also television; Orlean did some writing for the HBO comedy docuseries How To With John Wilson. She is also omnipresent in the cultural scene more broadly, with a hilarious presence on social media; she stopped posting on Twitter when it became X, but she is growing strong on Instagram, documenting her trips and everyday thoughts. (A selection of her posts runs throughout this story.) When it comes to longer entries, in 2024 she migrated from Medium to Substack, where you can find her as Wordy Bitch. And now this fantastic writer is coming to Carmel to meet her local audience. The Library Book, the above-mentioned story of a mysterious fire that in 1986 destroyed 400,000 volumes (20 percent) of the Los Angeles Central Always New Orlean NOAH FECKS
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