The bestselling author of The Orchid Thief and The Library Book is back with this delightfully entertaining
collection of her best and brightest profiles.

Acclaimed New Yorker writer Susan
Orlean brings her wry sensibility, exuberant voice, and peculiar curiosities to a
fascinating range of subjects-from the well known (Bill Blass) to the unknown (a
typical ten-year-old boy) to the formerly known (the 1960s girl group the Shaggs).

Passionate people. Famous people. Short people. And one championship show dog named
Biff, who from a certain angle looks a lot like Bill Clinton. Orlean transports us
into the lives of eccentric and extraordinary characters-like Cristina Sanchez, the
eponymous bullfighter, the first female matador of Spain-and writes with such insight
and candor that readers will feel as if they’ve met each and every one of them.

The result is a luminous and joyful tour of the human condition as seen through
the eyes of the writer heralded by the Chicago Tribune as a journalist dynamo.