On Animals

When a writer pairs their passions with their work, it shows. Inspired by her lifelong love of animals, Orlean (The Library Book; The Orchid Thief) has spent decades researching and writing about animals, as well as caring for creatures of her own. This collection of previously published essays (which appeared in the New Yorker, the Atlantic, and Smithsonian Magazine) covers subjects as diverse as homing pigeons, keeping backyard chickens, and a New Jersey woman with 23 tigers in her yard. Orlean’s writing is energetic and her joy in the subject matter shines through in the introduction, where she discusses her early love for animals, and in each essay. Readers who have long appreciated her writing will enjoy having her past essays compiled here, accompanied by illustrations. The original publication dates of the essays appear only in the back matter and not next to the essays themselves; this might confuse readers who are encountering one of the essays for the first time and don’t know its historical context. For example, Orlean’s 2002 essay about Keiko, of Free Willy fame, ends with him frolicking in open water (the killer whale died in 2003).