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| The Orchid Thief: A True Story of Beauty and Obsession (Ballantine Reader's Circle) | 
 enlarge | Author: Susan Orlean
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Category: Book
List Price: $14.00
Buy Used: $0.01
You Save: $13.99 (100%)
Avg. Customer Rating:  166 reviews
Sales Rank: 20033
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 5.5 x 0.9
ISBN: 044900371X
Dewey Decimal Number: 635.934409759
EAN: 9780449003718
ASIN: 044900371X
Publication Date: January 4, 2000
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Great Fun! January 27, 2005
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
I don't know what took me so long to read this book.....maybe I do.I did not start reading non-fiction until recently, and what I knew about this book, or thought I knew, was related to the movie. So, I had no interest. Something made me pick up this book when I was in the book store, and I'm so glad I did.
I used to live in Florida and my mom would tease me that every once in a while, something would pick up the states and shake and all the weirdos would drop into Florida. I had to agree. This book just proves it all over again. The only reason I gave it four instead of five, is the author told some stories twice and I think once, even a third time. I was surprised at that, but all in all, a great book.
Those obsessed orchid collectors? Who knew?
This book is a very, very , interesting and fun read. Well worth the couple of days it took me to race through it!
 Quirky...makes you wonder about people's sanity. December 2, 2004
1 out of 12 found this review helpful
This is a bizarre and very unique story. It fizzles a bit when she delves into the history of every orchid known to mankind. It reminds me of the peculiar lives of those in 'Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.'
Note: The movie 'Adaptation' takes a nose-dive into left field with the whole porn, etc. plot. What a disgrace.
Orchids, Florida, biology, Indian tribes . . . and orchids! December 2, 2004
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
At some point, a reader of Susan Orlean's "The Orchid Thief" has to ask "what is this book about?!" That's a justified question, to which there are some good answers. Numerous themes run through the book, as Orlean writes about various topics that surround a strange mid-1990s theft of rare and protected orchids from a South Florida swamp. At first the reader is led to think that the theft of these orchids is the real story. But not so fast . . . Orlean's own on-scene investigation into the incident reveals a deep, exciting and unexpected layer of sub-topics!
Orlean starts off by writing about John LaRoche, the actual "Orchid Thief," who is always working some angle in hopes of getting rich quick. His aim, for much of the book, is cultivating and reproducing a rare orchid known as the Ghost Orchid. As Orlean gets to known LaRoche, she comes into contact with the personalities that inhabit the orchid world - an odd and eccentric assortment of individuals who will do anything to purchase, sell, smuggle, collect, cultivate and even clone orchids. She enters this world herself and braves the murky swamps of the Everglades in hopes of finding a rare Ghost Orchid.
During her time in Florida, Orlean delves into the history of orchid collecting and cultivation - how orchids were "hunted" in various exotic locales and the extent to which upper-class and well-to-do collectors would seek to obtain them. She also gets into the genetics of orchids - how orchids have been pollinated and cross-pollonated to produce exquisite and fascinating new kinds of orchids. Later, she writes about how Florida became one of the hotbeds of orchid collecting. In a way, Florida becomes one of the major sub-topics, as she writes about Florida's climate, the swamps, the landscape, the history and the people. She describes, in detail, the famous land-scams of the 1950s and 60s, the growth of the Seminole Indian Nation and its current successes, the urbanization of South Florida and its lifestyle, and the attempts at preserving and reclaiming the Everglades.
Readers will enjoy "The Orchid Thief" for all of these topics and sub-topics. In the end, some might still wonder what the book is really about. But for the imaginative reader, the wide selection of topics provided by Orlean allows one to make that a personal choice. That is, the book is about whatever you want it to be about - orchids, Florida, biology, Indian tribes, history, and . . . again, orchids.
Flowers can cause such a ruckus! November 23, 2004
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Susan Orlean travels to Florida and follows John LaRoche, an independent soul who is enamored of orchids but has been arrested for stealing them while managing a nursery for the Seminole Indian tribe. In the author's desire to understand orchid growing, she visits nurseries of well-known orchid retailers and a prestigious orchid show. The Fakahatchee swamp becomes her focus as she joins LaRoche in pursuit of seeing a rare ghost orchid.
A history of orchids, the mysterious places they grow, and the people to whom they mean so much leave the reader with a deep appreciation of how plants can affect people. It's a hobby; it's a career; it's an obsession. The writing conveys so much of the excitement of keeping orchids that I, myself, ran out to buy a Phalaenopsis orchid from my local Trader Joe's (who I learned imports them from Thailand) in order to view it closely.
 A true life vignette of Life in South Florida November 5, 2004
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
The book "Orchid Thief" is wonderful. When I started reading the book I couldn't put it down. It seriously messed up my daily routine for several days as I stole time to read a chapter here, then another chapter there. I stumbled across the book after I saw the movie "Adaptation" on satellite TV several months ago. I then had to see the movie several more times and the movie left me confused and hungry for more information. Since the movie was in my hometown, about something I knew about, I decided to research Susan Orlean on the Internet and realized that the movie was more fiction than fact. I ordered the book and here I am reviewing it.
Well I admit being biased. I grew up in South Florida. I've been here since 1960 with the exception of 8 years that I lived in Northern New England and Pennsylvania. It's a well-written series of "vignettes" of the zany colorful people living and dead here in South Florida and of the economic agricultural trade in this sub-tropical part of the Deep South. Its as much a book about Florida as it is about Orchids and the incredible Flora and Fauna that we have here. Many people don't realize that the habitable part of Florida is just a sliver of land 10-20 miles along the coastline and that the interior is a swampy wild wetland. Protected State and Federal land where you could be charged with a felony for just picking a wild daisy. And every year we have an influx of Latin Americans, Europeans and Northerners moving into our sliver of habitable land.
I suffered from orchidelirium for several years back in the mid-1990 right around the time that Laroche was on trial. I read about the case in the local paper and never thought much about the event. But I did spend thousands of dollars on Orchids at several of the nurseries mentioned in the book. Many of those orchids are still growing and blooming in my garden. Many died off because of fungus or drought. I collect several of the species named in the book. I have also bought from some of the growers mentioned by Orlean. I met R. Fuchs and his partner, M.Coronado, two of the worlds foremost successfull orchid people in the world, personally and they took my girlfriend and me on a tour of their home next to their nursery in Homestead in the mid 90's, just exactly like Susan Orlean describes. The community in Homestead among plant nurseries is very friendly and open. The book is about real people, and about real history and rumors in a very tightly knit community. South Florida has a very unique history and some of the most colorful southerners you'll ever read about, or know. The early inhabitants of Miami-Dade county date back to the early 1920's and spoke with a unique southern accent. I grew up among the native Miamians. It wasn't until the mid-1980s that South Florida changed dramatically to a Latin culture with the large influx of Latin Americans. Many of these original zany native-Miamians are now a vanishing breed and Susan Orlean captures the quality of some of these characters exquisitely well. To me the book has no distinctive classification. Its not a book about Orchids, its not a book about Laroche, the so-call "Orchid Thief". It's more like a vignette of personalities and stories that deal with Florida. I would say it's the best book written about Florida that I've read.
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