Susan Orlean may be the most popular female nonfiction writer alive, and she’s the last of a dying breed. And unlike, say, the Beltway’s ever-expanding cast of child pundits, Orlean has earned her celebrity. Any given piece of hers, regardless of the subject matter, is readable all the way through, chock full of gloriously small observations, and clearly written. And as with the macho men who made magazine writing what it is today, Susan Orlean is bigger than her byline: Slight her (or the New Yorker) on Twitter, and she’ll eat your lunch. —-Mike Riggs

Read the full City Lights pick here; reading details after the jump:

ORLEAN READS WITH GEORGE SAUNDERS AT 7:30 P.M. AT THE FOLGER SHAKESPEARE LIBRARY, 201 E. CAPITOL ST. SE. $15. (202) 544-4600.