|
MEET OUR REVIEWERS
 Kate Ayers
Kate Ayers is a semi-retired court reporter in the Pacific Northwest, honing her skills by writing short stories, book reviews and the occasional magazine article. In her free time, of which there is precious little, she attempts to train one irascible Shar Pei, tend her one-acre garden and play with all her friends, not the least of whom is her husband of nearly 20 years. Other works by Kate can be found at SevenSeasMagazine.com, The Pink Chameleon and Einkwell.com Archive.
Rob Cline
Rob Cline is the marketing director at Hancher Auditorium, the University of Iowa's performing arts center. He is also a freelance reviewer of books, theater and art. Iowa City, home to the famed UI Writers' Workshop and Prairie Lights bookstore, is one of the country's most delightful spots for any lover of great literature, attracting many of today's finest writers for readings (and often for extended stays). Rob has been thrilled to interview many of these authors for Bookreporter.com and other publications.
Bernadette Adams Davis
Bernadette Adams Davis is a freelance writer and web producer living in Florida. Her current reading obsessions are mysteries and books that examine our culture. She is co-author with Kevin Meehan of a play about a 1920 racially-motivated massacre near Orlando entitled "The Whirlwind Passeth," and she is a contributor to BARE YOUR SOUL: The Thinking Girl's Guide To Enlightenment. Bernadette has a bachelors and masters degree in literature, and her research interests are African American and Caribbean literature.
Jami Edwards
Jami Edwards lives, reads and writes in Denver with the husband she met seven years ago while hosting a book chat for The Book Report on AOL, the first website of The Book Report Network. She inherited her passion for reading from her parents and turned it into a full-blown obsession. Although some family friends thought an 11-year-old shouldn't be reading Harold Robbins, and a 16-year-old was too young for Hermann Hesse, and 19-year-old would be corrupted by OPEN MARRIAGE, Jami's parents fought off all detractors with the words, "We've never censored her reading and we never will." Although a few years under Sister Immaculata and a long-ago degree in English literature broadened her reading tastes to include everything from Anthony Trollope to Joanna Trollope, Jami follows the family tradition and allows her miniature long-haired dachshunds to read whatever they like.
Sarah Rachel Egelman
Sarah Rachel Egelman holds a masters degree in comparative religion and works and teaches in Seattle's Jewish community. She enjoys writing, spending time outdoors, and especially reading. Some of her favorite writers include Kafka, Vonnegut, Grass, Rushdie, Hemingway and Austen. Sarah also likes all types of poetry, and books on Europeon history and cultural or religious studies. Besides books of all shapes and sizes, she likes scary movies, art, music, thai food and monkeys.
 Pauline Finch
Pauline Finch has been a resident of Kitchener, Ontario (Canada) since the late 1960s when she moved from an even smaller city to attend Waterloo Lutheran University (now Wilfrid Laurier). While doing graduate work, she accidentally landed a full-time job with the local newspaper by writing a really vitriolic letter to the editor.
She ended up working there for the next 21 years, covering classical music, books (mainly science fiction), human interest topics, public transit, social justice, and religion, as well as "pinch-hitting" on everything from labour demonstrations to ice shows. But she never chased police cars, fire engines, lawyers, politicians, or major movie stars.
When she was "fired with money" in 1999 (the popular corporate buyout thing) she had a metre-high pile of scrapbooks with more than 5,800 bylined articles. She thought it was fun while it lasted but left without too many regrets.
Newspaper reporting has been her longest continuous job, but she also has been a bilingual telephone operator, occasional music teacher, seamstress, photographer and ranch-hand. She is a keen volunteer, using whatever professional skills she acquired to get involved in local organizations and learn new things.
For the past three years, Pauline has been the national media advisor and copyeditor-proofreader for the Canadian Islamic Congress. Nearly all of CIC's written material, from member bulletins and the weekly e-zine, to syndicated columns and press releases, goes through her word-processor on its way to the rest of the English-speaking world. Thanks to what she earns from CIC, she is currently a Master of Divinity student (the kind that eventually get ordained and become ministers) at Huron University College, an Anglican seminary in London, Ontario. Her Muslim employer has been one of the most supportive mentors in her mid-life calling to be a pastor.
Robert Finn
Robert Finn is now retired after a 40-plus year career in journalism, most of it as chief classical music critic of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. While in that post, he won a number of national awards for newspaper writing on music. On smaller papers in his native Massachusetts and in Ohio, he covered a wide variety of news beats, including education, police beat, suburban reporting, general assignments, book reviewing and politics. His major interests include the arts, American history, politics, literature, shortwave radio, the Cleveland Indians and chocolate ice cream. He is married and boasts two children and three grandchildren.
Marge Fletcher
To Marge Fletcher, it seems like many light years ago that she was BookPage Spud, one of the first hosts of Bookaccino. Always an avid reader, Marge began visiting the chat room to discuss books and meet readers like herself. They had a great time, as the various personalities shone through cyberspace. When she planned her summer vacation, she visited several of her online friends in Maryland, Delaware and New England. She and another book page visited with Nora Roberts and discovered a really cool mystery bookshop in Baltimore. She even visited Carol, Jesse and the gang in New York at the offices of The Book Report. Armed with loads of books, she was glad she drove!
After 27 years as Director of Human Resources, Marge recently changed fields. She worked in manufacturing, retail and in a social service agency in Chicago, supporting people with disabilities. Currently, as the National Admissions Advisor at Stonecliffe College Online, an academic division of Colorado Technical University, Marge assists prospective students in realizing their dreams of receiving their college degree. All in all, life is good for this former Bookaccino host!
Harvey Freedenberg
Harvey Freedenberg practices intellectual property law and litigation with a Harrisburg, Pennsylvania law firm. In 2000, he took a six-month sabbatical from his law practice and studied creative writing at his alma mater, Dickinson College. Since then, he’s been writing steadily. Three of his short stories have won prizes, and he has written a novel that’s in search of a publisher. In addition to his Bookreporter.com reviews, Harvey writes reviews for BookPage. He has also served on the Board of his county library and as a member of the Selection Committee for the “One Book, One Community” program sponsored by eight counties in Central Pennsylvania. Favorite authors are too numerous to mention, but include Richard Ford, Tim O’Brien, Charles Baxter, John Cheever, Tracy Kidder and John McPhee.
Barbara Lipkien Gershenbaum
Barbara Lipkien Gershenbaum's professional writing career began in her senior year at the University of Hartford, when she published a scholarly paper on the work of Doris Lessing. From there she became the assistant editor of a scholarly journal published by that school's English Department. In short order she was asked to produce, write and host a local cable television program she named Literary Perspectives. By the time she had finished that project she landed a job with the Farmington Valley Herald newspaper; and started to sell her work on the freelance market. Over the years Barbara has taught a variety of writing classes, public speaking workshops, literature seminars and, for more than fifteen years, facilitated book discussion groups for adults. Her work with children inspired her to create a reading enrichment program for kindergartners up through sixth graders. Barbara is a voracious reader whose taste runs to contemporary literary fiction and mystery/suspense/thrillers. She is also a film buff and loves to play word games of every sort.
Judy Gigstad
A member of Western Writers of America, Oklahoma Writers Federation and Oklahoma City Writers, Inc., Judy Gigstad has reviewed books for Bookreporter.com for more than three years. She has had reviews published in an entertainment weekly news magazine, and KANSAS!, Persimmon Hill magazine and The Writer's Ink have published her feature stories. An avid reader, Judy learns from the written word. Her True Crime book is soon to be completed, and a historical novel set in Kansas is in the works.
 Heather Grimshaw
Heather Grimshaw is a freelance writer living in Colorado who specializes in book-related news and reviews as well as lifestyles writing. She writes for magazines and newspapers and is a regular contributor to Natural Home magazine and FrontRangeLiving.com.
 Maggie Harding
Maggie Harding grew up wanting to be Brenda Starr. An avid reader from the time she was old enough to schlep books home from the library, she couldn't wait to begin her own life adventure. However, stuff --- as it often does --- happens. And now, many, many moons later, she is pursuing her dream. Perhaps she's not off to exotic locations with mysterious hunks wearing eye-patches, but she is definitely writing and enjoying every minute of it.
As with many, she has not given up her day job. Maggie works with inner city folks, primarily Native Americans, as a substance abuse counselor. She has used her writing skills to develop teaching and recovery materials over the past 12 years and hopes, someday, to get them published.
You can write to Maggie at Magster2@cox.net.
Joe Hartlaub
Senior Writer
leagaldog@aol.com
Joe was born in a simpler time, known as "1951," of parents who prized literacy, learning, and perseverance. He cannot remember a time without books: his mother read a children's book titled RUDY KAZOO to him until she was hoarse, while his father came home one night with a set of ALL ABOUT books from Random House (ALL ABOUT DINOSAURS, ALL ABOUT CHEMISTRY, etc.) that he still considers fun to look through. He learned how to read somewhere between three and four, when he discovered newspaper comic strips, then comic books; Dick Tracy and Little Orphan Annie in their original incarnations remain priceless and influence the shaping of his philosophies, and reading tastes, to this day.
Joe considers himself blessed beyond words. He lives in the United States, the greatest country in the history of the world; he has four wonderful children; he is married to the most patient, beautiful woman on the planet; he practices entertainment law, wherein he gets paid to give advice to people whom he would pay to sit in the same room with (but don't tell anybody); and he gets books to review, dropped off on his doorstep. He never dreamt that life could become so good simply by following a few basic rules, such as maintain sobriety, be faithful, pay attention, and never give up.
Steve Hubbard
Steve Hubbard was born in South Carolina but raised in western New York. A reader before kindergarten (which got his parents in trouble), he became hooked on Fantasy writing after discovering THE LORD OF THE RINGS in his school library in the third grade. An avid hockey player and fan, it only made sense that he would migrate to Minnesota, where he now resides with his wife, three children and one Siberian Husky. In addition to reviewing books, he also sells them and has endeavored to make people aware of the work of Robert E. Howard as well as the work of John Gardner, whom he feels is America's greatest, and forgotten, writer. When not buried behind piles of books to read or sell, he is also working on a few of his own, having been inspired by Stephen R. Donaldson. What with reading, writing, selling and fathering, you'd think he couldn't find time for movies, but it's amazing how much more you can squeeze in when you cut down on sleep. He also likes pie.
 Ron Kaplan
Ron Kaplan is a writer and sports editor for a weekly newspaper in New Jersey. His freelance articles and reviews have appeared in such publications as Baseball America, Mental Floss, New York Sportscene, American Book Review, American History, ForeWord Magazine and Verbatim, among others. He also writes a blog on baseball literature, rksbaseballbookshelf.wordpress.com, and edits the Bibliography Committee newsletter for the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR).
Marie Hashima Lofton
Marie Hashima Lofton was born and raised in Los Angeles. She grew up playing classical piano and reading obsessively, but admits she didn't always enjoy the latter. These days she likes reading almost anything, though fiction is her favorite --- Oprah "type" books, romances (including Harlequins) and the occasional horror or mystery novel.Marie currently works part-time in the construction industry, giving her extra hours to devote to reading and book reviewing. She wishes she could retire one day and turn to writing reviews as more of a semi-retirement career. She loves cats and pet rats and very much enjoys to walk. In fact, she belongs to a walking club and used to walk 10k a week or more. Her other hobbies include knitting, fine dining, meeting new friends and visiting with old ones. Marie has been married to her husband since December 2000; they currently live in San Diego.
 Shannon Luders-Manuel
A native of the West coast, Shannon Luders-Manuel is currently pursuing her Master's and PhD in English Literature at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She received her undergraduate degree from Southern Oregon University with a major in English and Writing.
Her favorite literary genres are contemporary classics and memoirs, and she enjoys writing essays, short stories, poetry and, of course, book reviews. When not reading Shannon is an avid Scrabble nut, karaoke junkie and lover of long neighborhood walks that meander endlessly.
You can visit her website at www.shannonluders.com
Jennifer McCord
Jennifer McCord is a writer, an editor, an educator and a publishing consultant in Seattle, WA. Her career in publishing began more than 25 years ago when she took on the job as manager of an independent bookstore on a dare from her then-teenage daughter. Jennifer moved from the independent store to management in a national retail chain, Waldenbooks. Additionally, Jennifer served as one of the original romance book experts and as the national spokesperson for the chain in the Romance Fiction category. She offered industry insights on Romance and Women's fiction as a contributing columnist for Waldenbooks for over a decade.
Since then, Jennifer has worked in nearly every aspect of the industry --- from traditional publishing paths to small press and self-publishing ventures. For many years, she has dedicated her experience to the success of the Northwest writing community as UW Extension Advisory board member, advisor for the Global Studies Program at Antioch University-Seattle, co-founder of the Publishing Institute at Bellevue Community College, and as past president of PNWA. She also served on the board for the Washington Center for the Book, working on such programs as "If All Seattle Reads" and helped launch events such as Northwest Bookfest and Rocky Mountain Book Festival. Additionally, she has received special industry recognition for her support of Women’s Fiction and the Romance genre. Jennifer currently lends her expertise in the book business to writers and publishers through her consulting and coaching business, Jennifer McCord Associates.
Andrew Musicus
Andrew Musicus is an attorney specializing in defense-side commercial litigation. He lives in New York City with his wife, the writer, Julie Komorn. Andrew's favorite authors include Paul Auster, Don DeLillo, Walter Kirn, Joyce Carol Oates, and Philip Roth, among others.
Eileen Zimmerman Nicol
Eileen Zimmerman Nicol would rather read than eat (sometimes), shop (usually), or watch TV (always). Her desire to be a writer started in fourth grade, when her teacher told her she couldn't begin an essay with the sentence, "I hope it never happens to me again." Many years later she has attained the patience to revise, and published poetry and magazine articles, and she still thinks her teacher was wrong. Eileen's first novel awaits the perfect agent, and the second one is emerging as easily to her as childbirth. She believes that she is incredibly lucky to have a lucrative and part-time day job as a computer programmer, a grown child and a supportive husband. In other words, no excuses not to write!
 Roberta O'Hara
In the late 60s, Roberta O'Hara's mother, already fortysomething, earned her first driver's license. Why? With dad shipped off to Vietnam, her mom required the means to drive to the library every week for new books. Roberta and her siblings made the weekly trip too. Such was the beginning of Roberta's life-long love affair with literature. Today she's a writer/administrator at Princeton University. Whether facing down the pages of a 300-page book or writing a review for Bookreporter.com, she prefers her back to the camera.
Colleen Quinn
Colleen Quinn has held a variety of positions in trade and academic publishing. Currently, she is the managing editor of Cardiology Special Edition, a magazine for doctors. She is also working on a novel concerning one of history's most intriguing unsolved murders.
 Roz Shea
Roz Shea lives in, and works to preserve, the Sonoran desert at the base of the Superstition Mountains in east central Arizona. She is married with three grown children and one grandson in whom she wants to instill her passion for the desert and reading. She originally heralded from Ames and Des Moines, Iowa, where she was educated, then found her way to Arizona and never want to leave. In her spare time she builds trails, writes grant proposals and, of course, READS.
One of Roz's fondest early childhood memories is of listening to her older sister, a drama major, read to her the entire collection of A.A. Milne's WINNIE THE POOH books, complete with gravelly or squeaky voices befitting each character. She was seven years old and fully capable of reading them on her own (she still has them all and now reads them to her grandson), but she had been quite ill. No slacker herself at overacting, she had convinced her sister that she was too frail to undertake such a task. Since then, reading and encouraging others to read has been a passionate pastime.
On her shelves you'll find an eclectic mix of fiction and non-fiction by John Irving, Herman Wouk, Harriett Doer, Annie Proulx, Robert Ludlum, John LeCarre, James Michener, Martin Cruz Smith, Homer Hickam, Ken Follett, Bill Bryson, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Thomas Flanagan, Bill Montalbano, James Herriot, Barbara Kingsolver, Elizabeth Berg, Hemingway, Steinbeck, and most of the classics. In another vein she collects Terry Pratchett, Arthur C. Clarke, Robert Heinlein and Douglas Adams. Mysteries deep, mysteries funny, and mysteries cozy are her secret vice: James Lee Burke, Elizabeth George and P.D. James are among the former; Janet Evanovich, Carl Hiaasen, Sharyn McCrumb and Laurence Shames make her laugh out loud while unraveling a good mystery. She also collects series writers Tony Hillerman, Sinclair Browning, S. J. Rozan, Barbara Seranella, Jim Thompson, Edna Buchanan, Robert McCammon, Sue Grafton, J.A. Jance, Elizabeth Peters/Barbara Michaels, Robert B. Parker, Steve Martini, John Dunning and in good form and bad, King and Koontz and Grisham and Cornwell. She got hooked one long, hot summer on W.E.B. Griffin, so she has a long shelf devoted to one of America's most prolific wartime writers.
Not a few in her collection have been lost to Bailey, her Airedale (AKA Baileygoat because of her eating habits. Her favorites are hardcover, signed, first editions.) A dog of impeccable tastes, according to Roz.
Stuart Shiffman
Stuart Shiffman has been a state court trial judge in Illinois for 19 years. He has always been an avid reader and writer and welcomes the opportunity to share his thoughts about the many books that he reads with anyone who will listen. He is an active participant in the "Law and Literature" movement, where works of literature are examined in an attempt to better understand legal issues. In addition to both fiction and nonfiction legal books, he enjoys biographies, history and sports, with a special interest in golf. Stuart is married and has three grown children --- one works in advertising, one is a CPA and one is still in college.
Brandon M. Stickney
Brandon M. Stickney is the author of ALL-AMERICAN MONSTER: The Unauthorized Biography of Timothy McVeigh (Prometheus Books, 1996). He is currently at work on BIG HAIR: The Triumph and Tragedy of the Amazing Seven Sutherland Sisters. Stickney lives in Lockport, NY, with his wife and daughter.
Carole Turner
Carole Turner reads, writes and gardens on Kelleys Island, Ohio, a small chunk of limestone four miles from the mainland, in Lake Erie.
She has been reviewing for Bookreporter.com since November 2004, and occasionally reviews for Teenreads.com and Kidsreads.com. She wrote a review column for Kelleys Life for many years and has been published in GreenPrints and Lifestyles 2000.
Her favorite authors include Erma Bombeck, Robert Fulghum, Barbara Kingsolver, Rosamunde Pilcher, Elizabeth Buchan, Anne Tyler, Laura Simon, Andy Rooney, Roger Swain, May Sarton and Gladys Taber.
Kathy Weissman
Kathy Weissman writes fiction (her stories have been published in Seventeen and Ploughshares), essays and style features (she is a contributing editor at O, the Oprah Magazine). Until 1998 she was executive editor of Mademoiselle, where she worked for eighteen years. She has been reading since the age of four (and writing almost as long) and feels secure only if she has a pile of unread books by her bed and many, many more on her shelves. She is an ardent student of ballet, art, and the piano. The best novel she has read in the last year is ATONEMENT by Ian McEwen. Her favorite novels (a partial list) include A PASSAGE TO INDIA, ANNA KARENINA, JANE EYRE, THE HOUSE OF MIRTH, LIE DOWN IN DARKNESS and THE RAJ QUARTET.
© Copyright 1996-2008, Bookreporter.com. All rights reserved.
Back to top.
|
