Elise started reading at the age of four and hasn’t stopped since. She will read anything with words printed on it that’s placed in front of her. (This is not something she’s exactly proud of, as this has led to her reading some truly terrible crap.) She loves a good biography as much as a good novel and she’s not shy about browsing in the Young Adult section. She collects children’s books and has been known to escape in sci-fi and fantasy on occasion. She counts Salinger, Hemingway, Joyce, and Poe amongst her closest friends. Sherlock Holmes is her imaginary boyfriend, and she insists she’s descended from Dracula.

Elise may have no standards about what she reads, but when it comes to judging books, her standards are very high indeed. She thinks there’s nothing worse than a book that you don’t think about when you’re not reading it. She loves nothing more than to recommend a book to a friend and then discuss it with them after they’ve read it. Someday she will write a book of her own, but for now she’s content reading the works of others.

Amy always thought she’d be a writer. She filled many a wide-ruled yellow notepad with supernatural tales in her early days and later thought she could become a rock-and-roll wife by writing for music magazines, but her love of reading and wordsmithery (it’s really a word!) took her in another direction. The practicality of working with words and helping others with their publishing goals took precedence, and armed with a degree in English and Journalism and Communications, Amy stepped into the publishing world, where she has worked for the past 20 years.

Amy’s tastes lean toward books where something very strange happens in an otherwise normal life/world, especially when it comes completely unexpectedly. A twist of the supernatural and a psychological study are bonuses. Layered storylines and parallel universes? Yes! She once made the profoundly pretentious statement that she only read Japanese fiction … but it was really the sense of nostalgia and loss that seemed to pervade the books she read that appealed to her. Found objects? Secrets? A historical element to the tale? All good, too.

She still considers herself a writer, as well as an editor and obsessive list maker.

Together, their knowledge of and passion for the book world, and their lifelong love of books, will help them make new reading connections for you.