About Us
The Book Report Network
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Ever craved a good book and just not been inspired by anything you see? Or felt annoyed that you bought a book that was merely so-so? Or closed a book and JUST wanted to talk about it? Or wished you had a place to discover new books?
We know what this feels like. The Book Report Network aims to solve these reader dilemmas, with thoughtful book reviews, compelling features, in-depth author profiles and interviews, excerpts of the hottest new releases, contests and more every week. We hope you'll visit our websites and discover why since 1996 the Book Report Network has been the best place online to talk about your last great read --- and find your next one.
Carol Fitzgerald
Founder/President
Carol@bookreporter.com
As a child, I read before the sun came up. Today I still remember many of those books like old friends. In the early Seventies, I read A TRACE OF FOOTPRINTS by Ruth Wolff, a book I wanted to read again. It is out-of-print, but one of our readers found me a copy at some point, and after I re-read it I placed it on my bookshelf where I love seeing it along with my current favorite titles. The pleasure of finding a great book like this is why I love running The Book Report Network so much.
My older son Greg, now works with us full-time after graduating from Fordham in May. It's so nice to have him on our team here. His interests include ocean liners, shipwrecks, lighthouses and geocaching, which keep him reading a fair share of nonfiction as well as fiction. He has quite a library of books in his room and it's interesting watching what books get carted back and forth from our office to the house.doing various projects.
My son Cory is now a senior in high school and college applications are consuming his time. He looks forward to getting back to reading. In the past he has done blurbs for publishers for a couple of the books that he particularly loves including The Hunger Games trilogy. He has interviewed a couple of authors with me and prides himself on his book collection, which now fills five bookcases double deep and trading books with friends. He takes special bookish joy in turning his reluctant reader friends onto books that he thinks they will enjoy. He proves to me day after day that there are GREAT books out there for boy readers.
My husband Tom can sit on a couch reading a book for an entire day and feel no guilt. In addition to thrillers he reads expedition and history titles. He's broadened his reading horizons as our shelves boast a pretty wide range of work these days.
My reading taste spans a wide gamut as I have the pleasure of discovering new authors every day. I love suspense-thriller writers as well as a number of literary fiction and women's fiction authors. I love well-written memoirs. As I look at my shelves it's pretty cool to see how many of the authors whose work is there I now count as friends. There is something wonderful about reading a just-done manuscript or an early reader copy of an author whose work I really love. I also love reading reader comments at Word of Mouth --- there's always a great idea there on what to read.
Before logging onto the Internet for the first time in 1995, I spent 17 years at Mademoiselle magazine in Promotion and Marketing. I relish the online medium for its immediacy --- and for the ability it gives me to work anywhere, anytime, so long as I can log on. Any bets on where I am writing this?
I would love to hear what you enjoy about TheBookReportNetwork.com and what you would like to see more of. Feel free to drop me a note anytime. I appreciate the feedback from our readers --- it's some of the best reading that I do.
Editorial
Tom Donadio
Editorial Director
Tom@bookreporter.com
As a child, I always enjoyed visiting my local library and borrowing as many books as I could carry. During one of these excursions I discovered the fabulous Choose Your Own Adventure series of books. I couldn't believe that I had the ability to control the various plots and determine what happens to the characters in each story. This concept of "interactive reading" fascinated me, and I quickly became obsessed with the series.
I had my first taste of historical fiction at the age of 13, when my eighth grade Literature teacher introduced me to the North and South trilogy by John Jakes. Although I'm not the fastest reader in the world, I was so captivated by these books that I literally could not put them down. It took me less than two months to read all 2,500+ pages of the series.
Throughout my high school and college years, I was an avid reader of the classics and devoted much time to the works of William Shakespeare, John Steinbeck and Ernest Hemingway, among others. My reading preferences have since expanded to include such genres as contemporary fiction, mysteries and suspense/thrillers.
I was in the midst of re-reading the North and South trilogy when I joined The Book Report Network in October 2002. In addition to various editorial projects, I have the pleasure of working with our marvelous reviewers, emailing them regularly and keeping them up to date on books that are available for review. I always look forward to reading their notes and appreciate the enthusiasm they have for our network of sites.
Working at The Book Report Network has been such an enjoyable and rewarding experience for me. Little did I know that the many months I spent looking for a job --- which was a long and sometimes frustrating process --- would pay off so well.
Liz Kossnar
Content Coordinator, Teenreads/Kidsreads
LizK@bookreporter.com
My memories of childhood are cluttered with books --- so much so that I cannot remember any “introduction” to them. They were always just there. Toys and dolls never interested me. For me, it was always either reading or playing pretend with the imagination those stories inspired. My father read to me every night: starting with Robert Louis Stevenson’s TREASURE ISLAND, all the way through the Narnia series and on, until we got through most of Harry Potter. We finally realized we should just read side-by-side until I was old enough to read without company.
When I entered the University of Chicago, I knew I was going to major in English and minor in French. Actually, I wound up majoring in a combination of anthropology, religious studies and comparative literature, but my love of reading never faltered. In fact, my path towards children’s literature was uncovered soon after realizing that I would love nothing more than to read fairy tales all day, every day.
During my senior year, I earned my chance to see if children’s publishing was all princesses and knights in shining armor. I interned at Albert Whitman & Company, a children’s book publisher in Chicago and ADORED my time there. It was better than I could have imagined.This impacted my future to pursue my career into children’s publishing.
After graduation, I taught English in France for a year. Soon after returning, I moved to New York and attended the Columbia Publishing Course, a six-week intensive summer program, covering all aspects of book, digital media and magazine publishing. Through the program, I heard about the Content Coordinator position for Teenreads and Kidsreads and had to have it! Thus, I am thrilled to be a recent addition to the Book Report Network staff!
Joe Hartlaub
Senior Writer
josephhartlaub@gmail.com
I was born in a simpler time, known as "1951," of parents who prized literacy, learning, and perseverance. I cannot remember a time without books: my mother read a children's book titled RUDY KAZOO to me until she was hoarse, while my father came home one night with a set of ALL ABOUT books from Random House (ALL ABOUT DINOSAURS, ALL ABOUT CHEMISTRY, etc.) that are still fun to look at. I learned how to read somewhere between three and four, when I discovered newspaper comic strips, then comic books; "Dick Tracy" and "Little Orphan Annie" in their original incarnations remain priceless and influence the shaping of my philosophies, and reading tastes, to this day.
I approach the age of 50 blessed beyond words. I live in the United States, the greatest country in the history of the world; I have four wonderful children; I am married to the most patient, beautiful woman on the planet; I practice entertainment law, wherein I get paid to give advice to people whom I would pay to sit in the same room with (but don't tell anybody); and I get books to review, dropped off on my doorstep. I 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.
John Hogan
Editorial Director: Graphic Novels and Manga
John@bookreporter.com
John Hogan is the former editor-in-chief of Pages magazine and has worked in the book industry, in one form or another, for nearly 15 years. He is also a freelance writer and reviewer. A native of Iowa, he grew up reading comics and graphic novels and continues to find them an exciting and mesmerizing format for storytelling. He can be reached at John@bookreporter.com.
Advertising and Promotions:
For all inquires regarding Advertising and Promotions please send a note to our entire advertising team:
Carol Fitzgerald: Carol@bookreporter.com
Greg Fitzgerald: Greg@bookreporter.com
Alina Berganovsky: Alina@bookreporter.com
Nicole Sherman: Nicole@bookreporter.com
Advertising Assistant: AdvAssist@bookreporter.com
Greg Fitzgerald
Advertising/Promotion Associate
Greg@bookreporter.com
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Greg Fitzgerald is a graduate of Fordham University at Lincoln Center. Besides his work in the Advertising/Promotion Department where he regularly interfaces with clients, he does event photography at author signings, conventions, and parties and helps with day-to-day operations at TBRN's office in New York. He has worked for The Book Report Network part-time since 2006, though he has been part of the TBRN family -- literally and figuratively -- since 1996. In his free time, Greg enjoys traveling; researching and enjoying lighthouses, ocean liners, and other maritime subjects; and geocaching.
Design and Production
Eric Rhodes
Director of Website Design and Development
Eric@bookreporter.com
I was surrounded by books as a child, as both of my parents love to read. My mother, who still works at the family-owned auto parts store, loves Pop Fiction. My father, a retired Captain of the Hoboken Fire Dept. Rescue Co., has shelves filled with the classics like Sherlock Holmes as well as biographies and autobiographies of prominent figures in American culture.
But it wasn't until the summer after my first year of college that I really wanted to read for fun. I guess seeing all of those books on the shelves eventually had an impact on me. And because I heard about the book in some movie I can no longer remember, I chose The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. I probably could've chosen something quicker to read, but I like to challenge myself.
So there I was with my Webster's Pocket Dictionary in one hand and THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO in the other. A week later it was finished; I couldn't put it down. I read every chance I could --- on the way to work, at lunch, on car rides, during class and after dinner. Next was THE HOBBIT and thus I began to catch on to the classics that I had missed as a kid. THE CAT'S CRADLE, 1984, THE GREAT GATSBY, THE CRUCIBLE and ZEN AND THE ART OF MOTORCYCLE MAINTENANCE were soon to follow. It’s been a love affair with books ever since.
Working at The Book Report Network gives me the unique opportunity to work in an industry that interests me personally, exposing me to authors and books I may never have been introduced to. It also feeds my professional interest in graphic design and web developing.
I’ve been called a 20th Century Renaissance man before. I don’t know how true that is, but it probably comes from the range of my interests. When I’m not producing websites for The Book Report Network, I do freelance illustration and graphite portraits and assist award-winning illustrator Tony Capparelli at his Art of Sport workshop.
Vicky Kariolic
Web Producer
Vicky@bookreporter.com
When I was a child, neither my parents nor my teachers could understand how someone they saw as intelligent would refuse to read. I was shuffled into remedial reading classes for the first few years of my education. I enjoyed stories, but I hated reading.
All through my grade school years, the hardest thing anyone could get me to read was Nancy Drew, Beverly Cleary or Choose Your Own Adventure. In high school something changed. As a freshman, I was told to read GONE WITH THE WIND. I laughed. I, who hated reading, was going to read this giant super-long novel? I started out by skimming, and failed the first quiz. I sighed and read the chapters --- and was amazed that I couldn’t put it down! Sure that was a good story, but I wasn’t really compelled to read anything independently. Until sophomore year.
My high school handed out suggested reading lists for each grade level. In an attempt to get me to read, my parents pulled all the matching titles from their small collection and put them on a shelf in my room. One fateful day, I was really bored. I had gone through the shelf of books on many occasions, and this time I was determined to read something from it. A title caught my eye, THE HOBBIT. My father would only tell me it was an adventure story.
After I read the book and told my father how fantastic it was, he informed me that there was more. Excited, I asked him for the next book. THE LORD OF THE RINGS did not look as daunting as it did when I was younger. After initially accompanying my father to the neighborhood bookstore, I starting going there on my own.
One of the employees gave me a suggestion: ARROWS OF THE QUEEN by Mercedes Lackey. I ended up joining the fan club after reading this book, and as far as the world is concerned, the rest is history. I have gone through many series, and while I do enjoy stand-alones, I am rarely satisfied by them. I ended up at the bookstore I had frequented, working part-time...for 12 years. I only left to move to New York.
When I walked into the offices of The Book Report Network for the first time in January 2007, I was impressed by the shear volume of books that were in the office. It looked like a smorgasbord and I wanted to dig in. The friendly staff clinched it for me, and I couldn’t wait to become a part of it all. When I was hired, I was ecstatic. It combined the best of several things I love --- books, the Internet and friendly co-workers.
Marketing
Wiley Saichek
Marketing/Publicity Director
Wiley@bookreporter.com
Coming from a family of teachers, I grew up surrounded by books. Mystery, suspense, thriller, horror, fantasy and historical fiction quickly became --- and remain --- my favorite genres.
I became seriously interested in the book industry in the mid-1990s after a bookstore owner friend introduced me to Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's books. After becoming a huge fan and initiating a correspondence with Yarbro, I began assisting with online publicity projects. This eventually led to online publicity jobs for novelists Suzy McKee Charnas and Tamara Thorne and a summer internship at Tor Books.
During all of this I stumbled across The Book Report Network. I volunteered for the company from 1998-2002, first as one of the chat hosts and later as a message board monitor.
The Book Report Network hired me in February 2002. Over the years I’ve had the opportunity to do everything from coordinating and promoting editorial roundtables to monitoring reader contests to booking advertisements to editing newsletters. I currently direct outreach campaigns and blog tours for our AuthorsOnTheWeb division.
Wonderful colleagues, supportive family and friends and books. Who can ask for more?
