Heather Johnson has been a read-a-holic for as long as she can remember. In fact, the only childhood punishment that worked on her was when her mom took her books away! After graduating from St. Mary’s College of Maryland, getting married to her wonderful husband, and having a fantastic little boy, Heather realized that (gasp!) she hadn’t read a book for fun in years. This required an immediate trip to the library. Soon after, she felt the need to discuss books with other people. In 2005 she started a book club called Storie delle Sorrelle. As the “Book Club Madam” she works hard to ensure that her club members learn something from each book they read while having fun at the same time. More recently, she started a blog to chronicle all the books she reads each year. Meanwhile in the "real world," Heather is the Sales/Marketing Coordinator for an IT company.

Click here to read an interview with Heather about the Storie delle Sorelle book club.

Denise Neary enjoys talking about books almost as much as she enjoys reading them. She and her husband live with their children in Rockville, Maryland, just outside of Washington, DC. Happy family memories include the night time ritual where the parents read to their young children, then the parents fell dead asleep while the children continued to read and play quietly in the bed. She only wishes that there had been midnight release parties for books when she was a child; she loved attending those with her kids. She and her daughter started a daughter-mother book club that began when the girls were in fifth grade and will see the girls through to college. Her empty nest will include an empty book club; she is considering starting a new club, and wonders if book conversations future could rival those with that amazing group.

Shannon McKenna Schmidt is the co-author of Novel Destinations: Literary Landmarks from Jane Austen's Bath to Ernest Hemingway's Key West (www.noveldestinations.com). Her writing has appeared in National Geographic Traveler, New Jersey Monthly, Arrive, Pages, and on Bookreporter.com, and she is a regular contributor to Shelf Awareness (shelf-awareness.com) and ReadingGroupGuides.com. Shannon lives in Hoboken, New Jersey, and has been a member of a book club for 12 years.