Susan Richards Shreve is the author of several novels, including A Student of Living Things and You Are the Love of My Life, as well as the memoir Warm Springs: Traces of a Childhood at FDR's Polio Haven. She has also written dozens of children's books, including The Lovely Shoes, and is the co-editor or editor of five anthologies. Shreve founded the MFA degree at George Mason University, where she is a professor of English and present co-chairman of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation. She has also taught at Columbia School of the Arts and Princeton University for the MFA programs. Among her numerous accolades are the Guggenheim Award for Fiction, the Grub Street Prize in Non-Fiction, and the Service Award from Poets & Writers. She lives and writes in Washington, DC.Nancy Pearl is a librarian and lifelong reader. She regularly comments on books on National Public Radio's Morning Edition.

Her books include 2003's Book Lust: Recommended Reading for Every Mood, Moment and Reason, 2005's More Book Lust: 1,000 New Reading Recommendations for Every Mood, Moment and Reason; Book Crush: For Kids and Teens: Recommended Reading for Every Mood, Moment, and Interest, published in 2007, and 2010's Book Lust To Go: Recommended Reading for Travelers, Vagabonds, and Dreamers. Among her many awards and honors are the 2011 Librarian of the Year Award from Library Journal; the 2011 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association; the 2010 Margaret E. Monroe Award from the Reference and Users Services Association of the American Library Association; and the 2004 Women's National Book Association Award, given to "a living American woman who.has done meritorious work in the world of books beyond the duties or responsibilities of her profession or occupation.".