I am a librarian and book group leader who has led book groups in public libraries, bookstores, boardrooms, museums, living rooms, retirement communities, and synagogues. Born and raised in New York City, I have lived and worked in Manhattan, Boston, and now the SF Bay Area.

I run the 10,000 volume library at San Francisco's private Town and Country Club on Union Square, where I also organize monthly literary discussions. I teach librarians how to run book discussion groups through a California training organization called Infopeople (www,infopeople.org).

You can join my free monthly book group at Menlo Park Public Library, which in 2009 will meet at 7 p.m. on the third Tuesday of every month (except July). If you are not in the area, you can sign up for the mailing list and get monthly  book recommendations and analysis.

But wait, there's more. I write book reviews, articles about urban and suburban life and radio essays about life as a librarian. Here's a link to a KQED Perspective that I did: http://www.kqed.org/epArchive/R305230737

I also am the author of Running Book Discussion Groups: A How To Do It Manual (Neal-Schuman Publishers 2006).

After interviewing food and wine expert and author Leslie Sbrocco at Book Group Expo 2006(www.bookgroupexpo.com), I was a restaurant reviewer on her KQED television show, Check Please Bay Area. My 2007 appearance, in which I reviewed Mountain View restaurant, Amber India, continues to provide more recognition from strangers than anything else I have ever done in my life! If you want to be on the show, too, here's how: http://blogs.kqed.org/food/?page_id=30