When not reading I can be found cooking, baking and volunteering.

Community affiliations: Troy Public Library Board and Friends, Troy Community Food Co-operative board, Upper Hudson Library System Board, Rensselaer County ARC Board, Rensselaer County Historical Society

On nightstand now: Game of Kings by Dorothy Dunnett

Favorite book when you were a child: Sherlock Holmes stories

Top five authors: Paul Theroux, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Richard Ford, P.G. Wodehouse, Patrick O’Brian

Book you are an "evangelist" for: The Language of Baklava, by Diana Abu-Jaber. A memoir of growing up in Syracuse with a Jordanian father and an Anglo mother, with great recipes included.

Book you've bought for the cover: Decorating with William Morris Designs

Book that changed your life: In Patagonia by Bruce Chatwin

Favorite line from a book: “On the day before Thanksgiving, toward the end of the afternoon, having motored all day, I arrived home and lit a fire in the living room. The birch logs took hold briskly. About three minutes later, not to be outdone, the chimney itself caught fire.” Opening lines of Home-Coming by E. B. White.

Book you most want to read again for the first time: A Hundred Years of Solitude