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The current members of Books and Cooks D.C. are:
Andrew -- [blurb not available]Chris -- [blurb not available] Glen -- Glen is a thirty-something (more something than thirty these days) professional living in the Washington, D.C. metro region who also lives on the Internet. He came here from Texas via Los Angeles, Colorado, and Washington State. Glen also likes to talk about himself in the third person. Glen has been involved in two highly praised small press science fiction magazines. For NOVA Express, he wrote reviews and critical articles on fantasy and science fiction and also served as Managing Editor for two years. Glen also wrote a book review column for the last issues of New Pathways, and also saw his first piece of fiction, "Abraham's Bosom," published there. His fiction has also appeared in the mass market paperback, Alternate Presidents (ed. by Mike Resnick) and as a limited edition chapbook from the World Fantasy Award-winning Roadkill Press. He's been a member of both the Turkey City Writer's Workshop in Austin, Texas and the Northern Colorado Writer's Workshop. Glen's reading diary, "First Impressions," was one of the first book review sites on the web. He completed an MFA in Creative Writing (and his first novel) at American University in 2001 (Got Publisher?) and currently is the Communications Manager for both the Joint Center for Earth Technologies and the Goddard Earth Sciences and Technology Center. Jen -- [blurb not available] Jill -- [blurb not available] John -- John is a molecular biologist, turned computational biologist, who always feels rather odd writing about himself in the third person. He works at the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) on various projects involving regulation of gene expression, but seems fated to move sooner or later into some sort of job dealing with system administration. John reads mostly science fiction and non-fiction of all sorts; some favorite recent books include Cryptonomicon, A Darkness Upon the Sky, and The Visual Display of Quantitative Information. Favorite authors include Heinlein, Vinge, Varley, Sterling, and Levy. Kristie -- [blurb not available] Lyn -- Lyn founded the first Books and Cooks and is also listmom to The BibliaFiles. She tries not to be a book pusher, but sometimes can't help herself. Some of the books she's strongly recommended in recent years include Stephenson's Cryptonomicon, Rushdie's Midnight's Children, Saramago's The Gospel According to Jesus Christ, and McCullough's John Adams. Work, keeping up on current events, and her ongoing quest to become more organized have been sucking up most of her time lately, so fiction reading has fallen by the wayside, unfortunately. Vocationally, she works on information technology policy stuff in D.C., thereby satisfying both the geek and wonk sides of her personality. Avocationally she reads, writes on the web, quilts, takes photographs, plays with her cats, and tries to take advantage of the cultural opportunities in the area when possible. Born and raised in Maine, she spent several years in upstate New York before moving to the D.C. area, persistently clinging to the eastern side of the country. Steve -- Steve is a software engineer and a semi-professional singer and musician. He frequently reads magazines, newspapers and web sites, often reads comic books and occasionally reads real dead-tree books. He writes a web column and is co-owned by two cats. Some of Steve's favorite books are: V for Vendetta by Alan Moore and David Lloyd, most anything by Neil Gaiman, The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein, The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster, and the Pern series by Anne McCaffrey. Members Emeritus Adrian -- Adrian is an applied mathematician currently employed as a "signal processing engineer". He recently developed an interest in woodworking which has lead to the production of dovetail joints using his trusty Japanese saw. Even more recently he was involved in the purchase of a house which, due to its location in the greater Washington, DC area, has lead to a staggering amount of debt. It has also lead to a lot of empty space begging to be populated by dovetail bearing furniture. Adrian, who does most of his reading during the bus ride to work, reads mostly science fiction, fantasy, and a variety of nonfiction. Recommended fiction includes Partners in Necessity, Silent Strength of Stones, Wind Dancer by R. M. Meluch, and Bujold's A Civil Campaign. Adrian likes to cook and highly recommends CookWise. Other interesting nonfiction works include The Walls Around Us by David Owen (a funny yet informative introduction to home repair), Guns, Germs, and Steel, How Buildings Learn, The Spell of the Sensuous, and Luxury Fever. Gail -- [blurb not available] Joni -- Adrian and Joni relocated to Northern Virginia in November 1999 because Adrian got a job here. Joni likes to think of herself as an english teacher even though she has never been employed under that title. She has been teaching for the last three years and loving most of it, but has just recently given up subbing because it was driving her nuts. She would rather stay at home and sew (her newfound fun hobby) and volunteer at the library where she can pick up cheap books! Someday she may be destined to have a real job, but it doesn't look like it will be any time soon. As for reading, she tends to like stuff that is a little offbeat, but not weird. She reads a lot of Young Adult (YA) books; favorite YA authors include Gary Paulsen, Madeleine L'Engle, and Cynthia Voigt. She also reads a fair amount of scifi/fantasy, although not very much recently. She needs to fix that. Favorite SF authors include Lois McMaster Bujold and Sharon Lee and Steve Miller. John McPhee is probably her favorite non-fiction author. Lately she has been reading a lot of quilting books. Other hobbies include cooking, contradancing, and singing. She's a self-described hippie of the new millennium. Laura -- Laura is a sales and marketing manager for Chicago based Credentials Inc., operators of DegreeChk.com. She spends a considerable amount of time attending conferences and trade shows and traveling to college and university campuses in the mid-Atlantic and New England states. She doesn't get nearly enough time to read, but when she does she tends toward fiction -- crime and/or mysteries, mostly. Some of her favorite authors include Jonathan Kellerman and Caleb Carr. Some other recent reads include Cider House Rules by John Irving and The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy. Laura also enjoys sewing and crafts. |