I joined the Lerner digital team last week as a digital intern. This May, I graduated with an English Literature major and Digital Studies certificate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In college, I realized my passion for literature, and after working on the editorial teams for a couple different University publications as well as a magazine last summer, I decided that I wanted to explore book publishing. I was immediately drawn to Minneapolis because of its growing independent book publishing industry, and Lerner allows me the opportunity to work with children’s and young adult books!

Since I have only been here a week, my days so far have been filled with a lot of learning and questions about eBooks and software. So far I have QA’d a few interactive books as well as started the creation process for a KF8 (eBook version for Kindle). I am still trying to get my bearings at the Lerner office as well as soak up as much information as I can get!

Right now I am reading The Heart of a Lynx by Trisha St. Andrews. The author has independently published her books, and I find her writing to be riveting. It’s a psychological drama that has so far kept me on my toes, with some laughs and smiles along the way, and I can’t wait to finish it!

My best source for finding book recommendations would be my friends and my mom. My friends and I recently put together a book list that I hope to get through this summer and my mom always has book/author suggestions along with library books lying around for me to borrow. Through my college career I have spent most of my time reading classics for school, so I am excited to finally be able to choose what I want to read.

I would consider myself a pretty eclectic book reader so choosing my top 5 is no easy feat. The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger is my favorite book of all time, probably because I find the main character Holden to be original and hilarious in a way that never gets old for me. A close second would be The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath who also happens to be my favorite author. I also really like The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner. To add a children’s book to the list, Love You Forever by Robert Munsch, and this one still makes me tear up every time I read it. Lastly, I thoroughly enjoyed a more contemporary novel I read recently called Pym by Mat Johnson. The witty sarcasm and humor in this book made me laugh out loud, and it is highly entertaining, especially for fans of Edgar Allan Poe.

I would probably have to say Sylvia Plath. As stated above, she is my favorite author, and I think her writing, although dark and complicated, is one of the more realistic voices I have come across in literature. I admire her creative ability and the way she articulated complex emotions and ideas in both her novels and poetry.

Recently, this became a hard question to answer. Last spring I studied abroad in Ireland and absolutely fell in love with the Irish culture, along with exploring many other European countries, which made me realize how many places I have yet to explore and am desperately itching to visit. I want to see more of South America, as well as South East Asia and India, as I am fascinated by their cultures. Right now though, I think my ideal vacation would be exploring Greece and Italy. I have always been interested by Greek history, and I know I would enjoy authentic Italian food!