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Kasia Vetter

I moved to the US so I could be a part of Lori’s book club.
I am working at Flash Digital Portraits. This gives me the opportunity to take pictures of crazy children, who don’t care about portraits and unhappy parents.
I spend my free time at a farm working with horses and teaching kids how to ride.
I obsessively love my cats (Mala which means Little and Zaba which means Frog).
I am in the process of learning English, so please give me a chance and don’t give up on me. My comments probably are not going to be rich, but I promise I will try my best. Thanks for understanding and a big thanks to Lori for letting me be a part of the Club.

Favorite books:
Winnie- the-Pooh by A.A. Milne
English Dictionary (I am always surprised what I can find there:)

Current Cycle Book: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey

Allie Harris

Allie Harris is a junior at the University of Illinois in Champaign. Her favorite book is Bel Canto by Ann Patchett. She plans on becoming a guidance counselor in a high school and one day meeting her idols Steve Carell and Will Ferrell. Allie's claim to fame (besides being the"supposed" owner of a tail) is that she can basically recite any line fromThe 40 Year Old Virgin and Elf, and she owns a life-size standup of Buddy the Elf.

Here are some of Allie's choices:
The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson
My Friend Leonard by James Frey
The Devil Wears Prada: A Novel by Lauren Weisberger
The Plot Against America by Philip Roth

Current Cycle Book: The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards

Debbie Harris

Debbie Harris is a technology coordinator in a private middle school in the northern suburbs of Chicago. Her favorite book is Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell. Debbie's claim to fame is that she happens to bake the greatest challah in the midwest.

Current cycle book: Plainsong by Kent Haruf

Lori Harris

Lori Harris is a high school English teacher in the northwest suburbs of Chicago. Her favorite book is A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess. Lori is unwaveringly grateful that she found a group of brave souls willing to participate in her latest Big Idea. Thank you, Pass the Liners!

Current cycle book: The Ghost Writer by Philip Roth

Tyler Nguyen

Bio to come!

Current Cycle Book: Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

Anna H

Bio to come!

Current Cycle Book: TBA

Caroline Sietmann

I'm Caroline Sietmann. I live in Chicago. I'm a librarian at Dominican University in River Forest. Don't let that scare you. I really know nothing about books.

Favorite Book: Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson
Claim to Fame: Crowned Miss America, 2003

Current Cycle Book: The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy

Rita Homuth

Rita Marie (Etter) Homuth

I am a Compliance Specialist with Hewitt Associates, which means I do accountant type stuff for benefit plans. However, where I work really tells nothing about me. I love people and tend to talk a lot. I just got married this past May (Lori and Howie were in attendance), so that tends to be one of my current favorite topics of discussion. I also just lost my mom in July to a very courageous fight with cancer. I was very close with my mom and spent a lot of time with her during both of her battles with cancer and I feel that I have learned my definition of strength and unselfish love from her. She is where my reflective side tends to always lead me right now. My mind loves to wander and gets carried away with itself very quickly, so I love mystery type stories where I can gather clues and make wild guesses at where the author will lead the characters next.
My favorite books for the past 3 years have been the Harry Potter books. I'm obsessed to a point of unnaturalness (especially for being 26 years old).
My claim to fame is that if you play a 3 second clip of any Harry Potter audio book, I can find that exact passage in the book within seconds (trust me, I'm obsessed).

Current Cycle Book: Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

Dianne Datu

Claim to fame: First ever filipino jew
favorite book: Memoirs of a Geisha (even before the movie came out!!)
Future books: Fahrenhiet 451
              Animal Farm
              Grapes of Wrath

Because you're asking . . .

Here's a little chart of how we were all previously connected before Pass the Line came around. I put myself at the center because, well, I couldn't think of an easier way to organize it.

And let's have a round of applause for Ben, please, for representing the male gender here.

Pam Ronson

Pam went to Notre Dame University for undergrad, attended grad school at National-Louis University, lived in Nicaragua, has Mexican-French-Spanish backgrounds, speak 3 three languages, and is currently teaching English at Kennedy High School in Chicago.

Titles:
1."On the Road", Kerouac (Current Cycle Book)
2."Life of Pi", Martel
3. "To the Lighthouse", Woolf
4. "Mulligan Stew", Sorrentino
5. "If On a Winter's Night", Calvino
6. "Don Quixote", Cervantes
7. "100 Years of Solitude", Marquez
8. "Moby Dick", Melville
9. "Catch-22", Heller
10."Gilgamesh"
11. "Ulysses" or "Finnegan's Wake", Joyce
12. "Midnight's Children", Rushdie

Jen Toth

I’m a 34 yr old SAHM (stay at home mom…as we internet savvy people like to abbreviate) of one, who wants to cram in as much reading as possible until the second child comes along in March…because at that point will I ever be able to read again??? I grew up in the Chicago area, and have since lived in Cleveland, Long Island, and back in Cleveland again. Other than reading, my favorite spare-time-filler is horseback riding, but reading is better suited for pregnancy. I must still be waiting for my claim to fame to occur, because I can’t think of one. My favorite book is James & the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl, and NO, I didn’t know my sister’s* favorite book was by the same author until I read her bio. (*sister = Lemonpoop)

Current Cycle Book: The Monkey Wrench Gang by Edward Abbey

Books on my “to read” list:
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi
Venetian Stories by Jane Turner Rylands
Little Children by Tom Perrotta
Mixed by Angela Nissel
Sweetness in the Belly by Camilla Gibb
My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin

Ben Dipman

Ben Dipman is an English teacher at Kennedy High School in Chicago. Preceding that, he was a newspaper reporter and English teacher in Japan. Originally from Minneapolis, Ben enjoys the ubiquitous cultural opportunities cities offer. Ben also enjoys lakes and has clocked hundreds of hours biking, Rollerblading, walking and running around any lake he encounters. Ben’s favorite novelist is the contemporary John Irving and his favorite book is The Cider House Rules, by said author.

The theme for my selections are Booker Prize winners (best novel by an English or Irish citizen). There are many more that I could offer if need be (wasn't sure how many and didn't want to get carried away!)

2002 Life of Pi by Yann Martel (Current Cycle Book)

2000 The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood

1998 Amsterdam: A Novel by Ian McEwan

1989 The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

The End of the Story

By Lydia Davis

Plainsong

By Kent Haruf

Debbie's book choice (Cycle 1)

Life of Pi

By Yann Martel

Ben's book choice (Cycle 1)

The Memory Keeper's Daughter

By Kim Edwards

Allie's book choice (Cycle 1)

On the Road

By Jack Kerouac

Pam's book choice (Cycle 1)

The Ghost Writer

By Philip Roth

Lori's book choice (Cycle 1)

The Monkey Wrench Gang

By Edward Abbey

Jen's book choice (Cycle 1)

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

by Ken Kesey

Kasia's book choice (Cycle 1)

Middlesex

by Jeffrey Eugenides

Tyler's book choice (Cycle 1)

The God of Small Things

by Arundhati Roy

Caroline's book choice (Cycle 1)

Their Eyes Were Watching God

By Zora Neale Hurston

Rita's book choice (Cycle 1)

A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain

By Robert Olen Butler

Contributor: Lemonpoop