Beth has spent the last 20+ years in advertising agencies & as marketing manager for an independent bookstore in Wichita, KS and she is currently the Director of Marketing & Digital Content at Wichita’s NPR station, KMUW and the host of the Marginalia podcast. She founded Books & Whatnot with the intention of helping independent booksellers everywhere with marketing ideas & solutions in manageable pieces. She loves to read literary fiction, creative non-fiction, stories and books for younger folks. Even though she knows better, she’s a sucker for a good cover and will positively swoon if a book is set in appropriate type. Here’s what Beth has been reading.
Kenton Hansen
Technical Co-Founder
Kenton makes digital things. He is a technologist, and he’s had his part in a few startups including software, advertising, and client services. He reads more about marketing and technology than literary books, but we love him just the same.
America Grelinger
Editor & Reviewer & Curriculum Specialist
America Grelinger doesn’t mind if you call her Ms. America. It makes her head swell and she loves the title. America is a former English teacher and has a Masters in Curriculum and Instruction, now retired to raise two crazy little boys who think the funniest thing on the planet is to burp and toot… which is why she reads. Because it’s cheaper than counseling. Amy and her husband live with those two crazy little boys in Derby, Kansas.
Susan Gusho
Editor & Reviewer
Susan Gusho has been a bookseller for over a dozen years at such venerable indies as Harry W. Schwartz (Milwaukee, WI), Next Chapter Books (Mequon, WI), and Watermark Books & Cafe (Wichita, KS). She was so smitten with the written word as to complete a Master’s in English literature at the University of Virginia and now lives in Fort Wayne, IN, home of an Ingram warehouse, where she tends to her two dogs, her family, and her large collection of books which she could never read in three lifetimes. Her gravestone will someday read: “She was a slow but close reader.”
Elizabeth Schieber
Reviewer
Elizabeth’s first love, really, was Nancy Drew. She can remember saving up her allowances (two weeks’ worth for one paperback) and making the long trek to the bookstore. She’s since experienced books through working at Rainy Day Books in Kansas City, and then at Andrews McMeel Universal–a Kansas City based publishing house–until she was offered a full-time managerial position at Rainy Day. After five years, she left to work at the family business but moonlights at her local library. Elizabeth is able to keep very up-to-date with her reading and has an informal blog of her book-thoughts at litpicks.wordpress.com. She’s a self-proclaimed fiction girl, through and through.
Ellen Crispin
Reviewer
Ellen studies the English language: where it has been and where it’s going. She believes there is nothing quite like a Margaret Atwood ending or one of David Mitchell’s woven worlds or the weird brilliance that constitutes a Kelly Link short story. To her, there is nothing as welcoming as a well-written book.
Betty Scott
Reviewer
Erstwhile bookseller Betty Scott lives in the Chicago area and has a serious cinema habit. When not reading or watching movies, she writes reviews, poetry, and fiction.
Kathryn Mann
Instagrammer
Kathryn discovered books later than most bibliophiles, but once she did she was immediately hooked, so smitten that she earned her BA in English Language and Literature in May 2015. Since then her bibliophilism has resulted in an enthusiastic attempt to publish a debut novel, as well as a book-centric Instagram account – @novelsandwords – that started as a hobby and quickly developed into a passion. She reads whatever captures her interest but is currently enchanted with YA books.
Liz Golay
Social Media Strategist
Liz Golay is new to the full-time working world. She just received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Communication Studies from Kansas State University. She’s using her many years of social media experience to help out her mom with Books & Whatnot. (And she’s kind of paying back for all those years of free room and board.)
