Readers’ Advisor Profile: Ola

I can still hear the heavy sigh coming from my mom when she realized I had already finished the New Adventures of Mary-Kate & Ashley book I’d checked out from the library that day—meaning we’d have to take another trip back to the shelves tomorrow. Getting a job at the Library as an adult was a natural solution to this repeating problem. Now I’m the one who gets to lug books home for my parents. Oh, how the tables have turned. 

I am, and always have been, a voracious reader. One that looks at their TBR shelf with lust at the thought of what nuggets of treasure are waiting for me inside each cover. Maybe it’s going to be a sentence, crafted so gracefully, that I’ll physically have to pause for a second to let myself feel its meaning deep in my core. Maybe it’s going to be a story that pushes my boundaries by allowing my mind to travel where my body can’t, far beyond simple settings, feelings and connections. There’s a magic to be found in books, one that we drench ourselves in to take with us before we’re swept back into being the main characters of our own lives. I’ll never stop searching for it. 

Where You Can Find Me in the Library: in my dungeon office or trying (poorly) to not disrupt patrons while making a Tik Tok 

Where Else You Can Find Me: walking my dog, obsessing over my niece, or trying not to spend my life’s savings at a TJ Maxx/HomeGoods 

Hobbies (that aren’t reading): cooking, watching trash reality TV, listening to true crime podcasts, taking on home DIY projects 

My Favorite Genres to Read: tie-your-stomach-in-knots thrillers, kick-your-feet-in-the-air romances, a splash of magical realism, contemporary fiction and true crime non-fiction.  

What I Don’t Read: high fantasy, literary fiction, westerns