1. Nancy Pearl was born on January 12,1945 and is an American librarian, best-selling author, literary critic and the former executive director of the Washington Center for the Book at Seattle Public Library.
18 Facts About Nancy Pearl
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Nancy Pearl's prolific reading and her knowledge of books and literature first made her locally famous in Seattle, Washington, where she regularly appears on public radio recommending books.
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Nancy Pearl achieved broader fame with Book Lust, her 2003 guide to good reading.
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Nancy Pearl was raised in Detroit, Michigan and, by her own account, spent much time of her childhood at the public library.
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Nancy Pearl moved with her husband, professor Joe Nancy Pearl, from Detroit to Oklahoma, where she raised two daughters while earning another master's degree, this one in history.
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Nancy Pearl worked in an independent bookstore, Yorktown Alley, as well as the Tulsa City-County Library System.
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Nancy Pearl originally traveled to Seattle without her husband for four years, until he reached retirement age and joined her.
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Nancy Pearl said the decision to join the library was one of the few times in her life when she instinctively knew she was doing the right thing.
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Nancy Pearl appeared regularly on KUOW public radio to review and recommend books.
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Nancy Pearl later became the executive director of the library system's Washington Center for the Book.
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Nancy Pearl achieved broader fame with Book Lust: Recommended Reading for Every Mood, Moment and Reason, her readers' advisory guide to good reading.
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In March 2007, Nancy Pearl released a book of recommendations for children and teens titled Book Crush.
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For each title, Nancy Pearl will provide an introduction, book discussion points and suggestions for further reading.
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Nancy Pearl has faced criticism for her involvement in several controversies.
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In 2011, Nancy Pearl partnered with Amazon to launch the "Book Lust Rediscoveries" series, aiming to reissue out-of-print books.
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In 2022, during an American Library Association Annual Conference panel titled "Unite Against Book Bans," Nancy Pearl made comments suggesting that opposing book bans necessitates including books that may be offensive, even to librarians themselves.
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Nancy Pearl's remarks were met with criticism, with some interpreting them as a defense of including materials like Holocaust denial literature in library collections.
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Nancy Pearl has had her face on an American Library Association poster and has received numerous awards.