The Book That Changed My Life

Roxanne J. Coady is the founder of R.J. Julia Booksellers Ltd. and serves as its chief executive officer and president. The bookstore was created by Coady to be “a place of inspiration, information, and excitement.” She also founded an online retailer, JustTheRightBook.com, which is a personalized book of the month club. Lastly, she is the founder and chair of Read to Grow, an organization that works to improve early literacy for all Connecticut children.

Joy Johannessen is an editor who has worked at many publishing houses including Chelsea House, Grove Press, and Oxford University Press. Johannessen was a senior editor at HarperCollins Publishers, and the executive editor of Delphinium Books. Among the hundreds of writers she has worked with are Dorothy Allison, Michael Cunningham, and Ursula Le Guin, to name just a few. With Roxanne Coady, she is the coeditor of The Book That Changed My Life: 71 Remarkable Writers Celebrate the Books That Matter Most to Them.