Corinne H. Smith

Corinne H. Smith is a native of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. She was a librarian for more than 30 years and worked in a variety of school, public and academic libraries. She spent the first 37 of those years in her home state, then lived for eight years in Illinois before deciding to move to central Massachusetts in 2003.

Mysteries are Corinne's favorite kind of fiction. She is an environmentalist, so nature and geography books are high on her list. So are American history, American literature, writing and even some business advice and self-help topics. Sometimes good children's picture books catch her eye. She'll never run out of potential reading material, that's for sure. The stack next to the bed keeps getting higher.

Music has always been present in her life. Piano lessons began in kindergarten. Picking up the flute and piccolo -- her father's chosen instruments -- led her to participate in high school and college bands and choirs as well as with a few community groups. When a talented classmate named Karen Sloat taught her how to manage the G-progression chords on an acoustic guitar, this turned out to be the most fun of all. During her lifetime, Corinne has performed on stages, in orchestra pits, on football fields, in churches, in parades, around campfires, in a bar in Galena, Illinois, and on a street corner in Aspen, Colorado. Corinne came to learn that being in the audience is a less stressful and more enjoyable music experience than being on stage. And yet: she may be heading toward offering public performances again. We'll see.

As for her musical tastes -- well, she's never left the 1970s. Because she wasn't allowed to go to rock concerts when she was a teenager ("Honestly, Mom, Philly's not that far away!"), she's been spending the past three decades making up for lost time. Tickets to see Crosby, Stills & Nash probably outnumber all the rest of the stubs in her growing collection, but the Eagles, Elton John, Billy Joel, Sammy Hagar and Bruce Springsteen aren't far behind. While she was living in the Midwest, Corinne was in the audience for Farm Aid '98 in Tinley Park, Illinois. She dubs that day "the most aromatic" of all the shows she's yet witnessed. She enjoys taking good notes and collecting set lists in order to write concert reviews.

Corinne has been writing reviews for professional library magazines since 1990, and she has posted book reviews online since 1999. She spent many years researching Henry David Thoreau's 1861 "Journey West." Her book, Westward I Go Free: Tracing Thoreau's Last Journey, was released by Green Frigate Books in 2012. A combination biography and activity book for middle graders, Henry David Thoreau for Kids: His Life and Ideas, With 21 Activities, was published by Chicago Review Press in 2016. Corinne always has additional writing projects underway, and she promises that only a few of them are about Thoreau. Stay tuned.

She has spent only a few short months on this planet without a cat by her side. Her current companions are Maizie Dae Nosentail, a tigery Maine coon-like mix who is a terrific mouser, and Jackie Blue, a long-haired gray furball whose daily aim is to dig out and to play with every toy in the toy box. For at least 30 seconds.

When not reading, writing, working or rocking at concerts, Corinne likes to travel and see interesting places. She's driven through 38 states and two Canadian provinces since 1993. Her place is littered with glass jars full of sand, shells and rocks picked up at beaches all over the eastern half of the United States. Corinne can be reached at info@corinnehsmith.com, via corinnehsmith.com or on Facebook as Corinne Hosfeld Smith.

Reviews by Corinne include:

MUSIC:

Diane Arkenstone & Misha Segal
• Christmas Healing, Vol. 2

Jeff Black
• Tin Lily

Scott Cook
• One More Time Around

David Cortello
• Through an Open Window

Christopher Cross
• Doctor Faith

Jason Paul Curtis
• Lovers Holiday

Gareth Davies-Jones
• Nine Lessons

Pat Donohue
• Nobody's Fault

Dorothy Doring
• Southern Exposure

Fire in the Glen
• Cutting Bracken

Michael Hill
• My Blue Christmas

Gary Hoey
• Ho! Ho! Hoey: The Complete Collection

Thea Hopkins
• Chickasaw

Lorie Line
• Sharing the Season: Piano Instrumentals
• Sharing the Season, Vol. 2: Piano Instrumentals
• Sharing the Season, Vol. 3
• Sharing the Season, Vol. 4: The Big Band

Lori McKenna
• The Kitchen Tapes

Don McLean
• Christmastime! The Complete Collection

Bruce Piephoff
• The Chestnut Tree

Pure Prairie League
• All in Good Time

Silver, Wood & Ivory
• Christmas with Silver, Wood & Ivory

Lee Penn Sky
• Prelude to Hindsight

The Staple Singers
• The 25th Day of December

James Taylor
• (Live)

Twang Darkly
• The Sound of Secret Names

various artists
• Home for Christmas: Voices from the Heartland
• Songs for a Better Planet, Vol. II

Peter Verity
• Sometimes a Journey

Wood & Wire
• Wood & Wire

BOOKS:

Julie Andrews, with Emma Walton Hamilton
• Home Work: A Memoir of My Hollywood Years

Barbara Blossom Ashmun
• Married to My Garden

Steven Axelrod
• Nantucket Five-Spot: A Henry Kennis Mystery

Marie Benedict & Victoria Christopher Murray
• The Personal Librarian

Carl Bernstein
• Chasing History: A Kid in the Newsroom

Dale Berra, with Mark Ribowsky
• My Dad, Yogi: A Memoir of Family & Baseball

Maeve Binchy
• Quentins
• Tara Road

Eileen Brady
• A Kate Turner, D.V.M. Mystery: Muzzled

Cherie Burns
• The Great Hurricane: 1938

James Burrows, with Eddy Friedfeld
• Directed by James Burrows: Five Decades of Stories from the Legendary Director of Taxi, Cheers, Frasier, Friends, Will & Grace, and More

Liz Cheney
• Oath & Honor: A Memoir & a Warning

John Cherry
• Paul McCartney's Solo Music Career, 1970-2010: Life, Love & a Sense of Child-like Wonder

Hillary Rodham Clinton & Louise Penny
• State of Terror

Anderson Cooper & Katherine Howe
• Vanderbilt: The Rise & Fall of an American Dynasty

Andrew Cotter
• Olive, Mabel & Me: Life & Adventures with Two Very Good Dogs

Walter Cronkite
• Cronkite Remembers

Greg Dawson
• Hiding in the Spotlight: A Musical Prodigy's Story of Survival, 1941-1946

Nina de Gramont
• The Christie Affair

Florence Ditlow
• The Bakery Girls

Mark Dunn
• Ibid: A Life, A Novel in Footnotes

Warren C. Easley
• Dead Float: A Cal Claxton Mystery
• Never Look Down: A Cal Claxton Mystery

Michael D. Eisner
• Camp

Jane Ross Fallon
• Seven Songs in Seven Days: Journey of an Arkansas Traveler

Carrie Fisher
• The Princess Diarist

Amanda Flower
• An Emily Dickinson Mystery #1: Because I Could Not Stop for Death
• An Emily Dickinson Mystery #2: I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died

Peter Frampton, with Alan Light
• Do You Feel Like I Do? A Memoir

Al Franken
• Al Franken: Giant of the Senate

Emily Franklin
• The Lioness of Boston

Shelly Fredman
• Brandy Alexander #1: No Such Thing as a Secret
• Brandy Alexander #2: No Such Thing as a Good Blind Date
• Brandy Alexander #3: No Such Thing as a Free Lunch

Teri Garr, with Henriette Mantel
• Speedbumps: Flooring It Through Hollywood

Chad Gayle
• Let It Be

Bill Geist
• Lake of the Ozarks: My Surreal Summers in a Vanishing America

Julie Gerstenblatt
• Daughters of Nantucket

Elizabeth Gilbert
• Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India, & Indonesia

Melissa Gilbert
• Back to the Prairie: A Home Remade, A Life Rediscovered

Lucy Gilmore
• The Library of Borrowed Hearts

Jonathan Gould
• Can't Buy Me Love: The Beatles, Britain & America

John Grisham
• Camino Ghosts
• Camino Island
• Camino Winds
• A Time to Kill

Hendrik Groen
• The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen, 83 1/4 Years Old
• On the Bright Side: The New Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen, 85 Years Old

Tom Hanks
• The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece

Kristin Hannah
• True Colors

Michael Harvey
• The Fifth Floor

Paul Headrick
• That Tune Clutches My Heart

David V. Herlihy
• The Lost Cyclist: The Epic Tale of an American Adventurer & His Mysterious Disappearance

John L. Herman Jr.
• The Innkeeper Tales: Modern-Day Canterbury Tales to Entertain, Enlighten & Empower

Jenny L. Howe
• On the Plus Side: A Novel

Cassidy Hutchinson
• Enough

Ken Ilgunas
• Walden on Wheels: On the Open Road from Debt to Freedom

Carole King
• A Natural Woman: A Memoir

Maxwell King
• The Good Neighbor: The Life & Work of Fred Rogers

Stephen King
• 11/22/63

Barbara Kingsolver, Steven L. Hopp, Camille Kingsolver & Lily Hopp Kingsolver
• Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life (10th Anniversary Edition)

Con Lehane
• A 42nd Street Library Mystery: Murder Off the Page

Betsy Lerner
• The Bridge Ladies: A Memoir

Beverly Lewis
• Annie's People #1: The Preacher's Daughter
• Annie's People #2: The Englisher
• Annie's People #3: The Brethren
• The Courtship of Nellie Fisher #1: The Parting

John R. Lindermuth
• Digging Dusky Diamonds: A History of the Pennsylvania Coal Region

Greil Marcus
• Mystery Train: Images of America in Rock 'n' Roll Music, Sixth Revised Edition

Steve Martin, illustrated by Harry Bliss
• Number One is Walking: My Life in the Movies & Other Diversions

Frances Mayes
• Under Magnolia: A Southern Memoir

David G. McCullough
• The Wright Brothers

Rosemary Mild
• Love! Laugh! Panic! Life with My Mother

Rosemary & Larry Mild
• Death Goes Postal
• On the Rails: The Adventures of Boxcar Bertie

Jonna L. Miller
• Haunting for Time

Paula Morin
• Honest Horses: Wild Horses in the Great Basin

Beth Morrey
• Clover Hendry's Day Off

Mitch Myers
• The Boy Who Cried Freebird: Rock & Roll Fables & Sonic Storytelling

Colleen Oakley
• The Mostly True Story of Tanner & Louise

Barack Obama
• A Promised Land

Barack Obama & Bruce Springsteen
• Renegades: Born in the USA

Michelle Obama
• Becoming

Nick Offerman
• Gumption: Relighting the Torch of Freedom with America's Gutsiest Troublemakers
• Where the Deer & Antelope Play: Pastoral Observations of One Ignorant American Who Loves to Walk Outside

D.V. Pasupuleti
• Change Your Mind: A Neurologist's Guide to Happiness

Allison Pataki
• Finding Margaret Fuller

Laura Pedersen
• Buffalo Gal
• Buffalo Unbound: A Celebration

Nancy Pelosi
• The Art of Power: My Story as America's First Woman Speaker of the House

Louise Penny
• Chief Inspector Gamache #1: Still Life
• Chief Inspector Gamache #2: A Fatal Grace
• Chief Inspector Gamache #3: The Cruelest Month
• Chief Inspector Gamache #4: A Rule Against Murder
• Chief Inspector Gamache #5: The Brutal Telling
• Chief Inspector Gamache #6: Bury Your Dead
• Chief Inspector Gamache #7: A Trick of the Light
• Chief Inspector Gamache #8: The Beautiful Mystery
• Chief Inspector Gamache #9: How the Light Gets In
• Chief Inspector Gamache #10: The Long Way Home
• Chief Inspector Gamache #11: The Nature of the Beast
• Chief Inspector Gamache #12: A Great Reckoning
• Chief Inspector Gamache #13: Glass Houses
• Chief Inspector Gamache #14: Kingdom of the Blind
• Chief Inspector Gamache #15: A Better Man
• Chief Inspector Gamache #16: All the Devils are Here
• Chief Inspector Gamache #17: The Madness of Crowds
• The Hangman
• State of Terror, with Hillary Rodham Clinton