Olivia Gentile
Encyclopedia
Olivia Gentile is an American author. Her first book, Life List, was published in April 2009 by Bloomsbury USA and tells the true story of Phoebe Snetsinger
Phoebe Snetsinger
Phoebe Snetsinger, née Burnett , a resident of Webster Groves, Missouri, was a birder famous for having seen over 8,400 species by the time of her death. The daughter of advertising magnate Leo Burnett, she inherited a small fortune, which she used to fund numerous trips in pursuit of her hobby...

, a housewife and cancer survivor from St. Louis who saw more bird species than anyone in history.

Previously, Gentile was a reporter for The Hartford Courant (1999–2001) and The Rutland Herald (1996–1999). She supported herself while writing Life List by working as a part-time assistant to a federal judge in Brooklyn, the Hon. Raymond J. Dearie.

Gentile grew up in Washington, D.C. and graduated from Harvard in 1996. She earned an M.F.A. in nonfiction writing from Columbia
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

 in 2003.

In January 2008 Gentile married Andy Borowitz
Andy Borowitz
Andy Borowitz is a comedian and New York Times bestselling author who won the first National Press Club award for humor. He is best known for creating the satirical website , which has an audience in the millions...

, the comedian and writer whose main outlet is the popular website The Borowitz Report. They live in New York City but spend much of their time upstate, in the rural Hudson Valley.

In a prepublication review, the scientist and author of Guns, Germs, and Steel
Guns, Germs, and Steel
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies is a 1997 book by Jared Diamond, professor of geography and physiology at the University of California, Los Angeles . In 1998 it won the Pulitzer Prize for general non-fiction and the Aventis Prize for Best Science Book...

, Jared Diamond
Jared Diamond
Jared Mason Diamond is an American scientist and author whose work draws from a variety of fields. He is currently Professor of Geography and Physiology at UCLA...

, wrote of Life List,
On April 15, 2009, Life List was favorably reviewed in The Christian Science Monitor: "That Snetsinger flew the coop was both a point of pride and a point of friction for her family, and Gentile does not cast judgment but simply describes what she sees. By documenting the tension between the obligation to others and the obligation to oneself, Gentile has written a book as much about the life of women as about a woman’s life.”

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