Olivia Gentile is an American author. Her first book, ''Life List,'' was published in 2009 and tells the true story of

Phoebe Snetsinger Phoebe Snetsinger (née Burnett; June 9, 1931 – November 23, 1999) was an American birder famous for having seen and documented birds of 8,398 different species, at the time, more than anyone else in history and the first person to see more than ...

, a housewife and

cancer survivor A cancer survivor is a person with cancer of any type who is still living. Whether a person becomes a survivor at the time of diagnosis or after completing treatment, whether people who are actively dying are considered survivors, and whether ...

from

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

who saw more bird species than anyone else in history.

Background and education

Gentile grew up in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, attending

Sidwell Friends School Sidwell Friends School is a Quaker school located in Bethesda, Maryland and Washington, D.C., offering pre-kindergarten through high school classes. Founded in 1883 by Thomas W. Sidwell, its motto is ' ( en, Let the light shine out from all), al ...

, and graduated from

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

in 1996. She earned an M.F.A. in nonfiction writing from Columbia in 2003. She was a reporter for ''

The Hartford Courant The ''Hartford Courant'' is the largest daily newspaper in the U.S. state of Connecticut, and is considered to be the oldest continuously published newspaper in the United States. A morning newspaper serving most of the state north of New Haven ...

'' (1999–2001) and '' The Rutland Herald'' (1996–1999). Gentile supported herself while writing ''Life List'' by working as a part-time assistant to a federal judge in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, the Hon.

Raymond J. Dearie Raymond Joseph Dearie (born June 4, 1944) is an American lawyer who is a Senior status, senior United States federal judge, United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York. He also served as a ...

Personal

In January 2008, Gentile married

Andy Borowitz Andy Borowitz (born January 4, 1958) is an American writer, comedian, satirist, and actor. Borowitz is a ''The New York Times''-bestselling author who won the first National Press Club award for humor. He is known for creating the NBC sitcom ''Th ...

, 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 The Hudson Valley (also known as the Hudson River Valley) comprises the valley of the Hudson River and its adjacent communities in the U.S. state of New York. The region stretches from the Capital District including Albany and Troy south to ...

Reviews of ''Life List''

In a prepublication review, the scientist and author of ''

Guns, Germs, and Steel ''Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies'' (subtitled ''A Short History of Everybody for the Last 13,000 Years'' in Britain) is a 1997 transdisciplinary non-fiction book by Jared Diamond. In 1998, it won the Pulitzer Prize for gen ...

'',

Jared Diamond Jared Mason Diamond (born September 10, 1937) is an American geographer, historian, ornithologist, and author best known for his popular science books ''The Third Chimpanzee'' (1991); ''Guns, Germs, and Steel'' (1997, awarded a Pulitzer Prize); ...

, wrote of ''Life List'', On April 15, 2009, ''Life List'' was favorably reviewed in ''

The Christian Science Monitor ''The Christian Science Monitor'' (''CSM''), commonly known as ''The Monitor'', is a nonprofit news organization that publishes daily articles in electronic format as well as a weekly print edition. It was founded in 1908 as a daily newspaper ...

'': "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.”

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gentile, Olivia 1974 births Living people Harvard University alumni Columbia University School of the Arts alumni American non-fiction writers Sidwell Friends School alumni American women non-fiction writers 21st-century American women