Hi!

My name is Olivia Shumaker and I am the creator of The Secret Shelf. I am a current student attending my local high school in Maine.

I created this blog for my 20Time English project, where I create in-depth reviews of books I read. The reviews I post will always only be based on my genuine opinion. If I love a book— I will express that, if I hate a book, which is rather uncommon— I will also go into detail as to why.

Frankly, I am quite excited to begin this journey as the idea of blogging and running my website is extremely intriguing to me. I have already had so much fun developing and designing this website. This blog already has kickstarted my desire to dive deeper into books and certain genres of literature to complete a full overview analysis on my favorite novels. I hope you enjoy my reviews as much as I enjoy writing them!

A Little About Me:

I am in my Sophomore year of high school and have a big interest in travelling the world. I am travelling to Greece in 2025 and Japan in 2026. I also am a huge fan of concerts and have two lined up for this year already. In the future, currently, I want to become an orthodontist despite my love for the humanities. I can only ever see myself working in the medical field which is also why I have decided to create this blog. Despite the idea for this blog stemming from an English assignment, I truly consider The Secret Shelf as a passion project that reflects my love for reading and appreciating literature. The name, ‘The Secret Shelf’, was inspired by one of my favorite novels of all time, The Secret History by Donna Tartt. I already have my review of The Secret History uploaded if you want to go read it. However, the first book that got me involved in reading was A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara. A Little Life destroyed me in ways I didnt know was possible which caused for me to realize the power of books— or specifially, words. This brings me back to my point, I love reading, I love books, I am glad I can write reviews and also have it considered as educational. I am so excited to see how this blog will flower in the future, but for now, I am just beginning.