Ramona Koval is a writer, journalist, broadcaster and editor.Born in Melbourne to immigrant parents she studied microbiology and genetics before turning to science journalism, then current affairs and literary journalism before finally working full-time as a writer. In her spare(!) time she loves learning new languages and cooking for her five grandchildren.Her latest book is By the Book: A reader's guide to life (Text)Her latest media venture is The Monthly Book hosted by Ramona Koval @TheMonthlyAs a broadcaster she presented major literary programs on ABC Radio National which were broadcast nationally on Radio National, internationally through Radio Australia, and podcast on the internet.She has written reviews, features and columns for newspapers and written on issues of the day. She has made documentary features for radio, which have been broadcast both by the ABC and the BBC.Transcripts of her interviews have appeared in international newspapers, magazines and in digital form, and she has been a guest interviewer at International literary festivals in Edinburgh, Montreal, Berlin, Cheltenham, Auckland, Wellington and all over Australia.She is the author of a novel, Samovar (Heinemann), of collections of interviews, most recently Speaking Volumes - conversations with remarkable writers (Scribe, also translated into Chinese and Portuguese), of a Jewish cook book, Jewish Cooking, Jewish Cooks (New Holland) and she edited The Best Australian Essays 2011 and The Best Australian Essays 2012 (Black Inc)On By the Book: A Reader's Guide to Life, Text Publishing'She's a shining presence in the world of literature, here in Australia and right across the globe.''The book reads smoothly, it flows along from mood to mood, full of wit and beauty and grace.''Her voice is always recognisable, invigorating, familiar to us and greatly loved: the voice of [a] highly literate woman.'Helen Garner" ...By the Book: A Reader's Guide to Life [is] an irresistible study of the symbiotic relationship,for the bookish, between life and books. The subject matter ranges from the simplicities of childhood reading to the complexities of interviewing great writers. The voice is easily recognisable as the one we know from her decades in radio: generous, warm, and fearless."Kerryn Goldsworthy, Books of the Year, Australian Book Review, December 2012 - January 2013, No.347"The excitement with which Koval still approaches each new book, plunging in "head first, heart deep", furnishes the last words of this urbane and enlightening work of her own."Peter Pierce editor of the Cambridge History of Australian Literature, reviewing By the Book: A Reader's Guide to Life, for The Australian, 27 October 2012