meet our staff
Lori
Co-owner/Receiving
Lori Muller-Zaim is a life-time book lover—From reading under the covers with a flashlight as a kid, to volunteering in the school library for years & years as her children grew up. Lori graduated from the University of Illinois with a BS in Restaurant Management. When she and her husband moved to Cleveland in 1980 she worked for the Baricelli Inn in Little Italy. Lori took time off to have three children - all of whom spent lots of time on the third floor at Fireside. She started working at Fireside Book Shop in 2011. Lori & Jean purchased the business in 2017. It's been great! She's never looked back.
To get in touch with Lori, please email info@firesidebookshop.com
Jean
Co-owner/Book Buyer
Jean has been a reader her whole life. One of her earliest memories is having her mother read The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton. She discovered Judy Blume around the age of 9 and moved on to novels by middle school. She would arrive early to high school just to sit in front of her locker and read. After getting her B.S. in Chemistry at Miami University, Jean’s first job was at Walden Books at Euclid Square Mall and she never looked back. Jean started working at Fireside when she was just 24, bought it at 44 with her co-worker Lori, and hopes to live out her golden years here, as well. When she’s not reading, Jean loves spending time with her husband, their 3 children and their dog, Daisy. Being surrounded by books everyday is a dream come true for her. Her favorite older books include Outlander by Diana Gabaldon, Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden, and Cowboys Are My Weakness by Pam Housten. More recent titles include The Friend Zone by Abby Jimenez, The Midnight Library by Matt Haig and Beach Read by Emily Henry.
To get in touch with Jean, please email info@firesidebookshop.com
Carole
General Manager/Bookseller
Carole moved to this country from England thirty years ago. It took her until 2014 to find the best job ever at Fireside Bookshop!
To get in touch with Carole, please email cawfbs@gmail.com
Ann
Bookseller
Ann retired from Cleveland Metropolitan School District in 2012 after 30 years of teaching. She started working at Fireside that same fall. She is married and has four children and three grandchildren with more on the way. She loves to walk, cook, and most importantly read!
Valerie
Children’s Department Manager/Events & Marketing Coordinator/Fireside Book Club Organizer/Bookseller
Valerie has been slowly turning her Chagrin Falls house into a replica of a bookstore since she moved here in 2014. Her progress has accelerated significantly since she joined the Fireside staff in 2017. Valerie has a B.F.A. in creative writing from the University of Maine at Farmington and an M.F.A. in creative writing from the Northeast Ohio Master of Fine Arts program through Kent State University. Her favorite fiction authors include George Saunders, Lorrie Moore, Virginia Woolf, Jorge Luis Borges, Paul Beatty, Madeline Miller and Karen Russell, among others.
To get in touch with Valerie, please email vjsfbs1@gmail.com
Robert
Bookseller
Robert's first job after graduating from the University of Illinois with no discernible skills (his fault, not the school's) was as an assistant manager at Waldenbooks. Several promotions, more bookstores (Barnes and Noble and 7 years as manager of Fireside) and 25 years on he reached a career epiphany that he was not going to get rich selling books. Hence a career change to banking. Having wanted to keep his soul, he went back to work part-time at Fireside for the last 10 years. When he's not indulging his intellectual curiosity at the store, he's on his boat or playing with his cats. His soul is still intact.
Meghan
Bookseller
Meghan joined the staff in the summer of 2021 and has decided that working at Fireside is the best job on the planet (other than being a mom, of course!). To be surrounded by books and the people who love them is a form of heaven on earthM
Morgan
Bookseller
Morgan grew up in Moreland Hills and is a current student at Kent State University. She joined us for her senior project and never left!
Molly
Bookseller/Receiver
Molly’s roots in Cleveland run deep and she has been a patron of Fireside since childhood. Molly was a teacher for 23 years and is an avid reader. She loves thrillers (especially Louise Penny), biographies, graphic novels, books about the Civil War and WWII, as long as it’s a good story!
When she isn’t reading or working, Molly loves to be outdoors, do crossword puzzles, make things and spend time with her husband and two daughters.
Jennifer
Bookseller
Jennifer is a Cleveland native and an avid reader. Her favorite nonfiction authors are Michael Lewis, Mary Roach, Frank Bruni, and Malcolm Gladwell, and she’s always happy to read a great memoir. Her fiction interests are varied; recent favorites have been The Life Impossible, The First Ladies, Daniel Silva’s Gabriel Allon series, The Beach at Summerly, and The House in the Cerulean Sea.