Zibby Books author alert!!! Zibby speaks to Andrea Dunlop about her latest novel Women Are The Fiercest Creatures, a wildly addictive feminist family drama about three women who take on the charming, manipulative tech CEO who wrote them out of his startup’s history. Andrea discusses her book’s striking female protagonists, touching on their motherhood, entrepreneurship, and sacrifice. She also talks about writing this book through two pregnancies (and mid-pandemic!), her Munchausen-by-proxy-them...
Mar 07, 2023•33 min•Season 16Ep. 54
Zibby interviews author and inspirational speaker Cyndie Spiegel about Microjoys: Finding Hope (Especially) When Life Is Not Okay, a bighearted and intimate book of essays and prompts that shows us how to recognize the joys that are right in front of our eyes, even in moments of profound pain. Cyndie talks about the devastating tragedies that brought her to a dark place and the microjoys that kept her afloat (like seeing a beautiful picture of her late nephew). She also talks about growing up in...
Mar 06, 2023•26 min•Season 16Ep. 53
Zibby speaks to debut author Daisy Alpert Florin about My Last Innocent Year, a propulsive, evocative, and dark coming-of-age story about Isabel Rosen and the sexual assault that throws her final semester at an elite New Hampshire school into controversy, chaos, and an affair with a married professor. Daisy talks about 90s campus culture and her protagonist’s experience with sexual assault and grief (which, Daisy shares, was unexpectedly inspired by her own mother’s premature death). Finally, Da...
Mar 05, 2023•27 min•Season 16Ep. 52
Zibby interviews bestselling author, editor, journalist, and repeat MDHTTRB guest Will Schwalbe about his moving, funny, and wise new memoir We Should Not Be Friends: The Story of a Friendship , which tells the story of his unexpected and life-changing friendship with Chris Maxey, a jock he met at Yale. Will describes Maxey (a nationally-ranked wrestler/frat boy turned Navy Seal turned eco-warrior and school founder) and shares the stories of their extraordinary forty-year friendship. He also de...
Mar 04, 2023•28 min•Season 16Ep. 51
In this special episode (a live event for the Streicker Center!), Zibby speaks to one of her greatest literary role models, #1 New York Times bestselling author Anna Quindlen, about her latest book, Write For Your Life. Anna talks about how important it is to write – for our mental health, connection with others, and historical record – although it can be intimidating, even for her. She also talks about parenting and grandparenting, her years as a New York City reporter, the book she is currentl...
Mar 03, 2023•35 min•Season 16Ep. 50
Author Tanya Frank joins Zibby to discuss her gut-wrenching and compassionate new book Zig-Zag Boy: A Memoir of Madness and Motherhood , which chronicles her son Zach’s sudden and inexplicable psychotic break at age 19 and her journey to accepting the mysteries of his altered states. Tanya talks about the day of the psychotic break and what her son had been like before it (precocious, kind, and UCLA-bound), her fear that their move to the US impacted him negatively, and her desperate quest to fi...
Mar 02, 2023•29 min•Season 16Ep. 49
Zibby speaks to reporter, speaker, and bestselling culture writer David Sax about his approachable, witty, and provocative new book The Future is Analog: How to Create a More Human World. David talks about the pandemic and the lesson it taught us: digital technology has limits and cannot replace the value of physical spaces (like schools, libraries, coffee shops, and parks) and the authentic connections we create in them. He also talks about his fascinating career in journalism, his love of type...
Mar 01, 2023•27 min•Season 16Ep. 48
Zibby interviews CNN entertainment reporter Chloe Melas and her mother Elizabeth Murphy about their late grandfather and father Frank Murphy’s book, Luck of the Draw: My Story of the Air War in Europe, which tells the epic true story of a WWII hero who cheated death for months in a German POW camp after being shot out of a plane. Elizabeth shares how shocked her family was when her father finally decided to share his story after years of silence, and Chloe describes the tremendous, years-long pr...
Feb 28, 2023•27 min•Season 16Ep. 47
Zibby is joined by Dr. Yael Schonbrun, a clinical psychologist, assistant professor at Brown University, parenting coach, podcaster, mother of three, and author of Work, Parent, Thrive: 12 Science-Backed Strategies to Ditch Guilt, Manage Overwhelm, and Grow Connection (When Everything Feels Like Too Much). Dr. Schonbrun talks about using positive psychology to reassess working parenthood, the power of the “incubation effect” (when you step away from a problem and the answers just come to you!), ...
Feb 27, 2023•26 min•Season 16Ep. 46
Zibby speaks to renowned psychiatrist and Dr. Phil Show regular Dr. Charles Sophy about his clear and compassionate new parenting guide Family Values: Reset Trust, Boundaries, and Connection with Your Child . Dr. Sophy shares his best parenting advice, touching on preexisting parent “baggage”, (re)building a strong family foundation, knowing when to get professional help, and respecting children’s feelings. He also shares his own story, from growing up gay in a small Pennsylvanian coal mining to...
Feb 26, 2023•19 min•Season 16Ep. 45
Zibby interviews New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Mary Kubica about Just the Nicest Couple , a masterfully written and unputdownable thriller about a woman who is desperate to find her missing husband, and another couple who will do anything to stop that from happening. Mary describes her fascinating writing process, revealing her strategy for developing multiple narrators, and admitting she writes without a plan or knowledge of how things will end. She also shares what it was lik...
Feb 25, 2023•25 min•Season 16Ep. 44
In this special episode (a live event for the Streicker Center!), Zibby speaks to author Allegra Goodman about Sam, a Read With Jenna pick, and a powerful and endearing coming-of-age story with poignant reflections on class, addiction, sacrifice, parenthood, and love. Zibby and Allegra talk about the protagonist, Sam, analyzing her neurodiversity, her love of climbing, her need for her father’s attention, and the realization that her parents are humans with flaws. Allegra also discusses the proc...
Feb 24, 2023•30 min•Season 16Ep. 43
Zibby interviews New York Times bestselling children’s author Stuart Gibbs about Whale Done, the eighth book in the iconic FunJungle series. Stuart describes his love of animals, his job at a zoo studying capybaras, and his decision to write about an exploding whale in Malibu. He also talks about his popular Spy School series and (accidentally) reveals where the next book will take place! Finally, he talks about writing as an escape, which helped after his wife’s passing, and reveals he spends a...
Feb 23, 2023•31 min•Season 16Ep. 42
Zibby speaks to author and repeat MDHTTRB guest Lauren Edmondson about Wedding of the Season, an atmospheric, joyous, and witty new novel about a Newport family, their fading riches, and the summer wedding that has the whole town talking, including the local gossip blog. Lauren talks about her fascination with old-money American families and the places they seclude themselves in, and describes her protagonist, Cass, who cannot escape her Vanderbilt-esque name, doesn’t actually have that much mon...
Feb 22, 2023•27 min•Season 16Ep. 41
Zibby interviews award-winning author, Pulitzer Prize finalist, and repeat MDHTTRB guest Rebecca Makkai about I Have Some Questions For You, an enthralling and unputdownable literary murder mystery (and the April pick for Zibby's Book Club!!) about a successful podcaster who returns to her idyllic New Hampshire boarding school to teach a class and winds up reliving her youth and her senior year roommate’s murder. Rebecca reveals the inspiration behind the book (hint: she currently lives in the s...
Feb 21, 2023•31 min•Season 16Ep. 40
Zibby is joined by New York Times bestselling author and repeat MDHTTRB author Christie Tate to discuss her poignant and heartwarming memoir B.F.F.: A Memoir of Friendship Lost and Found. Christie shares the details of her troubled adolescence, which included eating disorders, low self-esteem, secrecy, alcoholism in her family, toxic relationships, and a lack of girlfriends. She also talks about her life-long fear of getting close to people, which is why making and keeping friends has always bee...
Feb 20, 2023•28 min•Season 16Ep. 39
Zibby interviews acclaimed journalist and human rights activist Goldie Taylor about her harrowing and profoundly moving new memoir The Love You Save, in which she shares the unimaginable cruelties she faced as a child and the books that ultimately saved her. Goldie shares some of those heartbreaking, traumatic moments, admitting they were painful to revisit but gave her immense compassion for her younger self. Goldie also talks about finding solace and hope in books, overcoming her shame, and ul...
Feb 19, 2023•24 min•Season 16Ep. 38
Zibby speaks to screenwriter and debut author Rachel Koller Croft about Stone Cold Fox, a riveting, provocative, and twisty new thriller about an ambitious woman who, after a lifetime of conning alongside her mother, wants to put her dark past behind her and marry New York’s hottest and wealthiest bachelor. Zibby and Rachel analyze the incredible protagonist Bea, who is wickedly intelligent, observant, and powerful (but also a bit of a liar). Then, Rachel talks about her fascinating career – fro...
Feb 18, 2023•24 min•Season 16Ep. 37
Zibby interviews debut author Gothataone Moeng about Call and Response: Stories, a beautiful and sharply observed collection of short stories about women, young and old, grappling with modern life in postcolonial Botswana, where elements of traditional life still remain. Gothataone talks about the themes she enjoyed exploring – love, relationships, familial duty, and self-sacrifice – all of which speak to the universal experience of womanhood. She also shares her writing journey, from growing up...
Feb 17, 2023•22 min•Season 16Ep. 36
Newbery Medalist and New York Times bestselling author (and one of Zibby's childhood author idols!!) Lois Lowry joins Zibby to discuss The Windeby Puzzle: History and Story, an evocative tale of a boy and a girl battling to survive during the Iron Age, inspired by the true discovery of the 2,000-year-old Windeby bog body in Germany. Lois talks about her fascination with the discovered body, which scientists determined was a thirteen-year-old girl and then a sixteen-year-old boy, hence her two pr...
Feb 16, 2023•32 min•Season 16Ep. 35
Zibby interviews acclaimed writer and poet Tiffany McDaniel about On The Savage Side, a harrowing novel about twin sisters who fear for their lives as their friends begin to disappear from their rural Ohio town, inspired by the real unsolved murders of the Chillicothe Six. Tiffany describes how her own upbringing in a Southern Ohio town plagued by drug addiction inspired the environment her protagonists live in, and shares what it was like to research the real Chillicothe crimes and find that on...
Feb 15, 2023•17 min•Season 16Ep. 34
Zibby speaks to author-editors Margot Kahn and Kelly McMasters about Wanting: Women Writing About Desire, an intimate, daring, and impassioned collection of essays by award-winning and emerging female writers, such as Joanna Rakoff, Lisa Taddeo, Tara Conklin, and Michelle Wildgen (a Zibby Books author!!). The three discuss the origins of this project, the unique experience of editing and compiling an anthology, and the particular essays that Zibby cannot stop thinking about, from Joanna Rakoff’s...
Feb 14, 2023•29 min•Season 16Ep. 33
Debut author Annie Cathryn joins Zibby to discuss The Friendship Breakup , a warm and witty “mom-com” about neighborhood mom Fallon Monroe, the friends that inexplicably dump her, a Mexican fiesta that goes epically wrong, and a 20-year-old letter that changes everything. Cathryn reveals the story is inspired by her own friendship breakup, and then the two discuss the theme of identity, and the guilt mothers face when wanting to be more than just moms. Cathryn also talks about her long publishin...
Feb 13, 2023•21 min•Season 16Ep. 32
Zibby interviews writer, former professor, and repeat MDHTTRB guest Priscilla Gilman about The Critic’s Daughter: A Memoir, an exquisite and wrenching portrait of her unique relationship with her father, the esteemed, brilliant, but deeply troubled theater critic and Yale drama professor Richard Gilman, and the deep wound that her parents’ divorce left her with. Priscilla talks about her father’s depression (which competed with his utterly magical, devoted, childlike side), and how becoming the ...
Feb 12, 2023•31 min•Season 16Ep. 31
Zibby speaks to bestselling author Pico Iyer about The Half Known Life: In Search of Paradise, a mesmerizing account of over fifty years of world travels and the hopeful search for a paradise on earth. Pico discusses the pandemic, and how the constant reminder of death illuminated what was actually important in our lives, and then describes his close relationship with the Dalai Lama, whom he admires for his profound respect for others. He also talks about his love of travel, writing, bookstores ...
Feb 11, 2023•23 min•Season 16Ep. 30
In a special in-person interview (LA edition!), Zibby speaks to New York Times bestselling author and repeat MDHTTRB guest Katherine Schwarzenegger Pratt about Good Night, Sister , a beautiful and gentle bedtime story that celebrates the power and comfort of sisterhood (and stuffed animals). Katherine reveals she wrote the book as a tribute to her younger sister Christina, who was bolder and braver than she was growing up. Katherine talks about how different the publishing process is for picture...
Feb 10, 2023•23 min•Season 16Ep. 29
Zibby Owens interviews award-winning author Sadeqa Jones about her latest novel, The House of Eve, which is Reese's February Book Club pick! This daring and heartrending book is set in the 1950s and follows two Black women in Philadelphia and Washington, DC as they navigate motherhood, ambition, forbidden love, and life-altering decisions. Sadeqa reveals that this story is inspired by her own family history, and shares how much she enjoyed exploring race, class, elitism, and the fate of young Bl...
Feb 09, 2023•23 min•Season 16Ep. 28
Zibby is joined by #1 New York Times bestselling author of Me Before You, Jojo Moyes, to discuss her latest novel Someone Else’s Shoes , which tells the heartwarming and humorous story of two very different women and the gym bag mixup that brings them together and changes their lives. Jojo reveals the inspiration behind this novel and explains why she had to take some serious time off (3.5 years!) before writing it. After 10 years of overworking herself and reaching a breaking point, she finally...
Feb 08, 2023•30 min•Season 16Ep. 27
Zibby Books author alert!!! Zibby interviews debut author Alisha Fernandez Miranda about My What If Year, an exuberant and inspiring new memoir about her decision to pause her successful (but incredibly stressful and draining) career to pursue the dream jobs of her youth. Alisha shares the details of her exhilarating internship adventure, from working on Broadway and mastering virtual yoga to handling multi-million dollar artwork and waiting tables at a posh restaurant in Scotland. Tune in to la...
Feb 07, 2023•28 min•Season 16Ep. 26
In this extra special episode, Zibby sits down with her colleagues and friends, Sherri Puzey (@whatsherrireads) and Diana Tramontano (@99livesofabookgirl), to discuss the opening of Zibby’s Bookshop, a beautiful, highly-curated, community-centered, and (soon to be) author-frequented independent bookstore located at 1113 Montana Ave in Santa Monica. The three share their hopes for the store, and explain how it even came to be – from an impromptu brainstorming session at happy hour and meticulousl...
Feb 06, 2023•19 min•Season 16Ep. 25
