Totally Booked with Zibby

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 admi...

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 at...

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,...

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...

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 ro...

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 h...

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...

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, obser...

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...

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...

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 protag...

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...

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 gu...

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...

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 admir...

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 brave...

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 fami...

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!)...

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 hand...

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 ex...

In celebration of movie director Sarah Polley and the two Oscar nominations she just received for her drama film Women Talking (Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay), we are re-releasing her podcast episode from last year! Zibby interviewed Sarah about her memoir Run Towards the Danger. Sarah shared how the title came from advice her doctor gave her as she treated a years-long concussion and w...

Zibby interviews debut author Jessica George about Maame, which is a B&N Discover Pick, a Book of the Month pick, a #ReadWithJenna Book Club Pick, and will be adapted into a TV series by Jenna! Maame is a charming, vividly drawn, and poignant coming-of-age tale about a twenty-something “later bloomer" navigating online dating, a nightmarish job, grief, racism, an overbearing mother, and a fath...

Zibby is joined by molecular biologist, NYU professor, and leading public health advocate Dr. Marion Nestle to discuss her engrossing and deeply moving new memoir S low Cooked: An Unexpected Life in Food Politics . Marion describes the challenges she faced as a woman working in a science lab in the 50s, and the career sacrifices she made to raise her children. She also talks about her late-in-life...

Zibby interviews debut author Belinda Huijuan Tang about A Map for the Missing, a mesmerizing and propulsive intergenerational mystery about a math professor who, after ten years in America, returns to rural China to search for his missing father. Belinda reveals that the novel is based on her own great-grandfather’s disappearance and explains how each element of the story draws on her own family’...

Zibby speaks to creative director and former bookseller Annette Dauphin Simon about her charming, clever, and beautifully-illustrated new book Spine Poems: An Eclectic Collection of Found Verse for Book Lovers, which was inspired by a rainy day at a bookstore in Neptune Beach, Florida, where randomly stacked books formed funny poems. Annette discusses her love of found verse, her career in graphic...