Totally Booked with Zibby

Jasmine Guillory’s book The Proposal  was a Reese’s Book Club pick and bestseller. Party of Two, a novel about a white Senator and a black lawyer who fall in love and have to contend with the public eye during their new romance, is even better! It'll leave you craving a slice of chocolate cake after reading Jasmine’s mouth-watering descriptions of basically everything. Her...

Judith Warner's latest book is called And Then They Stopped Talking to Me: Making Sense of Middle School . She is a best-selling author, a special correspondent for Newsweek , and journalist who had a New York Times column. She's an extremely compelling speaker and writer, and this book provides invaluable insight about the (sometimes really painful) memories from navigating adolescence, and...

Rachel Beanland is the author of the novel Florence Adler Swims Forever , through which she takes family history and secret-keeping to a riveting place. Based on a tragedy that took place in the 1930s in her own family, we talked about how Rachel grew up with this family lore, whether it's justified to keep hard truths from the people they impact, and how that narrative has shaped her relationship...

I interviewed the amazing Taffy Brodesser Akner about her bestselling first novel, Fleishman Is in Trouble, as part of the Streicker Center from Temple Emanu-El's "Women on the Move" series. Taffy was formerly a staff writer for The New York Times Magazine and has written for GQ, ESPN the Magazine, and many other publications. We laughed about how many people in her circle think that they kno...

Bethany Saltman is the author of Strange Situation: A Mother's Journey into the Science of Attachment . She's also an award-winning editor and researcher. Her work can be seen in publications like The New Yorker,   New York magazine,  Atlantic Monthly ,  Parents and many others. Strange Situation is a beautiful memoir of Bethany's 10-year journey researching and exploring...

I had a blast interviewing former child actress from “The Wonder Years” Danica McKellar about her latest book called The Times Machine! Like me, you probably adored her first as Winnie! (My daughter knows her from “Project MC2” on Netflix.) Among other great acting roles and becoming a parent, Danica started McKellar Math. She developed her own math theorem, spoke before the congres...

Catherine Newman is the author of the fantastic book How to Be a Person: 65 Hugely Useful, Super-Important Skills to Learn before You're Grown Up . She's the etiquette columnist at Real Simple  magazine and the editor of the James Beard Award-winning nonprofit kids' cooking magazine ChopChop.  I'm so glad Catherine was inspired to write this book because it's an amazing way to get kids c...

I had the most fun laughing and talking with Kevin Kwan who is the author of Crazy Rich Asians trilogy, the international best-selling novels and almost unprecedented single-author trifecta. The film adaptation of Crazy Rich Asians  became Hollywood's highest-grossing romantic comedy in over a decade. His latest book is called Sex and Vanity . Kevin and I talked about his upbringing in Singap...

I adored interviewing J. Courtney Sullivan about her latest book Friends and Strangers, which comes out today! She is a New York Times  best-selling author and her newest novel has been on every most-anticipated list and best-book-of-the-summer list there basically is for 2020. I felt like Courtney was in my brain when I was reading - it took me back to being a new mom. We talked about her book's...

Kerry Kletter is a critically acclaimed author who also has an extensive background in theater and has appeared in film, television, and on stage. I loved talking to her about her most recent book and first adult novel, East Coast Girls . We went deep about the central theme of shared trauma that appears in her work: how does an author's experiences impact what they want to write about and how the...

Bonnie Tsui’s mom actually reached out to me after seeing me on and suggested I interview her daughter! Turns out, Bonnie wrote a fantastic, thought-provoking book recently called Why We Swim , a perfect book for these summer months. Part-memoir and part-investigative journalism, Why We Swim will make anyone long for the blood-pressure-lowering effects of staying underwater. Bonnie is a native New...

I am such a HUGE fan of Glennon Doyle’s. I loved her book Untamed and could relate to so many parts of it. Talking to Glennon and hearing her soulful advice was just second to none! An activist and thought leader, parent, wife, and inspired writer, Glennon is the author of #1 New York Times bestseller Untamed , a Reese's Book Club selection, Love Warrior , an Oprah's Book Club selection, and the N...

Mary Morris is the author of the new, critically acclaimed travel memoir All the Way to the Tigers . She is an award-winning author and has written three story collections, four travel memoirs, and five novels. She also teaches writing at Sarah Lawrence. Mary and I talked about how an accident halted her regular state of constant motion, spurred her on to deep self-exploration, and created this br...

Carlos Whittaker is the author of three books, Moment Maker: You Can Live Your Life or It Will Live You , Kill the Spider , and most recently, Enter Wild: Exchange a Mild and Mundane Faith for Life with an Uncontainable God . Carlos's wife calls him "a hope dealer" (listen to learn what that means!). Carlos has been a recording artist signed to a major label, a social media maven, and now spends t...

Susan Burton's memoir, Empty , is one of my favorite recent books. I'm really excited to share our conversation which we had at the beginning of the pandemic. Now it feels like a lifetime ago! Susan is an editor at This American Life on where the episodes she has produced include "Ten Sessions," "Five Women," and "Tell Me I'm Fat.” Her writing has appeared in the New York Times Magazine , Slate ,...

Julie Clark's latest book, The Last Fight , was powerful and had me on the edge of my seat the entire time I was reading it. I loved talking to Julie about her suspenseful book centered around two women who are desperate to escape their lives for very different reasons. We discussed the feeling of powerlessness that I think we can all relate to in some way, how Julie writes characters that have ag...

Marian Keyes is one of the most successful Irish novelists of all time. She has written fourteen novels that have all been bestsellers with 30 million books sold in 33 languages around the world. I loved talking to her about the impetus for transitioning to a career in writing at thirty, addiction and recovery, the self we present to the world versus what's really going on beneath the surface, and...

Kara Kinney Cartwright is the author of Just Don't Be an Assh*le: A Surprisingly Necessary Guide to Being a Good Guy , which is a frank and very funny guidebook designed to help teach younger men how to have positive interactions, make good decisions, and recognize when they're "being jerkfaces.” This book was Kara's way of sending her kids out into the world to navigate school, friends, and famil...

Angela DiTerlizzi is the author of The Magical Yet . She is a mom, wife, and author who delights in writing rhythmic, charming picture books to be enjoyed and shared by both parents and children alike - including my family! Your "yet" is something that's always with you when you're down about the things you can't do or dreams that haven't come true to cheerlead you through those moments and remind...

Zaina Arafat is the debut author of You Exist Too Much: A Novel, an anticipated book for June 2020 by O, The Oprah Magazine ,  Elle,  Lit Hub and so many others. She is a Palestinian American writer, teacher, and editor whose stories and essays have appeared in a number of top publications. It was fantastic to interview Zaina through the Center for Fiction during part of their Inside and Out 2020...

Samantha Harvey is an acclaimed novelist whose most recent book, a genre-bending memoir called The Shapeless Unease: A Year of Not Sleeping, just came out to rave reviews. For anyone who has ever experienced a sleepless night (perhaps all of us these days), this book mirrors the emotions that surface in the dead of night. The form followed the content as Samantha navigated her issues, delving into...

I had such a nice talk with author Mia Birdsong, who wrote How We Show Up: Reclaiming Family, Friendship, and Community . Mia is a pathfinder, community curator, and storyteller who steadily engages the leadership and wisdom of people experiencing injustice to chart new visions of American life. In her work on guaranteed income as senior fellow at the Economic Security Project, she tapped into the...

Laura Munson is the author of Willa's Grove , her debut novel. She's also the author of This Is Not the Story You Think It Is...: A Season of Unlikely Happiness , which is a memoir based on her New York Times Modern Love essay which was so popular it actually crashed The New York Times  website. We talked about coming to crossroads moments in life and how her characters in Willa's Grove  react to...

I had the chance to interview Liz Moore over Zoom and Instagram Live to discuss Long Bright River , which is Liz's best-selling novel and a GMA Book Club pick. It's the story of two sisters who grow up adjacent to Kensington in Philadelphia which is a neighborhood that's been particularly hard hit by the opioid crisis. As adults, they become estranged: the older sister is a police officer and the...

Today's episode is a bit of a departure from my typical author interviews. I'm talking to two of the most important people at Goodreads, which many of you fellow book lovers already know about. It's a giant site for book recommendations where you can follow your friends' picks. Danny Feekes is the editorial director at Goodreads and Suzanne Skyvara is the VP of marketing and editorial. They're bot...