Totally Booked with Zibby

My kids and I met (and immediately fell in love with!) Raakhee Mirchandani at the Brooklyn Book Festival. She's an award-winning writer, editor, and pediatric cancer crusader. She's also the author of children’s book Super Satya Saves the Day , which recently won the Purple Dragonfly Award from Bharat Babies. Listen to our conversation about her inspiration for writing this modern superh...

Cathleen Schine is the author of 11 books including the best-selling novels The Three Weissmanns of Westport , The Love Letter , and The New Yorkers. Cathy's latest novel is The Grammarians , a coming of age novel about twins, family, relationships, and words. It has been called “an enchanting comic love letter to sibling rivalry and the English language.” Listen to Cathy talk about her...

Mitch Albom is the author of seven #1  New York Times best sellers including Tuesdays with Morrie , the best-selling memoir of all time! His latest heartbreaking, inspiring book is Finding Chika: A Little Girl, an Earthquake, and the Making of a Family.  This intimate, sentimental memoir is a poignant framing of love, loss, and family. I can't wait for you to hear our conversation about...

Rene Denfeld, is an advocate, award-winning journalist, and best-selling author. We talked about her latest book, The Butterfly Girl , which tackles the plight of homeless children, a marginalized population she's familiar with after growing up homeless herself. Her beautiful, gripping novel — and her journey — is a story of hope, imagination, and rethinking what survival and trauma mean in our cu...

VC Chickering is the author of TWISTED FAMILY VALUES and NOOKIETOWN. This former comedy and TV writer writes in an engaging and unique way about the illicit love between cousins in a coming-of-age meets WASP tale. Listen to Tori and me talk about dating across cultures (!), family drama, trying not to care so much about what other people thing, home design, being super busy when no one cares, and...

Susan Shapiro is an award-winning Manhattan writing professor, best-selling author of twelve books, and journalist. Her latest book is The Byline Bible: Get Published in Five Weeks . This is a super special episode for me because I took Sue’s class at The New School in 2004 when I was trying to write full-time for a little bit. Sue’s class was so amazing - and so is her book - all about...

Caitlin Moscatello is an award-winning journalist and author of See Jane Win: The Inspiring Story of the Women Changing American Politics . She has written for New York Magazine ’s The Cut, Vanity Fair , Time , Elle , Marie Claire , O, The Oprah Magazine , and many other publications. She started working on this book in February of 2017, a few months after the 2016 election -- when many...

Rachel Levy Lesser is the author of Life’s Accessories: A Memoir (and Fashion Guide) . Life’s Accessories is a coming-of-age memoir told in fourteen essays. Each essay centers around an item of clothing, jewelry or an accessory that has had meaning in Rachel's life. Listen to us talk about the pain of losing her mother, fitting in at boarding school, growing up in the 1980s, being a mother herself...

Lisa Jewell is the internationally best-selling author of seventeen (and a half!) novels including the New York Times best seller Then She Was Gone as well as I Found You , The Girls in the Garden , and The House We Grew Up In . Her latest book, The Family Upstairs , is already a number one best seller in the UK and is a Book of the Month Club pick. Through the perspective of three different...

Katherine Wintsch is the CEO of The Mom Complex and a nationally recognized expert on the topic of modern motherhood. She's also the author of Slay Like a Mother: How to Destroy What's Holding You Back So You Can Live the Life You Want . Her work has been featured on major media outlets, she has spoken at TEDx and was recently named a Woman of the Decade by the Women’s Economic Forum. Her research...

Alex Berenson is an award-winning novelist, a #1  New York Times  best-selling author, and a former  New York Times  reporter. His latest book,  Tell Your Children: The Truth About Marijuana, Mental Illness, and Violence , is his second nonfiction book. It is an intense work of brilliant research. Alex balances the intricate science with some of the extremel...

Jeanne McWilliams Blasberg, author of the award-winning novel Eden and her latest work,  The Nine, shares her thoughts on ambitious parenting, boarding school, writing, secrets and more! ** Want more? Become a part of my community! Sign up for Zibby's Highlights , which includes a free weekly newsletter, event livestreams, most anticipated book lists, personal essays, and...

The legendary Susan Orlean is a staff writer at The New Yorker magazine and the author of eight books including Rin Tin Tin , Saturday Night , and The Orchid Thief , which was made into the Academy Award-winning film Adaptation . Her latest book, The Library Book , was nominated for the Andrew Carnegie nonfiction prize and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, which is no surprise to anyone who h...

I'm thrilled that I got to sit down in person with Tonya Dalton, the author of The Joy of Missing Out: Live More by Doing Less . Just reading that title makes me feel like relaxation could be possible. Tonya is the founder and CEO of inkWELL Press Productivity Co., a business focused on helping women create fulfilling lives around their priorities. Talk about something we could all use! She also h...

Erica Cerulo and Claire Mazur are the coauthors of Work Wife: The Power of Female Friendship to Drive Successful Businesses . They met at the University of Chicago in 2002 and founded Of a Kind in 2010. They have become known for discovering the next big things and launched a wildly popular weekly newsletter, 10 Things, and “A Few Things,” the podcast. Their book is yet another collaboration in th...

Vanessa Lillie is the debut author of thriller Little Voices, a story of an investigation by a woman who is both struggling as a new mom and whose her friend was murdered on the night she went into labor. It's not just a riveting murder mystery. It's also a story about new motherhood, the doubts we all have, and the pressure to be perfect parents. Vanessa's astute ability to craft characters...

In this episode, I get the honor of speaking to the brilliant Alain de Botton, the international philosopher and best-selling author of fourteen books, essay collections, and novels. His most recent book is  The School of Life, the same name as the international school he founded dedicated to improving our emotional, interior lives. The book is an   amazing guide to exploring your past a...

Tiffany Shlain is the author of 24/6: The Power of Unplugging One Day a Week . An Emmy-nominated filmmaker and creator of the Webby Awards, Tiffany has won more than eighty awards and distinctions herself. We talked about her family's practice of unplugging (no phones!!) one day a week, her modern-day interpretation of the sabbath, and how helpful it is to her overall sanity. If this super accompl...

Tui Sutherland is a young adult/fantasy writer who my guest interviewer (my 12-year-old son) is obsessed with! Getting him an advance copy of this graphic novel, which comes out today, was the coolest thing he thinks I've ever done. Tui has written 40 books for children and teens... and she's a two-day Jeopardy champion! Listen to the three of us talk about writing, plot twists, graphic novel...

Adrienne Brodeur's memoir,  Wild Game: My Mother, Her Lover, and Me  is absolutely outstanding and will surely be a best-seller. (The film rights have already been sold to Chernin Entertainment with the director attached!) Adrienne's life changed at age 14 when her mother confided something in her. The repercussions from that conversation affected the trajectory of the rest of her life,...

Waylynn Lucas is the author of Sunny-Side Up: More Than 100 Breakfast & Brunch Recipes from the Essential Egg to the Perfect Pastry . An award-winning former pastry chef at famed restaurants like Patina and Bazaar, Waylynn has also been a judge on the Food Network’s TV hit show Cake Wars,  and is now giving us a firsthand look at this friendly-for-all cookbook that's going to be a kitchen...

Matt Hall is the author of Odds On: The Making of an Evidence-Based Investor . He is the co-founder and president of Hill Investment Group and the host of the podcast “Take the Long View.” The subtitle of Matt’s book sounds very business-y, but this is really a personal story that was transformational for him to write and a book you won't want to miss!! ** Want more? Become a part of my community!...

I’m thrilled to share this conversation I had with Rachel Brathen. I interviewed her on Instagram Live at the Simon & Schuster offices on her publication day! (For the video, click here.)  Rachel is the founder and CEO of Yoga Girl and the author of the New York Times best-selling book also called Yoga Girl . I absolutely loved her new memoir, To Love and Let Go: A Memoir of Love, Loss, a...

Carla Naumburg, PhD, is a writer, speaker, and clinical social worker and the author of How to Stop Losing Your Sh*t with Your Kids: A Practical Guide to Becoming a Calmer, Happier Parent . She's also the author of two other mindfulness books. Even with a PhD in clinical social work, she found herself unable to keep her cool with her kids, so she set out on a journey that delivered this book that&...

Will Schwalbe is the New York Times best-selling author of The End of Your Life Book Club and Books for Living: Some Thoughts on Reading, Reflecting, and Embracing Life.  He is also the host of Macmillan Publisher's podcast, "But That's Another Story with Will Schwalbe." Will and I share an intense love of books! Hear how certain books have helped him through emotional challenges like loss an...