Moms Don’t Have Time to Read Books

"I tried to write a narrative that would talk about the collisions of full-throttle life and what happens to women who are over forty who don't remain in that happily-ever-after state.” Gina Frangello discusses her new memoir, Blow Your House Down, and how through it she wants to challenge "the invisibility of middle-aged and older women and this false assumption that our inner lives and our changes and our evolutions just sort of stop after we get married and we have children.” She honestly discusses her past extramarital affair, and contemplates the surreal experience of leading many lives.

 

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Zibby had the privilege of moderating author Kristy Woodson Harvey’s virtual tour event with Left Bank Books for her new novel, Under the Southern Sky. We recorded this conversation, and are releasing it now as a special episode you won’t want to miss!

 

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"We always just pretended like we knew each other for a hundred years because that's what it felt like.” In her moving interview with Zibby, Adriana Trigiani lovingly recalls her late friend and fellow writer, Dorthea Benton Frank. Between anecdotes, Adriana discusses her experience of growing up in Appalachia, her decades of reinvention, and the art of drama. 

 

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"I actually got so carried away with some scenes that I'm like, 'Wait, what's the point of this scene again?' It was the most fun that I've ever had writing a book." Jesse Q. Sutanto joins Zibby to talk about her book, Dial A for Aunties, which is currently the #1 book in Humorous American Literature on Amazon. The two discuss Jesse's global experience, how she has four books coming out next year, and why it is so important to have writer friends.

 

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"If there were any means by which I could get some control over this out-of-control story, it had to be through writing." Vince Granata talks with Zibby about how writing helped him contend with his family’s unimaginable past trauma: Vince’s brother murdered his mother in their childhood home. They discuss living with grief, the necessity of continued support systems, and the value of writing mentors. 

 

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"We Westerners are the exception. This conflict-ridden existence between parents and children is not super universal and not actually really common at all." NPR Correspondent Michaeleen Doucleff traveled around the world and documented the different ways parents communicate with their children. She shares these tools to help de-escalate family tensions and incentivize children to take initiative in her book.

 

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"Parenting doesn't start when you have a child. It already started when you were a child." When journalist Lynn Berger found out she was pregnant with her second child, she realized there weren't any books combining research on family structures and sibling dynamics with anecdotes about having multiple children, so she wrote Second Thoughts: On Having and Being a Second Child. Lynn joined Zibby to discuss her findings and how her own experience raising two kids shaped the book.

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Happy Independent Bookstore Day!!!! Author and owner of Books Are Magic Emma Straub answers all of Zibby's questions about owning an independent bookstore like how she and her husband got started, what the book-buying process looks like, and their plans for Independent Bookstore Day today. Emma also shares what is different about doing a tour for a paperback release and drops a few hints about her next novel.

 

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Alena Dillon joins Zibby to talk about the research on USA Gymnastics that went into her new book, The Happiest Girl in the World, as well as her upcoming memoir about pregnancy. The two share what they wished they had known going into motherhood and discuss the effects of parenting habits both on and off the page.

 

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Sociologist and author Gail Crowther joins Zibby to talk about her latest book, Three-Martini Afternoons at the Ritz: The Rebellion of Sylvia Plath & Anne Sexton, and the incredible history behind it. Gail shares the ghostly experience she had while conducting archival research, why she wants to argue against stereotyping these two poets as crazy women, and the story of how she first fell in love with Sylvia Plath.

 

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"One of my great hopes for the movie and for the book is that when people have been inside a different experience, that when they look at people, they’ll wonder what those people have to say in terms of what their story is rather than just trying to kind of slot them in this American caste system." Zibby is joined by journalist, author, and screenwriter Jessica Bruder to talk about her book, Nomadland, and its recent Best Picture Golden Globe-winning movie adaptation. Jessica tells Zibby about living on the road, her career in journalism, and why she thinks we need to change the conversation around homelessness and houselessness.

 

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Alison Hammer joins Zibby to talk about her new book, Little Pieces of Me, as well as the other six projects she has going on at the moment. The two talk about how Alison's experiences participating in the National Novel Writing Month challenge have resulted in multiple finished novels, as well as how they both have novels stored away, waiting to be revived one day.

 

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"I'm so grateful to anyone who's read the book or passed the book onto someone or posted about it because it wouldn't exist without all of that." Meg Mason talks with Zibby about how she wrote an entire draft for the wrong book before she found her way into writing her latest novel, Sorrow and Bliss. The two also talk about why doctors often approach mental illness with women, what it's like to come of age in your forties, and how Meg relied on her characters' dark British humor to write about heavy topics with levity. 

 

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"Whether you're dealing with your muffin top over the waistband of your pants or friends who die too young or careers that blow up or slowly shrivel or whatever, you have to remember you're just lucky to be here." Former Editor in Chief of Real Simple and author of Did I Say That Out Loud Kristin van Ogtrop joins Zibby to talk about the importance of a self-chuckle, what it was like to start a new career later in life, and why she will always love print magazines.

 

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Former model and YA writer Laurie Elizabeth Flynn talks with Zibby about her debut adult novel, The Girls Are All So Nice Here, and her process of writing it. From cringing at the memory of high school emotions to buying a pillow to remind herself not to overthink, Laurie explains how she found her inspiration for her book and why she doesn't plot out her stories before writing.

 

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"Fixing fatigue is not about doing less. Look, we did less during this past year, and we were more tired than ever. It's not about doing less. It's actually about doing more of the things that actually recharge you." Double board certified doctor Amy Shah, MD, talks with Zibby about how she set out to fix the burnout she felt in her own life after a life-threatening car crash and why she wants to offer what she's learned to others. Amy explains how to find time to recharge during the day, implement small calming rituals that only take a moment, and protect yourself from energy-suckers.

 

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Zibby talks with the author and illustrator duo behind Allergic, Megan Wagner Lloyd and Michelle Mee Nutter, about their process of working together and how Megan's own lifelong experience with allergies influenced the book. Although Allergic is a middle grade graphic novel, the three talk about how it's both an entertaining and important read for the whole family, especially those coping with food allergies in the family. 

 

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"This whole book is about finding your center. The center does hold with a couple of good friends." Anne Lamott recently joined Zibby's Book Club to discuss her latest book, Dusk, Night, Dawn: On Revival and Courage, and answered questions from book club members. Anne talked about those she looks to for inspiration, her experience watching her son's journey to sobriety as a former alcoholic herself, and how she seeks forgiveness every day, especially during the pandemic. 

Purchase her book on Amazon or Bookshop.

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"I started writing just to remember her stories and her voice in this world that doesn't exist anymore." Zibby is joined by fellow memoir enthusiast J. Nicole Jones to discuss her upcoming memoir, Low Country, and the family secrets that it reveals. Nicole tells Zibby about the process of rewriting her grandmother's stories after her first draft was stolen, how her South Carolina hometown became its own character, and what it's like to hear your life told through your father's songs.

 

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"We're all shades of gray. There's always complexity in the human story. That's what I'm interested in.” Paula McLain shares how the inspiration for her latest novel, When the Stars Go Dark, struck during a dog walk. She reveals to Zibby the anxiety she felt about departing from her usual genre, and discusses the courage found in vulnerability.

 

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"These anonymous people who are struggling have no idea that they saved people's lives. I just think it really speaks to how wonderful it is when we can share our struggles and realize that we're not alone." Jenny Lawson talks with Zibby about the community that has formed in the comments sections of her blog, The Bloggess, and how their candor inspired her to write more openly about heavier topics like her depression and rheumatoid arthritis. The two also discuss what it has been like for Jenny to open up an independent bookstore in the middle of the pandemic and how she still meets with her fellow essayist friends (though it's not how you imagine).

 

 

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"As soon as we can all go out again, I really think it's so important to recapture that feeling of connection to our friends and our family." Julie Metz tells Zibby about the journey her research took her on through the histories of Vienna and her own family tree. Her latest book, Eva and Eve, paints vivid pictures of the world her family lived in prior to the Holocaust as well as of the life Julie lives today.

 

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"Novels. What's wonderful about them is that you can do the stuff you can't in real life. You can make all the mistakes. You can commit all the crimes." Donna Freitas talks with Zibby about how her own life experiences inspired her new book, The Nine Lives of Rose Napolitano, and how writing it helped her heal certain wounds. The two bond over divorce (as well as divorce recovery cake) and discuss how indecision can sometimes be a force of good.

 

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"The exciting thing about deciding to do something later in your life is that you have all these skills that you just didn't have in your twenties." Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney tells Zibby all about starting her career as a writer in her forties, how the writing process has differed between her two novels, and getting high praise from her son on her latest book, Good Company. 

 

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Dawnie Walton talks with Zibby about how she made the pivot from her twenty-year career in journalism to writing her debut novel, The Final Revival of Opal & Nev. The two discuss the support system Dawnie found in her Iowa Writers Workshop peers, creating deep connections in our virtual era, and the Talking Heads concert footage that inspired her inventive new book. 

 

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"It's just really hard to locate yourself as an Asian American in American history. Even though you might have been here, you were just always floating in the periphery of historical vision." Sanjena Sathian talks with Zibby about all of the elements that make up her debut novel, Gold Diggers: their conversation ranges from discussing the research on the alchemical traditions that support the book's magic to how the 29-year old built her novel out of a failed short story at the Iowa Writer's Workshop at the recommendation of her roommate.

 

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"I feel a great duty to these women, even those that told their stories but hadn’t been widely heard and especially those that never got to tell their stories." Judy Batalion talks with Zibby about the extraordinary women of the resistance who fought “for justice and liberty and fairness” in Hitler’s ghettos. She discusses the incredible amount of work and research that went into her latest book, The Light of Days; and, shares her experience growing up a descendant of Holocaust survivors.

 

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Novelist Jessica Winter talks with Zibby about her incredible career trajectory (she’s currently an executive editor at The New Yorker!) and imparts her quarantine parenting wisdom. She also shares how writing her latest novel, The Fourth Child, helped her reckon with her Catholic upbringing and sort through her experience as a Buffalo, NY teen during the Spring of Life anti-abortion demonstrations.

Purchase your copy on Amazon or Bookshop.

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Tamara Winfrey Harris joins Zibby to discuss her new book of heartwarming letters from Black women to help guide, protect, and inspire the next generation of young Black girls. The writers of the letters in Dear Black Girl range from celebrities like Brandy and former columnist Rochelle Riley to other women who simply responded to the request for letters, all of whom offer incredible advice and promote the universal practice of self-love.

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MIT Professor Sherry Turkle has long been revered for her research on society's relationship with technology. In her newest book, The Empathy Diaries, she blends her research with her own narrative as she analyzes the various roles empathy has played in her family history. Sherry talks with Zibby about how her relationship with her mom continues to evolve and the ways in which writing this book began to heal some of her old wounds.

 

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Amazon: https://amzn.to/3t3Ba4v

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"I discovered that the writing was helping me process everything that had happened. I didn't know that that's what I needed to do." Debut novelist Ilona Bannister has a heartfelt conversation with Zibby about how her experience on 9/11 served as the backstory for her book, When I Ran Away, and the traumatic events that allowed her to fall into writing and rein in her anxiety.

 

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Amazon: https://amzn.to/3sWxh1n

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The Laundry Evangelist, Patric Richardson, teaches Zibby all of his tips and tricks on how to save your clothes and make doing the laundry more fun. From washing everything on a warm express cycle to hanging a disco ball in your laundry room, Patric is on a mission to extend the life of garments and turn an everyday chore into your new favorite hobby.

 

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"In the end when all is said and done and it comes time for me to depart, I want my children to remember me and say, 'Hey, Dad had some problems, but he changed. He became a good father.'" James Brown talks with Zibby about how his latest book, Apology to the Young Addict, completes his trilogy of memoirs about his addiction, his family, and now his sobriety. The two talk about how addiction can impact kids growing up as well as the possibilities that opened up for James when he began to make a change.

 

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"Generally speaking, kids are just so full of wonder and awe and enthusiasm for everything that they are, in a way, the best audience." NYT Bestselling Author and literary legend Dave Eggers talks with Zibby about the ins and outs many people don't know about the publishing process, how he began writing picture books, and The Young Editors Project which allows young children to help workshop picture books before they're published.

 

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"I wanted to be in a medical specialty where I restore people's quality of life. I don't save lives going to work every day, but hopefully, I save their quality of life. That's what life is worth living for." Zibby talks with renowned orthopedist at the Hospital for Special Surgery, Dr. Vijay Vad, about his book, Back Rx, and the practices he has developed to help his patients (including Zibby's own family) live their lives to the fullest. 

 

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Founder of the Huffington Post and Thrive Global, Arianna Huffington, and Thrive Global's Head of Content Development, Marina Khidekel, talk with Zibby about their new book, Your Time to Thrive, and the power of microsteps. The three discuss the importance of stacking your habits, starting your day off of your phone, and putting aside distractions to have more meaningful conversations with the ones you love. 

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"Basically, Zibby, I don't know what I'm doing. I'm just winging it and hoping for the best." Author Chris Whitaker talks to Zibby about how writing saved his life twice and how the main character in his new book, We Begin At the End, played a part in that. By the end of this interview, you'll be rooting for both Duchess and Chris.

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"It was a healing, life-changing process of creating art." Alan Silberberg and Zibby talk about his new picture book Meet the Matzah, approaching grief with humor, and the importance of sharing diverse stories for children throughout all mediums.

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"The problem is that we think of love and sex as being very happy bedfellows, and they're not. They actually hate each other." Sexpert Tracey Cox talks with Zibby about how reaching a certain age doesn't mean we have to sacrifice good sex. Her new book offers multiple ways to rethink sex after 50 to improve your physical health and your relationships. (It may also make you laugh out loud!)

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"There is no other reason to write about art unless you have strong feelings about it. That's a given." Stanford University Art History Professor Alexander Nemerov and Zibby discuss how he came to write his latest book, Fierce Poise: Helen Frankenthaler and 1950s New York, the book's creative structure, and his advice for anyone looking to write about art.

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Claire Lombardo walks Zibby through the roundabout way she became an author, her experience at the Iowa Writers' Workshop, and what she learned when her debut, The Most Fun We Ever Had, first came out.

 

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Katie Sise walks Zibby through her winding career, from actress to jewelry maker, to becoming a TV host, a ghostwriter, and, finally, the writer we know her as today. The two cover everything, from their mutual love of attending open houses to how to find time to write when home with young children.

 

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Taking it back a year now to celebrate that Spring 2021 is FINALLY here.

During the pandemic, Zibby did an Instagram Live with Lena Dunham, author of the #1 New York Times bestselling memoir Not That Kind of Girl. Lena had been writing a book throughout the coronavirus pandemic called Verified Strangers in which she released a chapter or two a day and even let readers who read it on Vogue.com choose what would happen to the main characters. (Lena was kind enough to blurb Moms Don't Have Time To: A Quarantine Anthology.) 

If you missed it, please listen. It will encourage you to write, read, and celebrate the new season.

(Back to the regularly scheduled programming tomorrow, Monday, March 22nd.) 

Zibby interviewed literary legend Joyce Carol Oates as part of Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center's 'Women on the Move' series. Their recorded conversation, released here as a podcast, touches on Oates's two newest releases, American Melancholy and The (Other) You, as well as how she has approached writing during the pandemic.

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"The cry of my own soul to be seen became so great that the risk of not saying who I was, was much greater than the risk of saying who I was." Co-founder of Melissa & Doug, Melissa Bernstein, joins Zibby for a heartfelt and thought-provoking conversation about coming forward with her lifelong experience with existential depression and how it has inspired creativity throughout her life. Her book, LifeLines, opens a door for others who may be going through the darkness as well and offers resources and a friendly hand to help them come into the light.

 

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"It's life-affirming in that you know that someday you will no longer be here, yet all of these people that are carrying some of your DNA will just be boogying down the road." Anna Quindlen talks to Zibby about all of the things grandmothers have time to do and celebrates the parts of grandmotherhood that often go unspoken.

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"The universe is gifting us all the time if only we opened our eyes to receive it." Anita Moorjani talks to Zibby about the differences between being a highly sensitive person and an empath, how individuals become "doormats" in other's lives, and the ways in which we can all change our mindsets to fulfill our souls.

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"It was always bizarre to me that there wasn't another big collection of humor writing by women, especially because the community's only exploded even more. All I do all day is meet brilliant women." Amy Solomon, Lennon Parham, and actress Lake Bell all join Zibby to talk about compiling work from 150 of the funniest women in comedy, leveling with their kids like adults would, and the different ways we can find and make communities during the on-going pandemic (hint: this book is a start).

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Sarah Langan reignites Zibby's inner psychology major as the two discuss the social experiments that inspired Sarah's new book Good Neighbors, why she wanted to create a sympathetic narcissist as her main character, and how we can all better understand troublesome people.

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"The truth is that the details of your story are your superpower." Zibby meets fellow anthology editor Jennifer Rudolph Walsh to talk about the connections we make through the most painful parts of our narratives, and what it means to go from a human doing to a human being.

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