Totally Booked with Zibby

James Beard Award-winning writer and food journalist Tarajia Morrell speaks with Zibby Owens about her beautifully written new book, Desire Feeds the Feast: A Memoir, a coming-of-age story about food, family, loss, love, and finding your way, published by Zibby Publishing. It’s also Zibby’s December Book Club pick! Returning as a single mother to the apartment where she grew up, Tarajia began writing to make sense of life's unexpected twists. As she shares, happiness can look very different from what we once imagined.

Born into one of New York's most celebrated wine families, Tarajia grew up where food was a love language and every meal told a story. In this conversation, she reflects on growing up on Manhattan's Upper East Side, searching for belonging, and finding herself through food, travel, grief, and unexpected detours. Along the way, she shares how food became both a language and a throughline, connecting her family history, travels, and deepest memories.

Learn more about Tarajia Morrell here and follow her on Instagram @tarajiamorrell. You can purchase Desire Feeds the Feast here and register for the virtual book club meeting here.

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A story for the messy middle. Zibby's essay collection Between Chapters is out now!

Love to listen? She narrated the audiobook.

Listen on Spotify here.

Listen on Apple here.

Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

Psychotherapist, writer, and co-author of the New York Times bestseller The Tools, Barry Michels joins Zibby Owens to discuss his powerful new memoir, Ahead of All Parting: On Learning to Live with an Open Heart. After being diagnosed with Lewy body dementia, a disease that also affected his father, Barry found himself facing profound questions about mortality, identity, and connection.

Barry shares how his diagnosis unexpectedly opened him up to deeper friendships, greater vulnerability, and a surge of creative energy that inspired hundreds of poems. He also reflects on the difficult family experiences that shaped him, the practical tools that helped him navigate fear and grief, and the role music continues to play in his life.

Along the way, Barry offers advice for writers, discusses the importance of community, and shares what it means to live fully in the face of uncertainty.

Learn more about Barry Michels and his work here, and follow him on Substack. You can purchase Ahead of All Parting: On Learning to Live with an Open Heart here.

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A story for the messy middle. Zibby's essay collection Between Chapters is out now!

Love to listen? She narrated the audiobook.

Listen on Spotify here.

Listen on Apple here.

Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

Writer and producer Blake J. Harris spoke to Zibby Owens about his latest book Emperor of Nothing: The Making of Larry David, an inside look at the real man behind the comedy empire that includes TV hits Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm. Blake shares how he convinced Larry to participate in the book (spoiler: it involved the Yankees).

Blake recounts how Larry David pulled many bits from his own life for his career, from a real-life Kramer neighbor to his eventual catchphrase on Curb. Despite what his character may be like on the show (and some say the real-life counterpart is similar), Blake reports that Larry David is a loving, happy man and devoted father.

Blake J. Harris is also the writer of Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle that Defined a Generation. Learn more about him and his work here and follow Blake on Instagram @blakeharrisnyc. You can purchase Emperor of Nothing: The Making of Larry David here.

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A story for the messy middle. Zibby's essay collection Between Chapters is out now!

Love to listen? She narrated the audiobook.

Listen on Spotify here.

Listen on Apple here.

Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Good Neighbors Sarah Langan joins Zibby Owens in person to chat about her new book Trad Wife, which takes readers on a scary ride with a cancelled journalist out to save her reputation by interviewing a “trad wife.”

Sarah discusses the online phenomenon around the “trad wife” trend, the research she did for the book, and the ways social media distorts what information we may see. She also touches upon the isolation and lack of agency women can face, especially related to femininity.

Sarah shares the books she’s been reading lately and the next project she’s already working on.

Learn more about Sarah Langan and her books here and follow her on Instagram @sarahlangan. You can purchase Trad Wife here.

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A story for the messy middle. Zibby's essay collection Between Chapters is out now!

Love to listen? She narrated the audiobook.

Listen on Spotify here.

Listen on Apple here.

Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

James Beard Award-winning chef Alon Shaya talks with Zibby Owens about his new book, Memories of a Good Meal: Recipes of Resilience Inspired by Stories of World War II Survival, which he co-wrote with author June Hersh. The book includes recipes and stories from Holocaust survivors and WWII heroes.

Alon discusses the power of food as a learning tool of history and as a source of identity and safety. He also shares memories of his Safta cooking for him and the encouragement he received from a high school teacher, Donna Barnett, to enter the world of cooking. They later started the Shaya Barnett Foundation together to help other high school students.

Learn more about Alon Shaya, his restaurants, and the Shaya Barnett Foundation here and follow him on Instagram at @alonshaya. You can purchase Memories of A Good Meal here.

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A story for the messy middle. Zibby's essay collection Between Chapters is out now!

Love to listen? She narrated the audiobook.

Listen on Spotify here.

Listen on Apple here.

Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

Former Christian pop star turned activist Julianna Glasse speaks with Zibby Owens about her new book This is What Happens When Women Read. Her memoir shares the same name as her global foundation which supports women’s autonomy through education, curriculum, and community.

Julianna shares what happened when she started reading. She liberated herself, leading to the end of a marriage, a dark period of shame including suicidal ideation, and a new period of play and discovery, and ultimately finding the hero in herself.

She also discusses the work of her foundation and how the greatest change someone can make is changing possibilities for others.

Learn more about Julianna Glasse here and follow her on Instagram at @juliannaglasse. Visit her foundation’s website here. You can purchase This is What Happens When Women Read here.

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A story for the messy middle. Zibby's essay collection Between Chapters is out now!

Love to listen? She narrated the audiobook.

Listen on Spotify here.

Listen on Apple here.

Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

New York Times bestselling author Mary Beth Keane talks with Zibby Owens about her new book, this month’s GMA Book Club pick Whale Harbor, an epic, multigenerational story about 11 brothers in Ireland in 1963 who become scattered after their mother’s death. The author of Ask Again, Yes shares how her new book focuses on “love and forgiveness” and especially “forgiveness of one’s self.”

Mary Beth explains how the story is based on two events from her own family: the death of her father’s mother and the disappearance of one of her father’s brothers. She touches upon how Whale Harbor is just one take on the family’s story and how there can be multiple versions of the same event, just as people show grief in different ways.

In addition to chatting about the critically-acclaimed new story, Mary Beth also talks about “feeling like an alien” as a student at Barnard College and her time teaching the next generation of writers at her alma mater.

Learn more about Mary Beth Keane here and follow her on Instagram at @marybethkeane. You can purchase Whale Harbor here.

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A story for the messy middle. Zibby's essay collection Between Chapters is out now!

Love to listen? She narrated the audiobook.

Listen on Spotify here.

Listen on Apple here.

Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

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A story for the messy middle. Zibby's essay collection Between Chapters is out now!

Love to listen? She narrated the audiobook.

Listen on Spotify here.

Listen on Apple here.

Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

Wall Street Journal journalist Meghan Cox Gurdon talked to Zibby Owens about her new book Free Range Girl: A Memoir which focuses on the year that twelve-year-old Meghan spent with her father in rural Maine in 1976.

Meghan shares how her life shifted from conventional (with her mother) to highly unconventional on a homestead with her father and how memoir writing helped her make sense of her life and unearth memories.

She and Zibby also talked extensively about the role of books. Meghan went from being a "greedy reader" as a kid to reading aloud to her five children and eventually covering children’s books.

Learn more about Meghan Cox Gurdon here. Follow her on Instagram here. You can purchase Free Range Girl: A Memoir here.

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A story for the messy middle. Zibby's essay collection Between Chapters is out now!

Love to listen? She narrated the audiobook.

Listen on Spotify here.

Listen on Apple here.

Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jessica Radloff joins Zibby Owens to chat about her new book Young Sheldon: The (Juicier-Than-Meemaw's-Brisket) Inside Story of the Hit Comedy which gives readers an inside look at the hit comedy and spotlights interviews with the cast and crew.

In addition to discussing Young Sheldon, Jessica talks about the surprises her own career has brought and how she started writing about The Big Bang Theory and Young Sheldon. She discusses being a late bloomer, feeling shy growing up, and navigating new stages in life and work.

Follow Jessica Radloff on Instagram and Substack. Purchase Young Sheldon: The (Juicier-Than-Meemaw's-Brisket) Inside Story of the Hit Comedy here.

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A story for the messy middle. Zibby's essay collection Between Chapters is out now!

Love to listen? She narrated the audiobook.

Listen on Spotify here.

Listen on Apple here.

Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

Actress Jane Leeves talks with Zibby Owens about her new book Daphne & Me: My Life on Frasier (And a Bit More) which gives a glimpse behind the scenes of her time on the hit show. Jane wrote Daphne & Me with her daughter Isabella Kathryn Coben, who also wrote the foreword.

Jane shares memories from her eleven seasons of portraying Daphne on Frasier and how having nothing to fall back on helped her varied, successful career in show business. She also touches upon the tragic loss felt by the show’s cast and crew on 9/11 and how the connection on set helped them grieve.

Follow Jane Leeves on Instagram @officialjaneleeves and IMDB. Purchase the book here.

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A story for the messy middle. Zibby's essay collection Between Chapters is out now!

Love to listen? She narrated the audiobook.

Listen on Spotify here.

Listen on Apple here.

Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

New York Times bestselling author of The Invisible Kingdom Meghan O’Rourke sits down with Zibby Owens to talk about her new, slim, poetry anthology The Story of the Body, a collection of 82 poems about illness, pain, and recovery.

Meghan talks about her own experience of falling ill in her early twenties and navigating the onset of symptoms that eventually led to a diagnosis a decade later. She also discusses the process of compiling the anthology with her students at Yale and the magic and power of poetry as a way to make sense of the world.

Learn more about Meghan O’Rourke here and follow her on Instagram @meghanor. The Story of the Body can be purchased here.

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A story for the messy middle. Zibby's essay collection Between Chapters is out now!

Love to listen? She narrated the audiobook.

Listen on Spotify here.

Listen on Apple here.

Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

Israeli novelist and contributor to On Being Jewish Now Noa Yedlin speaks with Zibby Owens about her novel House Arrest, a story about a Jerusalem family and the scandal that leads to their downfall.

Noa discusses how she first approached writing the book and how it is not just an Israeli story but also a family one, focusing on the relationship between parent and child: a relationship everyone can relate to in one way or another. She also talks about her journey as a writer and her perspective on life in Tel Aviv versus Jerusalem.

Learn more about Noa Yedlin here and follow her on Instagram @noayedlin. Purchase House Arrest here.

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A story for the messy middle. Zibby's essay collection Between Chapters is out now!

Love to listen? She narrated the audiobook.

Listen on Spotify here.

Listen on Apple here.

Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

Co-authors Christine Pride and Jo Piazza join Zibby Owens to discuss their new book I Never Knew You At All, the story of Simone and the investigation into her husband’s grandfather that exposes secrets, traumas, and moral dilemmas around her interracial marriage.

Christine and Jo talk about the secrets we keep from not only others but from ourselves, how family can serve as a mirror for self-realization, and the throughline of friendship in their stories.

They also share their exploration of ‘what if’ in this story, writing about dementia, and why they add gray areas to their characters.

Learn more about Christine Pride here https://www.christinepride.com and Jo Piazza here https://www.jopiazza.com, and follow them both on Instagram @cpride and @jopiazzaauthor.

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A story for the messy middle. Zibby's essay collection Between Chapters is out now!

Love to listen? She narrated the audiobook.

Listen on Spotify here.

Listen on Apple here.

Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this special double episode, Zibby Owens talks to author Kate Hash and podcaster Kara Infante about book clubs, the power of community, and how reading can change lives.

First up, Kate Hash tells Zibby about her new book The Mother-In-Law Book Club, a story of friendship, unexpected chances, and found family. Kate talks about exploring empathy in this book, how she collects real stories to use in her novels, and the way homes shape both lives and stories. She also shares the power of women getting together for a book club, the reinvention required when starting a new chapter, and what she is working on next.

Then, Zibby talks to Kara Infante about her literary podcast Bookish Flights which features reading recommendations, author interviews, and genre-sorted episodes. Kara shares how she went from physical therapist and military wife to podcaster, the rediscovery of her childhood love of reading, and how audiobooks saved her. She also discusses the steps she took to launch the podcast, the show’s most common and most surprising genres, and her advice to anyone wanting to start something similar.

Learn more about Kate here https://www.kate-hash.com and Kara here https://www.bookishflights.com/about, and follow both on Instagram @katehashwrites and @bookishflights.

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A story for the messy middle. Zibby's essay collection Between Chapters is out now!

Love to listen? She narrated the audiobook.

Listen on Spotify here.

Listen on Apple here.

Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

Bonnie Garmus joins Zibby Owens to talk about her new novel Peck & Peck, the story of recent graduate Batter Gray who struggles with what to do with his arts degree after college, only to find himself at a prestigious poetry quarterly in the midst of a secret war between two editors.

Bonnie discusses why poetry continues to evade extinction, the themes of theft and dishonesty explored in this book, the plagiarism of AI in writing, the importance of reading, and why she doesn't outline her stories.

She also talks about dealing with the weight of expectation after the phenomenal success of Lessons in Chemistry, the question of ownership in literature, her dream to complete an Arctic swim, and how she accepts “killing her darlings” during rewrites.

Learn more about Bonnie here https://www.bonniegarmus.com and follow her on Instagram @bonnie_garmus_author.

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A story for the messy middle. Zibby's essay collection Between Chapters is out now!

Love to listen? She narrated the audiobook.

Listen on Spotify here.

Listen on Apple here.

Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

Julie Orringer sits down with Zibby Owens to discuss her new novel Luna, Phoenix, Queen, a multiple narrative story about a husband who steals his wife’s novel while she suffers from early-onset Alzheimer’s and the people in the orbit of this betrayal.

Julie talks about the reason for showing readers a sympathetic version of a character before revealing their moral faults, how writing fiction has given her the control that real life often denies, and the positivity her husband brings in light of his own early-onset Alzheimer’s diagnosis.

She also shares how the seed of this book started as a short story that didn’t make it into the final novel, her transition from playwright and short story writer to novelist, and the importance of a writing practice for aspiring writers.

Learn more about Julie here https://julieorringer.com and follow her on Instagram @jorringer.

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A story for the messy middle. Zibby's essay collection Between Chapters is out now!

Love to listen? She narrated the audiobook.

Listen on Spotify here.

Listen on Apple here.

Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

Maria Shriver and Zibby Owens speak in-person at Zibby’s Bookshop about their life and work inspired by Zibby’s new book Between Chapters and Maria’s poetry collection I Am Maria.

Zibby talks about how starting a podcast was a turning point in her life, the fear of unfulfilled dreams at any age, the shame surrounding changing your identity, and her hope that this book helps start the conversation for people going through similar struggles.

Maria shares her post-First Lady identity struggles, her commitment to her friends and family, and how faith gets her through.

Learn more about Maria Shriver here https://mariashriver.com and follow Maria and Zibby on Instagram @mariashriver and @zibbyowens.

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A story for the messy middle. Zibby's essay collection Between Chapters is out now!

Love to listen? She narrated the audiobook.

Listen on Spotify here.

Listen on Apple here.

Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

Endocrinologist and longevity expert Dr. Florence Comite joins Zibby Owens to discuss Invincible, her new book that dives deep into genetics, aging, longevity, and reclaiming your health.

Dr. Florence Comite talks about how having an identical twin made her realize that genetics wasn’t the only answer, learning about disease in medical school instead of health, how a person’s life tells the story of how their genes will react, and the importance of health security over even financial security.

She also shares the experience of testing a GLP-1 on herself twenty years ago, how food noise is actually a survival technique, the importance of quality sleep, why protein is vital before any meal, and the magic of books.

Learn more about Dr. Florence Comite here https://florencecomite.com and follow her on Instagram @drflorencecomite.

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A story for the messy middle. Zibby's essay collection Between Chapters is out now!

Love to listen? She narrated the audiobook.

Listen on Spotify here.

Listen on Apple here.

Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

Audrey Niffenegger sits down with Zibby Owens to talk about her new novel Life Out of Order, a follow-up to her bestselling book The Time Traveler’s Wife.

Audrey discusses how she ended up returning to this story years later, her artistic childhood, the themes of loss and love in her work, and the novel’s exploration of people trying to teach each other.

She also shares the biological mechanism to her characters’ time traveling, writing’s attempt to create a tunnel between the mind of the author and reader, and how composition is largely deciding what to leave in versus what to leave out.

Learn more about Audrey here https://www.audreyniffenegger.com and follow her on Instagram @aaniffenegger.

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A story for the messy middle. Zibby's essay collection Between Chapters is out now!

Love to listen? She narrated the audiobook.

Listen on Spotify here.

Listen on Apple here.

Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information.