Totally Booked with Zibby

This heart-breaking yet inspirational story by Jason Rosenthal is an ode to his deceased wife, Amy Krouse Rosenthal. Amy wrote a “Modern Love” piece in the New York Times as she was dying called, “You May Want to Marry My Husband.” His memoir, My Wife Said You May Want To Marry Me, was based on his answer to her article, also in the “Modern Love” column. Jason spoke to Zibby about everything from falling in love to putting himself back together after the worst came true.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Janine Reid can’t stop kicking her perfectionist self for trusting the first doctor who dismissed her son’s symptoms. Years later, after her son declined and treatment was no longer an option, Janine looks back at how this struggle upended her plans and taught her what’s really important about life. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It’s every parent’s worst nightmare. Losing a child. Jayson Greene lived through it and even wrote about it in this powerful account of his daughter’s injury and subsequent death due to an errant brick that flew off an Upper West Side building. This inspirational, gutting story and conversation will make you rethink what you thought you knew about everything from organ donation to conquering tragedy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Chef Lisa Baker Morgan writes about the terrifying illness that landed her in a French hospital, separated from her two daughters (but with a very dashing paramour) in her beautiful memoir, PARIS PART-TIME. With an inside look at the Parisian real estate market -- and food markets -- this book will instantly transport you to another time and place. Lisa shares all with Zibby as they laugh about the craziness of dating -- with kids! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 characters have a real appetite for food, adventure, and love.   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 for parents trying to intellectually make sense of what's going on with their middle schoolers. It’s also about the memories from adolescence that adults carry with them and how that translates into their own parenting.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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

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 know who her protagonist is based on - or even thought “Fleishman” was supposed to be them! I loved Taffy's insights about the role of Judaism in her book, what makes a good interview, and where she wrote this novel. (Hint: it involves a couch in the bathroom at Nordstroms.) I truly loved connecting with Taffy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 the science of attachment. The science is fascinating but I really loved that this was a coming-of-age story about motherhood that explored her own upbringing to who she became as a parent. We talked about expectations about what motherhood "should" feel like, Bethany's Buddhist practice, growing up in a 1970's household of "benign parental neglect," and unpacking the heavy things she was carrying from her childhood in order to be the parent she envisioned for her daughter. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 congressional committee in 2007 about why kids' math scores are far behind those in other countries, and how we should really start in middle school targeting kids for math. Now she has written ten different math books (all of which have terrific titles). She's a total star and her passion has helped so many kids and families get through the stress of learning math together. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.