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Boston Globe
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Publisher and podcaster Zibby Owens will help you decide what to read this summer
Owens also runs an eponymous publishing company; owns Zibby's Book Shop in Santa Monica, Calif.; and hosts literary salons and retreats around the country, including around Boston. She's also a writer and editor herself ('On Being Jewish Now,' an anthology featuring Jewish writers reflecting on identity; 'Bookends,' a memoir centering around the death of her best friend on Sept. 11). Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up She's been candid about her connectedness — Owens grew up in Manhattan; her dad is businessman Stephen Schwarzman, CEO of the Blackstone Group — but she's also really vulnerable about the universal struggles that level us, from divorce with four little kids to self-image issues to identity crises, and she amplifies a variety of voices on her platforms. We chatted about rejection, self-discovery, and summer reads. Advertisement Sign up for Parenting Unfiltered. Globe staff #mc_embed_signup{background:#fff; clear:left; font:14px Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; } /* Add your own Mailchimp form style overrides in your site stylesheet or in this style block. We recommend moving this block and the preceding CSS link to the HEAD of your HTML file. */ Subscribe * indicates required E-mail * You went to business school at Harvard. What took you down this road? Books have been the throughline of my own story forever. I fell in love with reading with 'Charlotte's Web.' I started to cry and was forever hooked on reading as the way to think and feel and cry and laugh. You probably know this from your sons, and I know from my kids: You can develop a love of reading, but some people are just born readers. I was just one of those born book lovers. I had my first miniature book published when I was 9 by my grandparents. One of the essays was 'Finders Keepers, Losers Weepers,' about a set of twins in a haunted house. Another was how the doughnut got its hole in the style of Rudyard Kipling. They did a limited print run of 20 books and gave it to me on my 10th birthday. I thought that was the coolest thing ever. I eagerly handed out my books to my teacher and all these people I cared about. I had an essay published in Seventeen magazine that I wrote when I was 14 about how I felt in the wake of my parents' divorce and how I had gained a bunch of weight over the course of one year. I interned at Vanity Fair, and I realized after a day that there was no path from editorial to quickly becoming an author. I realized professionally that there was no easy path to being an author. Advertisement I went to business school, and two weeks after I got there, my best friend died on 9/11. She had been my college roommate, and it changed my point of view on basically everything. I realized that 'life is short' is not just something people say. Literally, she was here one minute; gone the next. I was unpacking all her clothes and [thought], I might as well do the things that I want to do in life before it's too late. After business school, I took a year off to freelance full time and write a book full time, a fictionalized version of what happened with her and me. I got an agent. It ended up not selling. My dreams of being the youngest published author in the world had faded by then. It wasn't until I got divorced — fast forward, I'd ended up having four kids — I suddenly had all this time, every other weekend. I started writing a bunch of essays. The essays led me to want to try to publish a book again, because I honestly was so humiliated by my other book not selling that I didn't try to write fiction for over a decade. You know, I write about families, parenting, and how hard it is to find community. It's very easy to feel like we're out there alone, doom-scrolling at 11 o'clock before we fall asleep. Using books, you've been a conduit for creating community with 'Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books,' which I know is now 'Totally Booked.' What do you hope that people get from these podcasts? Moms like me were so busy. We'd talk about books, but a lot of people didn't have time to read them. We didn't want to feel like we were totally missing out. I used to rip magazine articles out and share them with friends before Facebook. Advertisement I wanted to give women like me a free pass. You can be a non-reading reader and still maintain that piece of your identity. I feel like so much identity can be stripped away when you're a parent, especially with young kids. By interviewing the people who wrote the books, I felt like I was at least giving people a way to stay in touch with that piece of themselves. It was with a sense of humor, a wink, and a nod. Obviously, it was not going to be The New Yorker podcast. It was supposed to be the way you would talk to a friend, which is sort of how I do most things in life, whether it's a social media post or the tone of an anthology I'm curating, or my own memoir. It's authentic and close. I feel like people who are attracted to that end up being similar in some ways: They're nice people who want to connect and want to laugh at the craziness of life. Part of the name change is: My kids are a little older now, I don't feel like I'm that frantic young mom that I was, and so many people were deterred from listening because of the 'moms' label. I didn't want that to happen anymore, especially because I don't talk about parenting books, per se. Zibby Owens. James Higgins ©2025 What's the author criteria for your podcast? Most of the books are contemporary fiction, memoir, or nonfiction designed to help me see the world or myself a little more clearly. I don't do science fiction. I want to read books that help me live my life better. Advertisement In this cultural moment, which is fraught in so many different ways, what's your sense of who's buying and consuming books right now? This is not exclusively, but older women and young women — people who, I think, are really trying to find their place in the world: young women who are coming of age; out with their friends and not quite settled, and then women who maybe are empty nesters and feel a little bit unsettled — those life stages when you have a little bit more time and more willingness to be led. I feel like those two groups of women read the most and certainly shop the most often. A lot of the men who come into the store are looking for information on something like education or nonfiction. Women are looking more for escape and connection. As a writer, it's tough not to be hard on yourself. I remember hosting an event in Boston with famous authors and thinking, 'They're so much younger or more successful than me!' How do you put that in perspective, when you're interviewing people who are wildly successful authors? That's such a fun question. When I was writing, before 'Bookends,' I just kept pitching, and I would get a rejection and close out of email and sit down with another author who was a mega-bestseller with tears still on my eyelashes. I thought: Maybe this is not going to happen for me. I have to live with that. We all get choices about what to do with our limited time here. I started to realize that maybe the value I bring to the world is not in the books that I write. Maybe there are other things that I'm called to do. I try to justify it that way. If I were only writing full-time books, I would get more done. But I'm not only writing full-time books. I'm doing a million things that I also love, and so are you. Everything is a tradeoff. Advertisement This is just the way I was made. I'm not made to be a novelist, only sitting at my desk in a fictitious world all day. I love doing that, but I can't do that exclusively. What are you reading? I'm doing a series of live shows right now, so I'm prepping for all of those. I'm finishing Jeanine Cummins's book 'Speak to Me of Home' [about three generations of women connected by their Puerto Rican heritage]. And also 'Greenwich' by Kate Broad, which is quite delicious, although I have to say: I'm probably 70 pages in and I'm like, 'Who dies? Somebody is supposed to die! Who is it going to be? We still don't know!' I'm also prepping [to feature] 'What My Father and I Don't Talk About,' the anthology from Michele Filgate [about the complexity of the writers' relationships with their fathers]. I know you don't talk exclusively to moms, but we're a big part of your audience. How do you hope people feel after listening to your podcast or going into your bookstore? I hope that I help them navigate the world a little more easily and with a sense of humor. They're not alone in anything they're going through, no matter how isolated they might feel. All they have to do is open the next book, and they realize that. Anytime they feel that sense of loneliness or isolation or overwhelm or 'less than,' they can read and immediately feel better, or they can listen to a podcast and glean something about the human experience that maybe they would have missed. Interview was edited for clarity. Kara Baskin can be reached at
Yahoo
11-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Bestselling Author Zibby Owens Hosts 'On Being Jewish Now: Live' at the Museum of Tolerance
In the aftermath of the October 7 Hamas attacks and global surge in antisemitism, bestselling author and award-winning podcaster Zibby Owens felt compelled to do something in the face of so much Jewish hate. She soon formed an idea for an anthology, which resulted in the 2024 publication 'On Being Jewish Now" in which 75 contributors reflected on their Jewish identity in modern times. Profits from the book are donated to Artists Against Antisemitism, a nonprofit Owens helped start that combats hatred through creative expression. Inspired to continue the conversation sparked by the book, Owens is hosting 'On Being Jewish Now: Live' ($25-$95) on March 23 at the Museum of Tolerance. The in-person event is designed to provide a platform for deepening connections, sharing stories and exploring what it means—and how it feels—to be Jewish hopes attendees will experience 'a sense of purpose to do whatever is in their power—whether it's speaking out on their own platforms, sharing information with friends and family—and feel that sense of empowerment that comes with being a part of a community.' 'I want them to have hope," says Owens. "I want them to leave feeling like there are next steps in the works for combatting some of these things that can feel really isolating.' The event is open to anyone regardless of religious beliefs and kicks off with three engaging panels exploring different facets of contemporary Jewish identity: You Have to Laugh, which examines the role of Jewish humor mixed with tragedy; Let Me Entertain You, which focuses on how the entertainment industry plays a role in Jewish thought and attitudes; and Hope Floats, on the importance of finding hope amid challenging times. Panels will be followed by a book signing and cocktail reception. "This comes at a pivotal moment as the Jewish community navigates profound questions about identity, faith, and belonging," says Owens. "Our goal is to create a space for honest conversation, connection, community building, and even laughter." Participants from the 'On Being Jewish Now' anthology include Rabbi Sharon Brous, Amy Ephron, Anna Ephron Harari, David K. Israel, Rabbi Steve Leder, Beth Ricanati, Elizabeth L. Silver and Abby Stern, along with screenwriters Jeff Astrof and Liz Astrof, influencer Jamie Denbo, community leader Rabbi Sherre Hirsch, producer/director of the documentary 'October 8' Wendy Sachs and Los Angeles magazine contributor and Pasadena magazine Editor-in-Chief Malina and event info can be found here. Get Your Daily Dose! Sign up for The Daily Brief to receive Los Angeles Magazine's latest stories directly in your inbox. Subscribe below or by clicking here.
