a passport full of new york city restos

plus, a Q&A with Zibby Owens, author of BLANK and founder of Zibby Media

hi, friends! WHAT A WEEK it’s been…I’ve been furiously playing catchup today as I tidied up the hurricane that had become my apartment after using it as nothing more than a pit stop as of late. looking back, I think I’ve only had two meals at home since I was in your inbox last sunday? that is certainly NOT a recipe for my body to be feeling its best, but I dug deep into saying “yes!” to the fun that both work and personal ventures brought this week. zero regrets, just a notable lack of sleep and an absolutely desperate need for a vegetable.

for a sense of what I’ve been up to, my monday day in the life vlog (cue: cringe era, in full effect) should paint a fairly clear picture. for my fellow hotel lovers, hospitality highlights this week included a treatment at the spa at Aman New York, an in-suite tea party at the brand new Warren Street Hotel (my colleague and friend Barrett’s reel encapsulates it so perfectly!), and a chill friday catchup with my friend Stephanie at The Mercer. on the foodie front, despite not stepping foot out of the city, in the past seven days I’ve traveled the world through New York’s restaurant scene. I’ve sipped on espresso at a Swiss spot (Lavaux) with industry friends, done first-date cocktails at The Up & Up, had fig-filled croissants and cortados at an Italian-deli-meets-café (Sogno Toscano) with my friends Jenna and Sawyer, shared a warm chocolate chip cookie as an anecdote to the chaos of TikTok darling café-meet-bookshop, Bibliotheque, with my friend Kayla Kleinman, and savored my favorite almond bun from a Swedish cafe (Fabrique) in the neighborhood. I’ve dined on Japanese (Ivan Ramen), Ukrainian (Veselka), Peruvian (Chirp), Cantonese (Dim Sum Go Go), Italian (Malaparte), Mexican (La Esquina), and American (Left Bank and Joseph Leonard) cuisine with work and friends and work friends alike. basically, it was my dream week in terms of soaking up the melting pot that is this city and an absolute disaster for my health. luckily, I’m focused on the former!

last night, after West Village Book Club was held over dim sum followed by karaoke at Up Stairs, we capped the night off at Le Dive, a French bar in Chinatown. to continue the world tour, our final drink of the evening was spent chatting with a German, Nigerian, and Sudanese model (sorry, but I thought the model part was worth mentioning strictly for visualization purposes??) about our book club pick, GOOD MATERIAL by Dolly Alderton. it was so fun to hear these guys’ perspectives as we chatted about how she brilliantly wrote the aftermath of a breakup from the male perspective before flipping to narration by the woman who dumped him for just the last bit. this book has been so widely beloved by so many subscribers of the sunday series—and not to mention, edited by previous guest, Jenny Jackson—that it’s no surprise that it delivered in a BIG way. but on the off chance you haven’t already been influenced by the internet to give this book a read, I hope now you are on your way to purchase it at your local bookstore. and if you too are going to Dolly’s sold out New York show this saturday, my friend Sarah and I will see you there! xKD

---

meet Zibby Owens

it’s nearly impossible to be immersed in the book world and not know the formidable Zibby Owens! her impressive bio could never be summarized in a simple paragraph, but on a high level, she’s the creator and host of the award-winning daily podcast Moms Don’t Have Time to Read Books, co-founder and CEO of publishing house Zibby Books, owner of Zibby’s Bookshop, an independent bookstore in Santa Monica, CA, and creator of “the Zibby-verse” (L.A. Times) community of book lovers for which she offers retreats, classes, special events, a book club, a writing group, and more under the Zibby Media umbrella. but most excitingly, Zibby’s foray into fiction, BLANK, hits shelves this week.

Kayla Douglas: Zibby, tell us a bit about your background and the path that led you to becoming a writer, podcaster, publisher, and bookstore owner.

Zibby Owens: I’m first and foremost a book lover. I’ve been reading and writing forever, with my first article appearing in Seventeen magazine, which I wrote when I was 14! I interned at Vanity Fair after my freshman year in college when my goal was to “be a writer.” I quickly realized that summer that there WAS no path to becoming a writer, so I decided to expand and pursue other interests. I ended up in marketing because I loved analyzing consumers’ relationships with brands, and I went to business school. During business school, my best friend died on 9/11, and it changed everything. I decided to take time off after graduating to write a book. Which I did. I even got an agent. But it didn’t sell.

I ghostwrote a book and then had my kids. I stayed home with four kids for 11 years, writing a bit on the side. But it wasn’t until I got divorced and suddenly had some free time that I went BACK into reading and writing. I started writing essays about parenting, one of which went somewhat viral on HuffPost. The man I was dating at the time, who became my husband, suggested I take all my essays and turn them into a book. I rolled my eyes and said, “Moms don’t have time to read books! So funny. That’s what I’ll name then book.” Well, publishers didn’t find that funny, so I took the name and slapped it on a podcast, something a writer friend, Sarah Mlynowski, (see photo below) suggested I do to “build my non-existent” platform. So I did! And since then, one thing has led to another. 

KD: What were the seeds of inspiration behind your latest, BLANK, which hits stands on March 1st?

ZO: My husband AND my son take credit for this, but one of them suggested I just write a blank book and I thought that would be a genius idea for a novel. I worked with my memoir editor, Carmen Johnson, at Little A, and we refined the idea; she bought it, and then I wrote it. 

KD: Your protagonist, Pippa Jones, finds herself in a pickle in the literary world. What were some of the aspects of Pippa's story you felt most called to tell?

ZO: I really wanted to explore the idea that SO MANY books that are absolutely fantastic get lost in the shuffle. They aren’t discovered. They don’t reach a wide audience. And they’re SO good. Meanwhile, some of the bestsellers aren’t the best books I’ve ever read. The system seemed unfair. I wanted to show readers that they’re being fed which books to read and that they should be more mindful of that when selecting what to read. 

KD: Your podcast, Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books, is proof that you—a mom of four—has made time! Who have been some of your favorite guests? Dream future guest?

ZO: My favorite guest was probably John Irving because: JOHN IRVING. Wow. When he entered the waiting room on Zoom and it said “John Irving is in the waiting room,” I just put my head in my hands. Unreal! My dream guest? Gosh, I used to have a whole long list and now I need to think about that. Well, it’s too late, but I would’ve loved to have Nora Ephron and Erma Bombeck on.

KD: Your publishing company, Zibby Books, was built to help authors have a different kind of publishing experience. What types of stories are you seeking?

ZO: We look for contemporary fiction and memoirs with a strong sense of voice and place, propulsive narratives, and beautiful writing. We also look for authors who are nice people and who would mesh well in our community of authors!

KD: Tell us about the most recent work of fiction that left you with a book hangover.

ZO: Oh, this just happened. I loved The Good Part by Sophie Cousens. Couldn’t stop thinking about it. 

KD: What book on your TBR are you most excited to pick up?

ZO: The Rom-Commers by Katherine Center. I’m in the mood.

KD: The Sunday Series was conceptualized as a love letter to my favorite day of the week. If we were with you in New York on Sunday, where would you take us to spend the afternoon?

Most Sunday afternoons I’m at home with my kids and my husband, football on, some music blaring, a bolognese simmering on the stove, art projects on the dining room table, laptop on my knees, and someone is reading — maybe even most of us. 

ZO: Where can readers preorder BLANK?

ZO: They can pre-order a signed copy from Zibby’s Bookshop on zibbymedia.com or by popping into the store. They can download the Kindle version for free for the month of February (it’s an Amazon First Reads pick!). I would love for people to leave a review when they’ve read it. It matters so much! And please follow me on Instagram @zibbyowens and on my Substack, Zibby Owens which is embedded below to subscribe!