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Some innermost thoughts plus highlights. (And yes, I got mine done this week.)

So… I wanted this to be a long, heartfelt essay, but instead I spent an hour putting my CVS-printed photos of my family into Michael’s-bought frames so that our new place in Santa Monica feels more homey.

It’s bizarre being in a new neighborhood in L.A. — and not by choice. I mean, second to the Palisades, I’m delighted to be closer to my bookstore and Santa Monica is beautiful. But we didn’t choose to move. The raging wildfire sent us packing like so many others. So now we’re somewhere new until we can get back into our home, like thousands of others.

It’s made me think a lot about what “home” means. I’ve concluded that when my kids are anywhere with me, it feels like home, even a terrible hotel in the Catskills where we have to tiptoe from the bathroom to the bed to avoid touching the dirty, plush carpeting, imprints of our feet sure to stay after we’re under the thin covers. (Yes, I booked it online and did not vet. Lesson learned.)

Without the kids, even my own apartment feels like it doesn’t quite fit. I wander around adrift. I feel like I need to leave. After almost a decade of custody “stuff,” I still feel so sad and empty when I don’t have the kids. And nothing else really fills that void. Even work. Even friends. Even books. Even my wonderful husband who joins me in missing them. It’s like I’m wearing a shield of hurt across my chest even when I’m happy and busy.

And so, I print more photos and surround myself with their likenesses until I can get them back into big hugs. I kiss the phone on FaceTime with them and send pictures of me doing the “I love you” sign. I prop up the phone and talk to them as I go about my day. I know kids aren’t supposed to be everything. But really, who says?

So the long essays get put on pause as I prioritize the things that makes me happiest: doing something to connect me to them… to that full house vibe with loud voices and chaos and stress and too much to do and bedtimes and deadlines and the whole mess. I prefer being near tears because I’m so overwhelmed to being… under-stimulated. Relaxation to me has never been taking time off to do nothing; it’s feeling inspired and creative. Making things. Doing things. Hugging people. Connecting. Doing. Crossing things off the list. Creating. Like doing... this.

I’ll also share some highlights of my work with you now, because I’m so passionate about everything I do. And I’ll get ready for my Zibby Retreat: Santa Barbara… because I’ve been working on this and other stuff the whole drive up here and now have to go.

I hope you enjoy it all. I love doing it.

Zibby Publishing

Latest Zibby Publishing release? Okay, you MUST BUY John Kenney’s I See You’ve Called in Dead. It comes out on Tuesday and is absolutely amazing. Funny. Poignant. Real. Inspiring. Hilarious.

The Office meets Six Feet Under meets About a Boy in this coming-of-middle-age tale about having a second chance to write your life’s story.

Bud Stanley is an obituary writer who is afraid to live. Yes, his wife recently left him for a “far more interesting” man. Yes, he goes on a particularly awful blind date with a woman who brings her ex. And yes, he has too many glasses of Scotch one night and proceeds to pen and publish his own obituary. The newspaper wants to fire him. But now the company’s system has him listed as dead. And the company can’t fire a dead person. The ensuing fallout forces him to realize that life may be actually worth living.

As Bud awaits his fate at work, his life hangs in the balance. Given another shot by his boss and encouraged by his best friend, Tim, a worldly and wise former art dealer who is now confined to a wheelchair, Bud starts to attend the wakes and funerals of strangers to learn how to live.

Thurber Prize-winner and NYTimes bestselling author John Kenney tells a funny, touching story about life and death, about the search for meaning, about finding and never letting go of the preciousness of life.

It’s an Indie Next Pick, meaning indie booksellers have ranked this in the top books for the month across the country — and they know good books!

We’re hosting a special, private event on Thursday, April 3rd at 5:30 pm in New York City and we’re giving away an invitation to a lucky Substacker! Want to join us?! Message me.

Totally Booked with Zibby

For Totally Booked with Zibby, I’m experimenting with posting clips to Instagram and YouTube shorts. Here are the latest clips if you want to watch a few seconds of each episode on YouTube! Thoughts? Do they help?

Watch shorts here.

Books I’ve featured on the podcast for your “TBR” (to be read) pile? Read on.

Sonya Walger, Lion

Nicole Graev Lipson, Mothers and Other Fictional Characters

Jill Santopolo, The Love We Found

Tamron Hall, Harlem Honey

Tamsen Fadal, How to Menopause

Charlotte McConaghey, Wild Dark Shore

Amy Griffin, The Tell

Jenny Fielding, Venture Everywhere

Joshua A. Miele and Wendell Jamieson, Connecting Dots: A Blind Life

Georgia Hunter, One Good Thing

Jennifer Lang, Landed: A Yogi’s Memoir in Poses

Samina Ali, Pieces You’ll Never Get Back

On Being Jewish Now

16 weeks on the USA Today bestseller list, baby!

Here’s the online event I did yesterday with

Annabelle Gurwitch

and Amy E. Schwartz for Moment Magazine. Watch below!

Looking for more

On Being Jewish Now

content? Here’s that latest newsletter with events, updates, past highlights and more.

April Events, March Highlights, and New Essays

Zibby’s Bookshop

I’ve spent the whole week at the store and have been at four events in four days! Go visit if you haven’t already: 1113 Montana Ave, Santa Monica, CA. Tonight, Rebecca Minkoff will be there! Follow us on Instagram.

My Upcoming Events

I really hope you’ll join me. I’ll be all over from Dallas and Montreal to New Jersey and NYC.

3/31 at 11 am CT: Women’s Fundraiser for the Jewish Federation of Greater Dallas (Dallas Palms Venue in Carrollton - Dallas, TX). Zibby Owens x Alana Newhouse. Link here.

4/5 from 10 am - 5 pm ET: On Being Jewish Now Live at the Whitby Hotel (New York, NY) with screening of October 8. Zibby Owens, Nora Zelevansky, Susan Rieger, David Denby, Fran Hauser, Chloe Melas, Lee Yaron, Stephanie Butnick, Shoshanna Gruss, Natalia Petrzela, Vanessa Kroll Bennett, Shirin Yadegar, Wendy Sachs. Link here.

4/8 at 1pm ET: JCC West Orange Book Club (Virtual). Link here.

4/9 at 4pm ET: AllianceBernstein Event (Virtual). Zibby Owens, Jackie Friedland, Corie Adjmi.

4/9 at 7 pm ET: Zibby’s Book Club (virtual) with Jill Santopolo, The Love We Found. Link here.

4/21 at 11:30 am ET: Jennifer Weiner x Zibby Owens at Temple Emanu-el Streicker Center (New York and virtual). Link here.

4/22 at 11:30am: CORE Club (NY, New York). Alexandra Sower, The Ozempic Revolution. Link here.

4/25 - 4/27: Blue Metropolis International Literary Festival (Montreal). Zibby on panels. Link here.

4/28 - 7:30am: Jewish Literary Festival Cape Town Conference (virtual). Link here. Zibby Owens x Rabbi Rebecca Keren Eisenstadt Jablonski.

4/30 at 12pm: Jewish Federation of North American National Women’s Philanthropy (virtual) “Shared Shelf” event. Link to come.

5/05 at 12 pm: Deal Sephardic Network (Deal, NJ). Link to come. Zibby Owens, Stacy Igel, Alix Strauss, Ali Rosen.

5/8 at 10 am - 12 pm ET: CORE Club Mother’s Day Event (New York, NY). Motherhood panel: Nicole Graev Lipson, Carson Meyer, Mary Catherine Starr. Link here.

5/13 at 6 pm ET: Streicker Event (New York, NY + virtual). Zibby x Judy Blume. Link here.

5/20 at 5:30 pm ET: 14th Street Y (New York, NY) with Zibby Owens, David Kaufman, Diana Fersko and Judy Batalion. Link to come.

5/28 at 1 pm ET: Fireside Chat at Google. Link to come.

6/1 at 10 pm ET: Tikkun Leiyl Shavuot, Manhattan JCC (New York, NY) Zibby Owens x Jill Santopolo. Link to come.

6/10 at 11 am ET: CORE Club Father’s Day (New York, NY). Michele Filgate x Kelly McMasters. Link to come.

Bye!

There’s probably more that I forgot but now I’m officially out of time (haha!). Off to my Zibby Retreat: Santa Barbara. I literally checked into the hotel, wandered the halls as we switched rooms, and settled in, laptop open, to finish this. Gotta run.

Thanks for following along, everyone! Bye!