Bookends : a memoir of love, loss, and literature / Zibby Owens.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

A deeply personal memoir about one woman's journey to finding her voice and rewriting her story by the creator and host of the award-winning podcast Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books (tm).

Zibby Owens has become a well-known personality in the publishing world. Her infectious energy, tasteful authenticity, and smart, steadfast support of authors started in childhood, a precedent set by the profound effect books and libraries had on her own family.

But after losing her closest friend on 9/11 and later becoming utterly stressed out and overwhelmed by motherhood, Zibby was forgetting what made her her . She turned to books and writing for help.

Just when things seemed particularly bleak, Zibby unexpectedly fell in love with a tennis pro turned movie producer who showed her the path to happiness: away from type-A perfectionism and toward letting things unfold organically. What unfolded was a meaningful career, a great love, and finally, her voice, now heard by millions of listeners.

An honest and moving story about relationships, love, food issues, the writing life, and finding one's true calling, Bookends will inspire and uplift.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

A well-known figure in the publishing world, "book-fluencer" and podcaster Owens is full of personality and authenticity and is incredibly smart. Influenced by authors, books, and libraries at a young age, Owens traces her life through books she reads. Losing her best friend on 9/11, though, made her stop and take stock of her life. She turned to books and writing to help her cope. This led to her meeting the love of her life, a tennis star and movie producer. Ultimately, Owens finds herself and a balance between work and life. This gut-wrenching yet beautiful memoir, narrated by the author herself, gives listeners a look into the life of a well-known personality. What makes this audiobook stand out is that as Owens reads, she shows genuine emotion at the many losses, and triumphs, in her life. She showcases the importance that books have on lives, how they can entertain but also heal. VERDICT Though much of this book focuses on grief, Owens provides moments of levity and wit, often poking fun at her own Type-A personality traits. This memoir is a must-listen for any lover of literature.--Elyssa Everling

Publishers Weekly Review

Owens (Princess Charming), host of the podcast Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books and cofounder of Zibby Books, chronicles her path from shy, bookish child to busy mom and media company CEO in this zippy debut. "People always ask me how I do it," Owens writes. "Luckily, I'm fast. I do everything at superspeed, even typing." At a similarly breakneck pace, she moves through the triumphs and losses of her life while recounting an affinity for literature that led to her "self-discovery, healing, and fortification." Pinning the genesis of her passion to Charlotte's Web, the first book to make her cry, she skips from her adolescence in 1980s Manhattan to her years at Yale to, later, juggling the demands of being the mother of twins with a blossoming writing career ("My demand: let us moms just be moms!"). Along the way, other significant books come to the fore: Susanna Kaysen's Girl, Interrupted appears alongside recollections of dorm life, Lolly Winston's Good Grief serves as a balm after the death of a friend on 9/11, and an interview with James Frey on Owens's podcast helps her deal with the betrayal she felt over Frey's fabrications in his memoir, A Million Little Pieces. Even at its most brisk, Owens's infectious enthusiasm radiates with charm, as do her earnest reflections on motherhood. Bibliophiles will breeze through this. (July)

Booklist Review

Owens, from the Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books podcast and anthology series, writes candidly about the experiences that culminated to help her find her passions in both love and life. In a conversational tone, she regales readers with stories about life on the Upper East Side, her struggles in business school, her many different jobs (including a stint as a Weight Watchers' receptionist), and the growth of her empire around authors and books. She is at her best and most engrossing when writing about three major life events: losing a close friend during the 9/11 attacks, becoming a mother and connecting to her readers about motherhood, and falling in love with her second husband. Missing is the reverential treatment of books that Owens is known for. It peppers the pages and even the titles of each chapter but, alas, appears little in the overall narrative. Still, this is an endearing memoir reflecting on a woman's defining moments in life that will likely resonate with Owens' fans and also readers who enjoy stories about writers with a New York City backdrop.

Kirkus Book Review

A journey through the losses, experiences, and books that have made one woman's life. Owens, creator of the podcast Moms Don't Have Time To Read Books, found solace in books early on in her life, using reading to cope with her social anxiety and her parents' divorce. Later in childhood, she developed a love of writing as well as a desire to help other girls and women feel less alone by sharing her own stories. Owens writes openly about a college friend who was killed on 9/11, the first in a series of tragedies the author endured. In her grief, she turned to writing, reading, and food. She wrote her first book, which, though the idea didn't sell, ignited a passion that would direct the course of her life. She married (details of her first marriage are omitted) and had four children, and the combination of fulfillment and stress that came with being a mother inspired her to start her podcast, which she has since expanded into other ventures. Owens recounts falling in love again after divorce and offers encouragement and advice to mothers and women trying to get it all done. Her insights into dealing with grief are touching, and readers experiencing loss may find solace in her story. Though Owens approaches the immense privilege she has enjoyed all her life with tact and honesty, it may still alienate some readers: "I'd taken town cars in my private life: my parents insisted I take a Skyline credit ride car whenever I went downtown. The subway was strictly prohibited." The author's candid voice is approachable, but she is prone to clichés. Of a moment between her and her husband, she writes, "If it were a comic book drawing, there would be electric sparks flying as we both stopped to look at the impact of his innocent hand on my shoulder." At the end, Owens includes a 10-page list of "all books referenced" in her memoir. The author's genuine voice and sincere storytelling are marred by clunky prose. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.