Bookends: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Literature

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)