Jennifer Weiner, THAT SUMMER

[2:02]Zibby Owens: Hi. This is Zippy Owens, and you're listening to the award winning podcast, Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books. I'm also the host of Moms Don't Have Time to Lose Weight, and I'm the editor of the anthology, which you should run out and buy, called Moms Don't Have Time Quarantine Anthology. All proceeds of that book go to COVID nineteen Vaccine Research. And I'm the editor in chief of Moms Don't Have Time To Write, a new publication on Medium, and we're accepting submissions, so please send your personal essays there. And if all that isn't enough, you can follow me on Instagram at Zibby Owens and my website is zibbyowens.com. Okay. Now back to this amazing podcast. Today's sponsor is the Baby Trend Cover Me four in one convertible car seat. This car seat is so unique. It addresses the number one complaint by experienced mothers, which I believe I am, which is sun in your kid's eyes, which is something that of course drives them nuts and you're not going to want to put like what baby sunglasses on. That's never really worked for me. Along with the canopy, the Cover. Me has a usage rating from four to 100 pounds, so you can use it for a long time, and can be used infant rear facing, toddler rear facing, forward facing, and belt positioning booster. The Cover Me also has a very convenient recline system, which includes a zero radio base and integrated recline flip foot. I don't exactly know what that means, but that's okay. The system allows the children to find a position comfortable to them and also limits the amount of space taken up by the seat when in rear facing position. Basically, it's just an amazing car seat, and I wish I had had this when my kids were little enough to fit into car seats. It makes parents' and kids' life much easier. It's just amazing, and it has a UPF 50 plus on the canopy so your kids don't get a sunburn either. So your kids will love sitting in it, they can interact with everybody in the car, and it protects you both rear and forward facing. There is a special 20% off code which is COVERME20 if you go to babytrend.comosa, o s s a. That's httpsdouble/babytrend.com/ossa and put in the code cover me 20. Capital c cover, capital m me, the number 20. Also, I'm giving away one of these car seats. So if you or anyone you know is having a baby soon and would like a new car seat, which is something that you have to get as soon as you're pregnant, I am giving one away. To win the giveaway, just write a review and give a rating to my podcast, preferably a five star rating and a really nice review if you don't mind. Extra credit if you do the same thing for my moms don't have time to lose weight podcast and my moms don't have time to have sex podcast. If you could do five star ratings and reviews for all of those podcasts, oh my gosh, you will definitely be at the top of the list for entering this giveaway. And then we will pick at random. So enter the giveaway, use the code if you just want to get the percent off and order it right away. And again, baby trend cover me four in one convertible car seat, go for it. Welcome to another day of my podcast book blast. Today, I'm featuring a bunch of events that I did live that are now podcasts. So they might have a slightly different audio sound or whatever, but they're all grouped together by recent events I did that are worthwhile listening to for sure on this podcast. So go back and listen. And if you wanna watch them, they're all available on YouTube or Facebook or anywhere you find all my video content, and you can get to them also through Instagram. Anyway, enjoy these previously live events now recorded. Number one New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Weiner has been on my podcast and I've done several events with her because she keeps coming out with fantastic books. And her latest book, which just came out, is called That Summer and I was lucky enough to interview her soon after it came out. Sadly, she had just lost her mother in a very rapid illness, and we talked about that a lot, and we talked about her new book and life in general. You probably know her because she's written so many novels with 11,000,000 copies in print in 36 countries. And just everything she does gets on the bestseller list. She also writes frequent op eds for the New York Times. Definitely listen to our podcast and pick up her latest read. Hi, Jen. How are you? Hey, I'm good. How are you? Thanks so much for chatting about your latest book that summer. There it is. Yes. It looks better behind you, but you know.

[6:31]Jennifer Weiner: Bigger anyhow. It's giant. Yes. Giant size.

[6:36]Zibby Owens: Before we talk about your book, you've been really open on social media. So I feel I have the right to pry into your life now, but of course I don't. I am so sorry again for the loss of your mom. And I just, my heart goes out to you and your family and I'm just so sorry.

[6:51]Jennifer Weiner: Thank you. Yeah, she died on Mother's Day, which was like an extreme flex as far as me, my brothers and sisters are concerned. And we're like, maybe she just wanted us to like get that first Mother's Day without her out of the way really quickly. And we're like, no, wants us to think of her every single Mother's Day from now until eternity. Like, you know, no just sitting enjoying your eggs Benedict. No, no, you will be thinking of Fran. So yeah, I mean, we've been, you know, we've been telling stories, we've been laughing a lot, which is good and which I absolutely know she would have wanted. But I mean, it is just, it was, you know, I've been telling people it was nine weeks from her diagnosis to her death. And I just feel like I had been on like a greased shoot to hell basically. Just, it was so fast and yeah.

[7:45]Zibby Owens: How did she figure out that she had a problem to begin with?

[7:49]Jennifer Weiner: Well, so she broke her leg in December. She slipped on some ice and she broke her leg and then she was in a cast for two months and she started doing rehab and she was just exhausted, like improbably exhausted. Like, and if you knew my mom, she was just the most like energetic, up for anything, let's go, let's do it kind of person. So she finally went to the doctor and I guess, you know, at that point it was already like it was in her pancreas, it had spread other places. And I mean, it's, you know, it's hard not to think like, well, maybe if she'd gone to the doctor earlier, like maybe if COVID hadn't been going on and she'd been, you know, it's just, and you can't do that. You can't go down those roads, but yeah, that's what happened. She was just, you know, she was fatigued and fatigue is a sign. So if you find yourself probably exhausted, maybe go get that checked out. That's the hardest thing. Mean, everybody's tired all the time. Everybody's exhausted. I know, right? All the time. Well,

[8:53]Zibby Owens: I am sorry. And I love the way you've been posting and how I mean, how the fact that you would share all that and that you have this book coming out at the same time and having to go through book launch and grief and the really early stages of grief too and the trauma of, like, the the speed of this. I also loved how you sort of did a big shout out to your mom for her love of her body and how that made you feel great. And you showed her being so active and not letting anything get in her way. Can you just tell us more about that?

[9:21]Jennifer Weiner: So I have just been thinking a lot. So I two daughters, one of them is 18. I'm getting ready to send her into the world. I'm thinking like all the time about like what is this world I am sending her into and what was it like when I was 18? And just thinking about all of the toxic things the world tells women about their bodies and about how, you know, there's only one beauty standard and if you don't fit into it, you have to spend the rest of your life striving to fit. And so many women my age grew up with moms who were on diets, moms who would stand in front of the mirror and suck it in and turn this way and turn that way or say I was so naughty last night, ate that piece of chocolate cake, I've got to be in the gym for two hours and just had a really unhappy relationship you know, with their bodies and with food and with activity and with putting on bathing suits or shorts or whatever it was. And I've just been reflecting that I'm so lucky that my mother had none of that. Like I got a really, my house was like a respite from the world because my mom was bigger her whole life. She was like a larger woman her whole life. She was the most active person that I knew. She played tennis and she skied and she ice skated and she biked and she walked and she swam a mile at the JCC like every day of her life. And she would wear a bathing suit and get in the water. She, you know, the last winter of her life would get on a sled with her grandkids. Like this is not somebody who ever, ever, ever worried about how she looked or what the world was going to make of her or if she did worry, she never let her daughters see that. And that was such a gift. It was, it was such a gift just to just not grow up with that craziness, you know? And I think about my own daughters and like what I want to model for them, what I want to show them and just how lucky they were to have Fran in their lives for as long as they had her. It was a blessing. I wonder if there's been any research about

[11:38]Zibby Owens: grandmother's impact on kids' body image, you know? Because I can do what I can do, right? Yeah, exactly. Is like a loose cannon. Exactly. Mean But they're bad, right? You know, they

[11:50]Jennifer Weiner: yeah, I mean, I have to imagine that any woman who's sort of in proximity to children is going to have some kind of impact. And if, you know, if that is somebody who is like eating salads all the time until she can't stand it anymore, and then gorging on ice cream, and then beating herself up and being miserable about it, kids, they hear what we say, but so much more than that, I think they see what we do, right? So you can tell them, you know, love yourself, just be healthy, just be active. It doesn't matter how you look, but if they see you behaving in a way that contradicts that, that is what they, that's what they take, I think. So yeah, I think grannies, I think grannies make a big difference. I really do believe that they've made a difference with my daughters.

[12:41]Zibby Owens: Do you think, I know you write a lot for the New York Times and your op ed column about, and I'm sorry, we will talk about your book, it's the same topic, But do you think, like, I feel like if I, like, I have this Moms No Time to Lose Weight podcast, right? I'm trying to tell my kids like, no, no, I'm all good. But yet I have this Instagram and I have this podcast and obviously I'm thinking about it, right? Like, as opposed to being maybe more like your mom who went about her life and it never came up. So that's like a totally different model for body positivity, if you will. Right? What's the maybe I'm I don't know. Listen,

[13:14]Jennifer Weiner: everybody's got to do what feels right for them. And I'm not a scientist, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a psychologist. Know, just can tell you that having grown up in a house where like there wasn't the shelf of diet books in the living room, where there wasn't the can of SlimFast in the cupboard, where there wasn't like the scale in the bathroom and you know all of that stuff. Like you know it made a difference to me and I believe it made a difference to my daughters. And you know my whole philosophy has just been like, I want them to see me active. I want them to see me like eating healthy stuff, but more than that, just like getting on my bike and riding 70 miles or yeah, know which I did, my vagina has yet to forgive me, but it's all okay. I know, right? You know, but like skiing or skating or swimming and just, I think like the more you can model self acceptance and self love and like an active lifestyle, that's what I tried to do. Is it right? Is it wrong? I don't know. I mean, my kids will be in therapy for something. Like I've just accepted that. And whether it's going to be body stuff or something else, TBD, but we'll see.

[14:31]Zibby Owens: It's true. I might as well pick what issues to give them. Would you like my anxiety or would you like my body issues? Like take your fic, it's like a poo poo platter.

[14:42]Jennifer Weiner: Okay, so I'm going to tell you something that does not leave this Facebook live. So my 13 year old, we were driving back from my mom's death, basically. And she's like, You know, mom, I'm not so happy about all of the mental illness that I have inherited from your side of the family. And I'm like, Yeah, I too regret that. She's like, but at least I got the Oshkenaukkers. So

[15:08]Zibby Owens: you can use that, you can have that. Oh my gosh, you have that in a book. Mean

[15:15]Jennifer Weiner: that's right. She'll make me pay her though because she thought of it. Oh, come on. Oh my gosh. I don't know if she thought of it or overheard it, but I

[15:24]Zibby Owens: laughed so hard I almost drove off the highway. Yeah, that's amazing. I love that. Okay. Well, obviously your daughter has a way with words as well, which is no surprise.

[15:34]Jennifer Weiner: Okay. That summer. Yes, there it is. There it is. There it is. So this opens with Diana. Well, maybe you should tell everybody what it's about first of all. Yeah, yes okay so that summer is about two women one of them is married lives on the main line of Philadelphia has a daughter has a husband has a beautiful home has a little business does some volunteer work has the life that she believes she's supposed to want, and yet finds herself with insomnia, waking up in the middle of the night with this kind of, is that all there is emptiness inside of her. And you probably remember that article that went viral like a year and a half ago about why Generation X women can't sleep. And how we're all like, you know, we're this the meat in the generational sandwich where we're dealing with aging parents, we're dealing with little kids, we all have jobs. A lot of us have delayed marriage or motherhood, sort of pushing that into our 30s or our later 30s. And so then it's like instead of being like an energetic 23 year old with a newborn, it's like you're 35 and it's like kill me now kind of thing. So I gave Daisy a lot of that. So that's Daisy. That's one of my main characters. And the other one is Diana. Diana is single. She is a consultant. She's very sophisticated, very glamorous, travels the world. What happens is Daisy starts getting emails that are intended for Diana. The two of them have very similar names that are email addresses are like one punctuation mark apart. Daisy starts getting these emails like, Hey, let's have drinks the next time you're in New York City or hope to see you in London next month. And she starts thinking, you know, God, this other woman's life must be amazing. And like, what the hell happened to me? Kind of thing. And then Diana writes her a note, basically says, I'm sorry my friends are such idiots and keep emailing you instead of me. Daisy writes back and says, No, it's actually I'm living vicariously. This is really fascinating. And Diana says, Do you want to get a drink? They end up meeting, they become friends. Daisy has also lost her really dear friend, like her BFF in adulthood. This woman has died of breast cancer. Daisy has this emptiness in her life. She is vulnerable to Diana's advances. And what we come to learn is that this meeting isn't as accidental as we thought that in fact, Diana has been looking for a way in to Daisy's life and possibly into Daisy's family, that there's some history that these two women share. And it becomes a story about trauma and about living as a woman in the world and all of the things that that entails. And so a lot of people have called it like my Me Too book and there is definitely a strong element of that in there. But more than tying it just to a specific moment or a specific hashtag, I really wanted to talk about female friendship and how important that is. And being female in America, in the world today, what's that like? Has it gotten better? Does it need improvement still? And how do we keep moving that ball forward as the next generation of young women enters the world? So that is that summer. Amazing.

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[22:12]Zibby Owens: You know, it's so interesting because I feel like friends are one of the first things to go, right? When you're really busy and you're working and you're dealing with your kids and whatever. And the other day, I said something to my kids about friends and they were like, well, you don't really have any friends, do you? And I was like, why do they? Like, we don't see you with your friends, you know? And I'm like, you're right because I see them when they're school or I honestly, I hardly ever see friends anymore. So I feel like dealing with this topic because it's so easy to put friendships on some sort of like, we'll get to it later, step stool or something when they're so necessary. I mean, how do you feel about your, do you see your girlfriends and when do you even do that?

[22:52]Jennifer Weiner: Yeah, you know, it's like, it's been a lot of texting and a lot of emails and about a lot of phone calls during COVID certainly. But to your point, I think that a lot of women, like we've all heard the chestnut, like you've got to put your own oxygen mask on first. You can't take care of anybody else if you're not taking care of yourself. And we're all like, yes, yes, that is true. I believe that. But then we don't do it. It's like, and friendship, like I said, those are things that sustain us. Those are things that carry us through bad times that insulate us when we're going through sorrow, we're going through grief. And so many times it's like, I've got to take care of everybody else before I can take care of myself and maintaining those friendships, like you said, that becomes something that falls by the wayside along with workouts, meals, whatever else you used to do for self care. So I guess if there's like a message or a takeaway from that summer, I guess I want women to like think about who their friends are and think about like how important those relationships are and really cherish them and nurture them and give them what they need to thrive. Because parents aren't around forever, marriages sometimes don't last, but your friends, especially like your best best friends, like those are chosen family. Those are the people you've intentionally allowed into your life. And I think that you've got to work at those friendships the same way people say you've got to work at marriage. Like you've got to take time and, you know, do it because it's good for your friends and do it because it's good for you and do it because it's important for your daughters to see you take care of yourself. Like all those things, yay friends. Yay friends. Yay friends. So true. I have another stay in this Facebook zoom or whatever admission, which is I have a really, really close friend, one of my best friends and it was her son's bar mitzvah this weekend.

[24:56]Zibby Owens: And it was like one of these Zooms at like five or 06:00. And I was going to do it. That was my plan all day. And then like, I forgot. I just like forgot And to do then I didn't remember even that I forgot until it was two in the morning and I woke up and I was like, and I didn't know what to do. And so finally I said to her the next, I waited like two days and I was like, I have to tell you what I did. Like, I know how important this is to you. This is not the kind of friend I am. You know that. Like, we're really close. I was like, but I have to tell you the truth and I want you to send me the link so I can watch it and whatever. And she was like, no, we're the kind of friend You don't have to say that. Like, we get it. But it's so rare to have, A, that kind of friend. And B, like, I was like, she might not be my friend after this. Like, this is a big deal. Right? It's like, what do you do when you get to a situation like that? Anyway, I don't know. Anyway, so. Yeah,

[25:47]Jennifer Weiner: no, it's tough. I mean, life happens and man, veteran of more than one Zoom bar and bat mitzvah here, like they're tough. I mean, just are. It's not the same and you know, you got to do it, you got to show up. And I mean, I guess I just try to think of like showing up for my friends is like showing up for myself. And because they're going to be there for me, so I've got to try to be there for them. And, you know, and we all just do the best we can. I mean, you know, and I think try to be like generous and forgiving

[26:19]Zibby Owens: because mistakes happen and things, you know, things fall through the cracks. That's just the truth. That's just the truth of life. So back to the book, tell me about how you decided, even how there's this mother's helper in the very beginning and sort of going against her own, not culture, but going into a new environment for her and what that's like. And then of course, I started thinking about all my mother's helper, like, when I was a mother self and all that, and your beautiful descriptions of the cape and, like, all of this and, like, what it's like to sort of enter into somebody else's space and to even consider something to be a mansion that for the person who owned it in the book, was like, oh, this is, I mean, I would call it a mansion type of thing. Tell me about setting it on the cave. Tell me about the role of the environment. How, what happens to you when you're at that age becomes like so critically important and how that sort of sets you off on a course.

[27:11]Jennifer Weiner: Yeah, so this is a book about friendship and this is a book about gender and trauma and the me too of it all. But it's also a book about class and the way that class can either insulate us from trouble or open us up to being seen as less than. So Diana starts off the book. We meet her. She's a mother's helper on The Cape. She comes from a working class family in South Boston and this is an opportunity and her parents have sort of recognized this is an opportunity. She's going to go work for this woman who's a professor of literature. Diana's an aspiring writer so what could be better than that? And she goes into this world that is a very different world than the one where she comes from. She's very much an outsider and she sort of can't believe that she's got her own bedroom with her very own bathroom because at home she shares a bathroom with two of her sisters and you know it's a whole new world. And what she doesn't understand yet as she enters this circle of other young working women, the waitresses, the au pairs, the mother's helpers, the sitters, she doesn't understand that there's a class of young men and she's going to encounter them sooner rather than later. Prep school boys who are summering on The Cape, the kind of boys who use summer as a verb. And they view these young women as sort of one of the amenities that's available to them. Like these women are like ice cream cones and fried clam strips. This is just something you get when you spend a summer on Cape Cod. And I was thinking so much about privilege and the toxic atmosphere that sometimes arises in these, especially in the prep school world, in these schools that are so old. And you get boys where like their father went, their grandfather went, their grandfather's grandfather went. And they've been told since they were old enough to really understand that they are masters of the universe, that they're going to go from these very fine boarding schools to the very top colleges, to positions of power and influence in the world. And that young women are a perk and a thing. And they don't quite see these young women as people the way that they're people. These young women aren't real to them the way that they are real to each other. And so something awful happens on the beach that summer. And there are different young men who have different reactions as they carry this secret through their lives. And we see everything from a man who sort of immediately recognizes that something very, very bad and very wrong has happened and he can't make it right but he's going to spend the rest of his life atoning really trying to make up for it, trying to do better, trying to be a better man all the way to the guy that's just acted like he wiped his ketchup sticky fingers on a napkin and tossed the napkin in the trash. I think about privilege a lot. You know, I went to public school, but I went to college with a lot of prep school kids. And, you know, some of them were lovely and very aware, but certainly privilege wasn't something we thought about or talked about as much back then as we do now. And I'm just really, really interested in, you know, as somebody who's sort of raised children with a certain degree of privilege, but also understands that they're girls, they're not boys and it's different. And there are still hierarchies and there are still communities that will circle the wagons that if one of their members is accused, is threatened, they will bring all of their power and all of the connections that they have to bear to protect this person. And we've seen that play out in many, many ways as the Me Too movement has, you know, sort of scorched the landscape. So I was thinking a lot about that. And then I was also thinking about, you know, and this is a big question and I don't know the answer, but like, what do we do with these men? Because they are not canceled. Like I know people like to talk about cancel culture, gets canceled. And if you want exhibit sixteen seventeen, yesterday the Philip Roth biography by Blake Bailey, which it's the initial, the original publisher canceled it after Blake Bailey was accused of raping two different women and assaulting many others and grooming young women when he was teaching seventh grade. His publisher said we're not publishing this we're taking it out of the stores we're pulling it off of Amazon And everybody's like, oh, cancel, cancel, cancel. We shouldn't cancel people. Let the book stand on its own merits and this isn't right. And three weeks later, he has another book deal. That is exactly how long his cancellation lasted. And, you know, I could talk about that a long time, but basically, you know, it's like, what do we do with these men? How do we treat them? What does reparative justice look like? Because these guys are gonna come back, They are. They're coming back already. And what do we want to ask of them? How do we hold them accountable? Wow. Yeah. What's the answer? Well, I will tell you, I wrote the ending to that summer five different times trying to figure it out because, you know, at first I'm just like, burn it all down. So that was like my first ending. And then my editor was like, you know, really? Are you sure? Like, it's kind of I'm like, no. And she's like, maybe take some time to think about this. And I, you know, and then I was sort of like, okay, fine. We'll just burn most of it down, you know, but honestly, I think that, that, that came from just the fact that, like, I don't know the answer. And you know, I'm somebody with daughters. I'm somebody, you know, who has like lived her whole life as a woman. But like, I have a husband. I have brothers, you know. There are men in my life. And I think about, you know, what do we do? Like, how do we given that nobody really gets canceled, what does it we've got to figure this out. And I don't know that we're I don't know that we've even started yet. So maybe my book will be one of the kind of early ways to start that conversation.

[34:08]Zibby Owens: It's too bad you can't show all the versions, because maybe that would be a really interesting

[34:14]Jennifer Weiner: thing. I'm sure. Yeah. I wonder if there's a way to do that because yeah, because I mean, and I don't want to give anything away, but like when you get to the ending, like just understand that there were honest to God, five different ways it could have gone and they were all the way from like the most draconian of, you know, absolute, you know, black and white, the worst of the worst to, well, you know, maybe. And then if he does, you know, and then maybe there he could pay some fine, you know, like just, and I just don't know. And I did the best I could. I mean, obviously every novelist does the best she can as, you know, as you're sort of trying to be as true as you can to the characters you've created. But in terms of like the bigger question of what we as a society are going to do, I do not know the answer.

[35:11]Zibby Owens: I don't either but I think it's good to ask all the questions. Yes. And then if doing it through fiction is just another creative, way to keep the conversation going, right? Everybody needs to be aware of it. Well, I still think you should put the five endings somewhere. I think like you should do some sort of survey or like put them on your website or like, does it mean? And maybe like start one of those dialogues. You know how like in women's magazines it's like these say yes and these ones say no and here's why. I don't know. I could just do like a survey on my Instagram stories, like here's the five different endings, vote for your favorite. There you go. There you go. In your spare time. Do you ever start, I mean, so what number book is this for you?

[35:53]Jennifer Weiner: This is my fifteenth novel. Oh my gosh. I feel so old, so old. Stop. You should feel so accomplished. No, and sometimes I do, but mostly just old. Like I wake up in the morning and things hurt. Like what is this?

[36:07]Zibby Owens: What's happening? I'm aware of that feeling. Right? So after 15 novels though, when you get started, do you ever think like, I hope I can pull this off or do you feel like, okay, I've totally got this, here's what I'm doing. And you just like go into it.

[36:21]Jennifer Weiner: No, it's always, I hope I can pull this off with a healthy dose of, I don't think I can. Like, how do I do this? I don't know how to do this. Like, it's like, I forget every time that I've done it before and it's just like, I don't know what I'm doing. Oh my God, bestie. I don't know how to do this. Like, it's terrible. I guess if I'm being like generous with myself, like the thing they tell you in yoga about beginner's mind, like you should always have like beginner's mind. I always have beginner's mind. I'm always just like, I do not know how I am going to move these people through 400 pages. It's terrifying.

[36:56]Zibby Owens: I know. I really, I feel like, is it other professions? Because I was like, because so many authors I talked to say this and I'm like, well, I bet you're not gonna say that because like you've written so many books and like, and it's still even you, like, I don't know. What is it about Well,

[37:14]Jennifer Weiner: I guess I'm glad that like surgeons aren't like, and every time I'm like, wait, how do I put this broken leg back together? Like we don't want those people to have beginners. We want them to have accomplished more. Fair point, I'm very sorry. Yeah. No, but I do think that there's something about like, you know, the creative arts where every time you're starting over, like every time you've just like wiped that slate completely clean. And yes, I mean, I've learned some things about structure, about pacing, about characters, about outlining, all of those things. Like every book has taught me something, but every time it's still terrifying, but every time it's also still really, really exciting and wonderful because there's nothing but possibility. And that feels really good.

[38:06]Zibby Owens: Especially when the events of the world around us and very close to us are out of our control, the ability to shape your own narrative and decide your own ending is very liberating. So if we can't control everything else, at least you control what happens within these pages into these. Yes. Yes. Exactly. Can give them all happy endings. Can give them all happy endings. Well, Jen, congratulations again. Another book on the shelf. This is amazing. 15 books. I mean, it's like you just passed the bar mitzvah, the bat mitzvah.

[38:41]Jennifer Weiner: And now I'm gonna get my license. That's like, that'll be 16. Then I'll be able to vote. Then I'll be able to drink. Yep.

[38:48]Zibby Owens: My God. Oh my gosh. Okay. Well, when you hit 21, you need to have like a giant something, right? Absolutely.

[38:56]Jennifer Weiner: Like just like a margarita fountain or something like that. Yes, I agree. Absolutely.

[39:01]Zibby Owens: I'm inviting myself.

[39:03]Jennifer Weiner: You're more than invited. Absolutely.

[39:06]Zibby Owens: All right. Well, And again, I'm so sorry for your loss

[39:10]Jennifer Weiner: and my thoughts are with you and your family. Thank you. It's always great talking to you. Have a great day. Bye bye.

[39:18]Zibby Owens: Thanks for listening to part of my June Book Blast. I hope you enjoy it. Come back tomorrow for more. Thanks again to today's sponsor, the Baby Trend Cover Me four in one convertible car seat. Don't forget to enter my giveaway, and the winners will be announced at the end of this week. Thanks for listening to this episode of Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books. Don't forget to follow me on Instagram at Zibby Owens and at moms don't have time to read books. Also sign up for my newsletter at zibbyowens.com and sign up for my virtual book club and meet lots of authors on Zoom every other week. Thanks so much to Steve and Ryan at Texture Sound for the sound editing, and thank you to Morning Moon Productions for providing this fantastic intro and outro music. Music.