Between Books is a col­lec­tion of essays writ­ten dur­ing a peri­od of Zibby’s life of extreme change from ages 39 to almost 50, when she went from being a stay-at-home-mom to being rec­og­nized on the street(!) for her work, from not being on social media to being an ​“influ­encer,” from being mar­ried to get­ting divorced and then remar­ried, and from feel­ing rel­a­tive­ly safe to real­iz­ing safe­ty was an illu­sion all along. It was a time when she gained and lost weight, gained and lost friends, and, like many of us, weath­ered nat­ur­al dis­as­ters, soci­etal tur­moil, and more. Owens wrote many of the essays in the moment to process what was hap­pen­ing. Some have been pre­vi­ous­ly pub­lished. Many are new. Col­lec­tive­ly, she hopes the col­lec­tion makes read­ers feel more con­nect­ed — and inspires them to turn to writ­ing, like she did, to get through all of it. Think of it as an inter­lude between all the oth­er books read­ers are get­ting to on their night­stand that, who knows, maybe Owens even recommended.