A Zibby's Book Club pick!! Melody Maysonet, WHAT WE WISH FOR
Totally Booked with Zibby
Zibby Owens
4.5 • 643 Ratings
🗓️ 26 September 2024
⏱️ 25 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Award-winning author Melody Maysonet joins Zibby to discuss WHAT WE WISH FOR, a poignant, heartbreaking YA novel centered on Layla, a 15-year-old girl who finds herself living in a homeless shelter with her alcoholic mother—and hides the truth from her friends. Melody, who is now 18 years in recovery, opens up about her own experience with alcoholism and reflects on how her struggles and triumphs helped shape Layla’s story. She also talks about the therapeutic writing process and the challenge of making Layla’s mom a sympathetic character and balancing her novel’s darkness with hope.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books, hosted by me, Zibi Owens. |
| 0:07.6 | It's an award-winning podcast with over 1,900 episodes, all featuring authors of books you love and those you have yet to discover. |
| 0:15.5 | Listen daily five times a week. |
| 0:17.2 | Then go to Zivimedia.com and learn more about what the L.A. Times called the Zivieverse. |
| 0:22.7 | Zippy Media includes Zivis Bucshop, an independent bookstore in Santa Monica, |
| 0:27.2 | Zippy Books Publishing, Zippy Retreats, Zivis book club, and more. |
| 0:31.5 | Go check it out at Zivimedia.com and follow me on Instagram at Zivie Owens. |
| 0:36.8 | It'll take you where you need to go. Thanks for listening. |
| 0:42.8 | Melanie Masonette is the author of what we wish for. And by the way, this is a Zibby's |
| 0:48.0 | book club pick. Melanie Masonette is the author of the critically acclaimed a work of art and has been |
| 0:54.0 | an English teacher, editor, columnist, and ghostwriter. A self-proclaimed geek, she loves reading fantasy, but prefers writing edgy real-world fiction that's based on problems she has dealt with in her own life. What We Wish For is her second novel. Welcome, Melody. Thank you so much for coming on Moms Don't Have Time to Read books to discuss what we wish for. Thank you so much. Thank you for having me. I was just so taken with your book. And I know it's billed as, you know, for younger readers, but I didn't feel like I couldn't read it. I loved it. I really loved it and think that grown-up readers should also read it |
| 1:28.8 | because it does affect a mom. It's just from a kid's point of view, which I found really interesting. |
| 1:34.3 | So why don't you tell listeners what your book is about and all of that? Okay. So, well, what we've |
| 1:40.8 | wished for is kind of like a genie in the bottle story. You know, like I was always attracted to that type of story. |
| 1:46.6 | What happens if you get everything you wish for? |
| 1:49.3 | And so that was kind of the underlying premise. |
| 1:52.7 | But it's about this 15-year-old girl named Layla, |
| 1:55.6 | who's recently had to move into a homeless shelter with her mom. |
| 1:58.7 | And her mom's an alcoholic and doesn't seem to be doing well. |
| 2:01.7 | They've been there for about a month. |
| 2:03.6 | And Layla's scared. |
| 2:05.3 | She's scared her mom won't stay clean. |
... |
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