Amy Blumenfeld, SUCH GOOD PEOPLE: A Novel

Totally Booked with Zibby

Zibby Owens

Connection, Inspiration, Moms, Entertainment, Arts, Reading, Books, Parenting, Literary

4.4 • 602 Ratings

🗓️ 14 July 2025

⏱️ 18 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Author Amy Blumenfeld returns to the podcast to discuss her new novel, SUCH GOOD PEOPLE, a masterfully crafted and nuanced story about a decades-long friendship tested by loyalty, justice, and the ripple effects of one life-altering decision. Amy shares her inspiration for this novel, from growing up with a criminal court judge father to uncovering story ideas in unlikely places (like a halfway house newsletter). She explores themes of friendship, moral ambiguity, journalism, and hidden truths in marriage, while also discussing her contributions to ON BEING JEWISH NOW, the anthology edited by Zibby, and her experiences navigating the publishing world as a Jewish writer today.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, this is Zibi Owens, and you're listening to Totally Booked with Zibby. Formerly, moms don't have time to read books. In my daily show, I interview today's latest, best-selling, buzziest, or underrated authors and story creators, whose work I think is worth your time. As a bookstore owner, publisher, author, and obviously podcaster, I get a comprehensive
0:24.0	look at everything that's coming out and spend my time curating the best books so you don't
0:29.3	have to.
0:30.3	Stay in the know, get insider insights, and connect with guests like I do every single day.
0:36.2	For more information, go to zibbimedia.com and follow me on Instagram
0:40.2	at Zibby Owens. Amy Blumenfeld is the author of Such Good People, a novel. Amy grew up in
0:48.9	Queens, New York. She is a graduate of Barnard College and Columbia University Graduate School
0:53.3	of Journalism,
0:53.4	where she received the James A. Wexler Award for National Reporting. Her essays and articles have appeared on the cover of people in the New York Times, the Huffington Post, O. The Oprah Magazine, as well as in George, where she worked as a staff, editor and writer. Amy's debut novel, The Cast, was selected as the New York Post Best Book of the Week and named winner of the Independent Publisher Book Award in Popular Fiction.
1:14.6	She has also been a contributing author to a best-selling anthology and two nonfiction books. Amy lives in New
1:19.6	York with her husband and daughter. Welcome, Amy. Thanks for coming back on Totally Booked
1:23.9	with Debbie to talk about such good people, your second novel. So exciting.
1:29.8	It is my pleasure and honor to be here. Thanks for having me. We were just starting to reminisce,
1:34.6	but I made you wait so we could talk about it in front of other people because why waste such
1:37.8	good material? But you were here in person for the cast in 2018, which is the year I started doing this.
1:47.5	And oh my gosh, so much has changed.
1:49.7	It feels like yesterday, but so much has changed.
1:52.2	So it's a wild ride.
1:55.6	Yet I am still here at my desk in the exact same spot.
1:59.3	So, you know, plussesscheants or whatever. Oh, my gosh.
2:03.1	Okay. Well, first of all, thank you for including me in your acknowledgments of this book.
2:06.8	That was very touching. Thank you. Tell listeners what the book is about, please.
	...

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