Hi, I'm Zibi Owens, and you're listening to the Webby-nominated podcast, Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books.

This episode of Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books has been sponsored by Himalaya, the best app for discovering, listening, and organizing podcasts.

Himalaya was nice enough to reach out and make me an editor's choice. So now they're a sponsor.

Check them out at Himalaya.com or in the app store. Holly Peterson is the best-selling author

of The Mani, as well as novels It Happens in the Hamptons and the idea of him. She has also written two books for Asseline, smoke and fire, recipes and menus for outdoor entertaining, and Wellington, the world of forces. Her most recent book released this summer is It's Hot in the Hamptons, a former contributing editor for Newsweek, editor-at-large for Talk Magazine, and an Emmy award-winning producer for ABC News. Holly has contributed to the New York Times, Town and Country, Vogue Harper's Bazaar, and many other publications. She currently lives in New York and the Hamptons with her three children. Hi, Holly. How are you, Sue? Thanks for having me. It's going on. Mom's start of time to read books. It's so exciting to be doing this live podcast together. I'm really excited to be here. This is my sixth book, my fourth novel, and it's a hopefully

fun work of social satire about life in the Hamptons and two moms who decide to go on a summer

adventure. It was certainly a lot of fun to read. Thank you. So we're, just for anyone listening,

this is actually being recorded at the Children's Museum of the East End in Bridge Hampton, and Barry & Co. is supplying our books tonight, and Lauren Gabrielson has given us a whole rack of clothing to choose from. So anyway, we're going to go on with our podcast, but just wanted to give a shout out to everybody for that. So Holly, tell us what it's hot in the Hamptons is about and what inspired you to write it.

Well, let me try to explain this all. I am a journalist. I was at ABC News and Newsweek my whole life,

and I worked for Tina Brown at Talk Magazine, which most people remember by that fabulous party at the Statue of Liberty more than the magazine.

The magazine went out of business, unfortunately, after three years. But

when one is a journalist, I think it's fun to go into fiction, because fiction in some ways

actually brings you closer to the truth than nonfiction. And people say, how can that be?

And I say because when you're a television producer, you have all these cameras and sound men

and editing rooms. And what happens is that,'re limited. You can't go to a dinner party. You can't get into a club. There's all kinds of scenes you can't get into. And you're not allowed to make it up as a journalist. You either have to be there or not, right? Same thing with anything print. You know, you have to explain someplace where you were or where you

heard about it, or otherwise you have to say reportedly, and it just gives the work less heft, right?

Whereas in a work of fiction, if you were trying to do it incredibly accurately, which I always do,

I in fact fact-checked my novels. Really? Very carefully. It brings, I think, hopefully, the reader into the action

in a very true way. And you and I both have spent our entire lives in the Hamptons and summers

and on weekends. And, you know, it's such a fantastic place to be. It's paradise with the produce

and the shellfish and the people and the beaches. But it's also a complicated place because in this age of just massive inequality,

you've got this local community and then you've got these summer people that come in,

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