Lihi Lapid, I WANTED TO BE WONDERFUL: A Novel
Totally Booked with Zibby
Zibby Owens
4.5 • 644 Ratings
🗓️ 3 November 2025
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Zibby Publishing alert! Bestselling Israeli author Lihi Lapid chats with Zibby about I WANTED TO BE WONDERFUL, her gut-wrenching, lyrical, and sharply observed novel about marriage, motherhood, sacrifice, and self-discovery. Originally published in Israel as Woman of Valor, the novel intertwines fiction and memoir, portraying both a woman’s inner life and the complexities of family, love, and identity. Lihi shares the real-life inspiration behind the book, including her journey as a mother to a daughter with autism, her experience as the wife of a public figure, and the struggle to reclaim her own creative voice.
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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 |
| 0:40.1 | at Zibby Owens. Lehi-Lapid is the author of I Wanted to Be Wonderful, a novel, and by the way, |
| 0:49.5 | we are publishing this book because of my last podcast with her, which you can go back and listen to. |
| 0:56.1 | Leah Lehi-Lepeed is an author and journalist whose books deal with contemporary women's issues. |
| 1:00.9 | She is the author of the best-selling novel in Israel, Secrets from Within, and On Her Own, |
| 1:05.7 | a cookbook entitled Lehi Lipid's Favorite Recipes, and a best-selling children's book, The Magic Whisper. |
| 1:11.3 | Prior to becoming a writer, Lehi was a professional photographer. |
| 1:14.9 | Educated at the prestigious Camera Obscura School of Art and Tel Aviv University, she served in the |
| 1:20.3 | Israeli Defense Forces as a photographer for its Bama Heine magazine. She lives in Tel Aviv with |
| 1:25.7 | her husband, Yair Lipe, the former Prime Minister of |
| 1:28.5 | Israel and their two children. Hi, Lee. Thanks for coming back on Totally Buck to talk about your new |
| 1:34.6 | novel. I wanted to be wonderful. Congratulations. Thank you. And I want to thank you for falling in love |
| 1:40.8 | with this book. I think you read it before our last podcast and you fell in love with it. |
| 1:48.6 | I think it was such a wonderful, amazing surprise for me that you reached out to this book |
| 1:56.8 | and now it's being published. |
| 1:59.8 | At your publishing house and in America it's really great. |
| 2:04.8 | Thank you. |
| 2:05.4 | You're welcome. |
... |
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