BESTSELLING AUTHOR EMMA STRAUB CREDITS A SURPRISING MENTOR: MISS PIGGY!

The American Fantasy novelist on the muppet that made her and the boy-band cruise behind her latest.

LOS ANGELES (May 14, 2026)—Before Emma Straub was writing bestselling novels and running two beloved Brooklyn bookstores, she was a seven-year-old in an Upper West Side brownstone, reading a comedy book as a sacred text. Decades later, Miss Piggy’s Guide to Life remains a touchstone.

In conversation with host Chris Collins on the YouTube series Books That Changed My Life, Emma Straub traces Miss Piggy’s influence on her confidence, taste, and body image. She also recalls, in hilarious detail, the cruise behind her latest novel, American Fantasy.

A Bible in Disguise

The daughter of a novelist and a literacy specialist, Emma Straub grew up surrounded by books. With no shortage of literary role models to choose from, a seven-year-old Straub settled on an unlikely candidate: Miss Piggy. She recalls discovering wisdom beneath the book’s comedic exterior:

“It is a work of humor. And yet, immediately, I was like, ‘Oh, no, no, no.’ People who are reading this as just humor—it is very funny—but people who only see that are missing the point. I took it so seriously. It went straight in. And it truly was transformative to me.”

Miss Piggy offered Straub a vision of confidence and self-possession that she carries to this day:

“What matters is your supreme confidence in yourself. Being authentic to yourself is everything. And if anyone else doesn’t see it, it’s their problem.”

Straub, reflecting on Miss Piggy’s impact, puts it simply:

“This is how to be a woman. What a woman.”

Books Are Magic

Miss Piggy’s influence—dynamism, taste, and a touch of stubbornness—lends itself to Straub’s other hustle: owning and operating Books Are Magic. In her twenties, when Straub worked in a bookstore, she nursed a secret desire to take over:

“I didn’t understand why everyone didn’t work in a bookstore. It was just the best job — where your full job was just to stand around all day and talk to people about books. What a dream.”

In 2016, when her former employers announced their retirement, Straub’s “long-term fantasy” came true. She and her husband opened Books Are Magic within six months. But, as Oscar Wilde writes, “there are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.”

Straub confesses that running a bookstore is, at times, less fun than imagining it. She recalls several unsuccessful attempts to steer friends and colleagues away from bookstore ownership:

“It’s only a dream life if you don’t own them. It’s not a dream life, I promise. I can give you a thousand reasons why you don’t want it.”

Including, but not limited to…

Being open to the public: “Anyone can walk in. And that comes with complications.”

Employee management: “There’s a really significant difference between being able to talk to anyone and being able to fire someone.”

Unread emails: “The number is in the thousands and I just don’t pay attention to it.”

And the elements: “Sometimes, it’s raining inside the bookstore.”

Even so, Straub marks her bookstore ownership as “the most challenging and most rewarding” part of her life.

The “New Kid on the Block”: American Fantasy

When Straub isn’t bailing water out of her bookstores, she writes celebrated novels, including her latest, American Fantasy, out now from Riverhead Books. Straub recalls the emotional weight of her previous project, This Time Tomorrow, written in the wake of her father’s death, and the desire to take on something different:

“I just thought, I don’t want to cry anymore. What book can I write that would bring me joy? And I thought, this. I knew this. And so I went on a New Kids on the Block cruise.”

When Straub boarded the boy-band fan cruise, she was awestruck: she was surrounded by thousands of middle-aged women who’d given themselves over to delight. Straub likens the cruise to a bizarro holiday, in which women who typically devote themselves to the pleasure and comfort of others turn that same attention to themselves.

“These middle-aged women, they’ve got children, they’ve got aging parents, they’re taking care of everybody in every direction. And this weekend, for these four days, they have put themselves at the center and they have given themselves this gift. I felt honored to behold their majesty.”

That majesty serves as the emotional center of American Fantasy, a novel that follows a recently divorced woman as she embarks on a fan cruise:

“It’s really about pleasure in middle age, which I think is a glorious part of middle age. When you’re not as worried about being cool or hip, you can actually truly devote yourself to the things that you love—whether it’s building yourself your dream library or going on a boy-band cruise full of 3,000 screaming women.”

Asked why she didn’t simply write a memoir, Straub points to the space fiction creates for authenticity:

“If you make something fiction, you actually give yourself permission to let so much truth in. If I were to write memoir, it would be less honest than this. In fiction, I give myself permission to go full tilt.”

But where did the desire to “go full tilt” originate? Perhaps, in part, under the tutelage of a certain porcine puppet.

Watch the full conversation HERE.

About Books That Changed My Life

“Books That Changed My Life,” hosted by bestselling author Chris Collins, is a YouTube show exploring how great books transform us in profound and unexpected ways. Each episode features a special guest sharing a book that shaped or inspired them, sparking deep conversations and unearthing unfiltered personal stories.

Recent guests include R&B singer Eric Benét, soap opera legend Susan Lucci, former covert CIA officer Andrew Bustamante, actress and reality star Lisa Rinna, Dancing With the Stars pro Jenna Johnson, and television legend Kelsey Grammer.

Follow Syndicate X Library and “Books That Changed My Life” on all social media channels: