Friends & Fiction

On this episode, we are re-airing one of our favorite episodes from the vault! Join us as the Fab Four talk to Steven Rowley about his 2023 novel The Celebrants, and to Liz Fenton & Lisa Steinke about their 2023 novel Forever Hold Your Peace. Steven Rowley is the NYT-bestselling author of six novels including The Guncle, winner of 2021’s Thurber Prize for American Humor. His fiction has been published in twenty languages and all of his books are in development for feature film or television adaptation. In this episode, he joined us to discuss his NYT bestseller and Read With Jenna Book Club pick, The Celebrants. Steven’s got a new novel, Take Me With You, coming on May 19th. Best friends for more than three decades, Liz & Lisa have co-authored eight novels in addition to hosting a podcast, and appearing monthly on a San Diego news station to share their favorite book club picks. In this episode we discussed their Father of the Bride meets Bride Wars rom-com Forever Hold Your Peace. We hope you’ll check out their latest novel, The Naysayers, which was released earlier this year. So, as you prep for your Memorial Day weekend festivities, tune in for this interview, now with a brand-new introduction from Kristin Harmel.

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On this episode, Patti Callahan Henry & Mary Kay Andrews welcome the multimillion-copy-selling author of The Help, Kathryn Stockett, to discuss The Calamity Club, her bold, big-hearted new novel about a group of unbreakable women, fighting for what's rightfully theirs—and the power of friendship to change everything. Kathryn Stockett was born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi. After graduating from the University of Alabama, she moved to New York City, where she worked in magazine publishing and marketing. Her first novel, The Help—a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don’t—was a #1 New York Times bestseller that has sold over 15-million copies worldwide and was the basis for the Academy Award-winning film. Seventeen years after this cultural phenomenon, Stockett returns with a new novel that Oprah Daily calls, “so immersive, exciting, and downright fabulous, you never want it to end.” We cannot wait to talk to her about this eagerly anticipated book that Bonnie Garmus calls “a must-read,” Adriana Trigiani calls, “terrific,” and the New York Times calls, “heart-wrenching [and] often hilarious.”

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On this episode, Patti Callahan Henry & Kristy Woodson Harvey welcome #1 NYT-bestselling author Christina Baker Kline to discuss her new historical novel, The Foursome, a boldly original reimagining of the astonishing true story of two sisters in nineteenth-century North Carolina — Kline’s own distant relatives — who married world-famous conjoined twins from Siam. Christina is the author of ten novels, including the New York Times bestsellers Orphan Train, The Exiles, and A Piece of the World. Her novels have received the New England Society Book Award for Fiction and the Maine Literary Award among other prizes. Born in England and raised in the American South and Maine, she divides her time between New York City and coastal Maine. She joins us before embarking on book tour to discuss her highly anticipated new novel, The Foursome, which has earned starred reviews across the board from Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, and Booklist, and which has been called “mesmerizing” and “gripping” by Real Simple, and “daring and deeply empathetic” by The Millions.

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On this episode, the full F&F family gathers to celebrate the launch of our very own “queen of the beach read” (Cosmopolitan), NYT-bestselling author Kristy Woodson Harvey’s new book Summer State of Mind, which is, of course, our May Pick of the Month! Kristy is the New York Times, USA TODAY, and Publishers Weekly bestselling author of fourteen novels, including Beach House Rules and the Peachtree Bluff series. A Happier Life is in development for film with MGM/Amazon and The Summer of Songbirds is in development for television with Hulu. There’s good reason why People magazine dubbed Kristy the “go-to for elevated beach reads.” Her latest—featuring a burned out NICU nurse, a former hot shot baseball player turned high school coach, an abandoned baby, and a batty aunt with long-buried secrets—whisks us away to the tight-knit coastal community of Cape Carolina and shows us that sometimes life conspires to bring us exactly where we belong. Join us as we celebrate Kristy’s launch in grand F&F style with special guests, a signature cocktail, games, and laughs galore. Trust us—you do NOT want to miss this one!

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On this episode, Ron Block & Patti Callahan Henry welcome two authors both with new novels about Hollywood icons—Lynn Cullen with hers about Marilyn Monroe, When We Were Brilliant, and Priya Parmar with hers about Katharine Hepburn, The Original. Priya Parmar is the author of the novels Exit the Actress and Vanessa and Her Sister, a New York Times Notable Book, who also writes for musical theater. Her stunning new novel, The Original, plunges into the tumultuous life of screen icon Katharine Hepburn, a star whose passionate spirit and fluid sexuality shattered Hollywood’s rules and redefined what it meant to be a woman in film. Lynn Cullen is the nationally bestselling author of Mrs. Poe and The Woman with the Cure. Her dazzling new novel, When We Were Brilliant, is about the unlikely pair—blond bombshell Marilyn Monroe and serious photographer Eve Arnold—who made a deal that would change both of their lives. We are so excited to talk to both authors about these fascinating new books which paint a vivid picture of two iconic women and their fierce struggle for independence and authenticity in Hollywood’s Golden Age.

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