Friends & Fiction celebrates the launch of Falling for Peachtree Bluff by Kristy Woodson Harvey

On this episode, Kristin Harmel, Patti Callahan Henry & Mary Kay Andrews welcome the multi-million copy bestselling author of The Time Traveler's Wife Audrey Niffenegger to discuss our October 2026 Pick of the Month, Life Out of Order, her exhilarating new speculative story set in a dystopian future where virtual reality and real life converge. Audrey Niffenegger is a visual artist and writer whose book art, prints, and paintings are included in the collections of the National Museum of Women in the Arts, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Newberry Library, and the Library of Congress. A former Professor at Columbia College, she helped found their Chicago Center for Book and Paper Arts, and also founded Artists Book House, a non-profit center for the literary and book arts. She has published eight books, including the novels The Time Traveler's Wife and Her Fearful Symmetry, as well as the graphic novels Raven Girl and The Night Bookmobile. A modern classic that has captivated readers worldwide, The Time Traveler's Wife has been adapted into a film, an HBO series, and a West End stage musical. We are eager to talk to her about Life Out of Order, an epic genre-bending tale told through a kaleidoscope of perspectives, that moves through a boundless, unfolding universe of virtual reality, and skims the wildest reaches of technology and the natural world.

On this episode, Ron Block & Kristin Harmel welcome Bonnie Garmus, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the global sensation Lessons in Chemistry, to discuss Peck & Peck, her irresistible, delightful, and tender new literary novel set in the publishing world of 1980s New York City about a young man whose life turns upside down when he is hired by the most prestigious, secretive, and dysfunctional poetry journal in the world. Bonnie is a coffee-dependent American novelist whose debut novel, Lessons in Chemistry, was a Good Morning America Book Club Pick, a Goodreads Choice Best Book of the Year, spent nearly two years on the NYT bestseller list and was named by Times readers as one of the top 100 books of the 21st century. Translated into over forty languages, Lessons in Chemistry was honored with sixteen international literary awards and made into an Apple TV limited series. We are so excited to talk to Bonnie about her second novel, Peck & Peck, which Kristin Hannah praises as “charming, uplifting, soulful, and original,” and LitHub says will “fill a void in all our hearts with a needed dash of wit and poignancy.”

On this episode, Mary Kay Andrews & Kristin Harmel welcome bestselling, award-winning author Annie Hartnett to discuss her darkly comic and warm-hearted national bestseller, The Road to Tender Hearts, about an old man on a cross-country mission to reunite with his high school crush—bringing together his adult daughter, two orphaned kids, and a cat who can predict death. Annie is the award-winning author of two previous novels Rabbit Cake and Unlikely Animals. Released in its trade paperback edition in April, The Road to Tender Hearts, won the 2025 New England Book Award for fiction, was longlisted for the Massachusetts Book Award, was named a best book of 2025 by NPR, LitHub, and Southern Living, and has been translated into nineteen languages. We are so excited to have Annie join us from her home in Massachusetts to talk about this word-of-mouth sensation that is beloved by book clubs and which John Irving calls, “a miraculous novel—an actual and spiritual road trip you won’t forget.”

On this episode, Mary Kay Andrews & Ron Block welcome #1 bestselling author Lucy Foley to discuss her brand-new novel, Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel, the first fully authorized Miss Marple mystery in fifty years featuring Agatha Christie’s iconic detective. Lucy is a #1 Sunday Times, Irish Times, and New York Times bestselling author with more than 10-million copies of her books in print worldwide and several currently being adapted for the screen. She is a Waterstones Thriller of the Month author, a three-time nominee at the British Book Awards, and The Guest List was a Reese’s Book Club selection and winner of the Goodreads Choice Award for Mystery & Thriller. As a life-long Agatha Christie fan, Lucy has drawn immeasurable inspiration from the Queen of Crime. In Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel, she was inspired to transport Miss Marple – her favorite Christie creation – to the glamorous post-war setting of the Swiss Alps, in a mystery that feels gloriously escapist yet utterly relevant to our times.

On this episode, Patti Callahan Henry & Kristin Harmel welcome New York Times bestselling author Ariel Lawhon to discuss her brand-new instant NYT-bestselling novel, The Pirate Queen, a sweeping historical adventure inspired by the life of Grace O’Malley, the legendary Irish folk heroine who risked everything to defend her people. Ariel is an award-winning, critically acclaimed, bestselling author of seven works of historical fiction including Code Name Hélène, The Wife the Maid and the Mistress, and I Was Anastasia. Her 2023 novel, The Frozen River was a Good Morning America Book Club pick and an NPR Book of the Year that has sold more than a million copies and spent more than 40 total cumulative weeks on the NYT bestseller list, with film rights optioned by Trudie Styler’s Maven Screen Media. Ariel’s books have been translated into more than 40 languages. We can’t wait to venture onto the high seas with Ariel to chat about this keenly observed, action-packed novel that channels the untamed beauty and harsh realities of sixteenth-century Ireland as seen through the eyes of an unforgettable heroine.