Meet Bonnie Garmus TONIGHT
Weekly News from Friends & Fiction—October 14, 2026
Tune in at 7pm ET tonight for this week’s episode!
Join us on Wednesday, October 14th at 7pm Eastern on the F&F Facebook page and YouTube channel as Ron Block & Kristin Harmel welcome Bonnie Garmus the #1 New York Times bestselling author of 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.”
Watch the video broadcast of this interview as it airs on Wed 10/14 at 7pm ET on the F&F Facebook group page & YouTube channel. Catch the audio version on our podcast Fri 10/16.
Meanwhile, order Bonnie’s book — along with all our guests’ and hosts’ books — at a discount in our F&F Shop on Bookshop.org where your purchases support our show and indie bookstores nationwide!
Upgrade to our PAID Subscription for bonus Q&A’s with our guest authors which include a writing tip, book recommendation, and information about their works-in-progress, plus other great material not covered on the show!
Latest News from the Fab Four!
KRISTY WOODSON HARVEY had a whirlwind trip to Hollywood, working on some fun TV and movie stuff and doing a signing at Zibby’s Books, where she got to see F&F friends Leslie Lehr and John Truby! She came home for a few days—for Will’s homecoming pictures and a whole lot of car time with her favorite newly permitted driver!—and she heads back out Saturday. Catch her Sunday at 10 am in Nashville at the Southern Festival of Books, Monday, she’ll be with Ron at the Brooklyn, Ohio branch of the Cuyahoga County Library—only four tickets left, so snag yours!—then Tuesday she’ll be in Nashville, Indiana. Two Nashvilles, one week! Her Wednesday and Thursday events in Carmel, IN are sold out, but you can get on the waitlist if you want! All this and more tour info are are on Kristy’s website. She can never thank you enough for all the crazy love for Falling for Peachtree Bluff!
PATTI CALLAHAN HENRY had a crazy week hurtling through space and time going from Denver to Birmingham to Minnesota for Indie bookseller trade shows to talk about Heart of the Wild. She has so much to tell all of you! She snuck off for a dinner with our F&F pal, William Kent Krueger and met so many AMAZING booksellers from all over the country. This week she is with another F&F pal, Christina Baker Kline as she introduces her to readers in Alabama.
MARY KAY ANDREWS is becoming fluent in restaurant Italian as she and Mr. MKA continue their Mediterranean cruise. But she’ll be home in time to be in conversation with Bonnie Garmus for her new novel Peck & Peck this Sunday at the Books-a-Million in Canton, GA. Get tickets HERE.
KRISTIN HARMEL wishes she was cruising the Mediterranean with MKA…. but alas, she is home in Orlando, working on her next novel. She enjoyed spending the long weekend with her family and is looking forward to heading up to Massachusetts for the Cape Cod Book Festival the weekend after next. She hopes you enjoy tonight’s episode of Friends & Fiction; she loved Peck & Peck and enjoyed chatting with Ron Block and Bonnie Garmus on the show!
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Upcoming Events
See Kristy’s remaining tour stops for Falling for Peachtree Bluff HERE.
See Patti’s upcoming events HERE.
See MKA’s upcoming events HERE.
See Kristin’s upcoming events HERE.
Want to know what our F&F Live events are all about? Watch this video compilation!
In Case You Missed It
On our most recent episode of The Friends & Fiction Show, Mary Kay Andrews & Kristin Harmel welcomed 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.
You can WATCH that episode on Facebook or YouTube, or LISTEN to it on our podcast.
Coming Up on The Friends & Fiction Show
All shows can be watched on Facebook & YouTube each Wednesday evening at 7pm ET, and listened to on our podcast each Friday, all year long.
Already aired: Karin Slaughter, The Secrets We Hide
WATCH | LISTEN
Already aired: Kristy Woodson Harvey, Falling for Peachtree Bluff
WATCH | LISTEN
Already aired: Chloe Benjamin, Under Story
WATCH | LISTEN
Already aired: Ariel Lawhon, The Pirate Queen
WATCH | LISTEN
The Fall 2026 Season of The Friends & Fiction Show
Already aired: Lucy Foley, Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel
WATCH | LISTEN
Already aired: Annie Hartnett, The Road to Tender Hearts
WATCH | LISTEN
Bonnie Garmus, Peck & Peck
Watch: 10/14 | Listen: 10/16
Audrey Niffenegger, Life Out of Order
Watch LIVE: 10/21 | Listen: 10/23
May Cobb, All the Little Secrets
Watch LIVE: 11/4 | Listen: 11/6
Mary Beth Keane, Whale Harbor
Watch: 11/11 | Listen: 11/13
Nina de Gramont, Peregrine Hill
Watch: 11/18 | Listen: 11/20
Lucy Tan, Tiger’s Mouth
Watch: 12/2 | Listen: 12/4
Nancy Thayer, Nantucket Christmas Stroll
Watch LIVE: 12/9 | Listen: 12/11
Jennifer E. Smith, Rabbit Rabbit
Watch: 12/16 | Listen: 12/18
The NEW F&F 2026-27 Subscription Box with Oxford Exchange
Have you heard about the NEW 2026-27 F&F Subscription Box? It features Kristy’s Falling For Peachtree Bluff, out 9/15, and Patti’s Heart of the Wild, out in April 2027. You’ll also receive an adorable Friends & Fiction keychain and Friends & Fiction bookplates, so all the books you lend out are sure to make their way back to you! Those goodies are available ONLY in this subscription box. So, visit Oxford Exchange to get yours while supplies last!
F&F Merch Store
We have a Friends & Fiction merch store with t-shirts, sweatshirts, coffee mugs and a book bag on Bonfire. We recently added a couple new colors for our fan favorite name list tee-shirts—a heathery hunter green and a kelly green—both of which match perfectly with the three new Fab Four books that were just released in May, June & July of this year! Get yours now!
F&F Official Book Club & 2026 Reading Challenge
Join Brenda Gardner & Lisa Harrison for monthly book club picks and live online author chats on the Facebook page for the F&F Official Book Club with Brenda & Lisa, where they’ve amassed nearly 40,000 of their own members. You can also follow the Book Club on Instagram and subscribe to their YouTube channel where you can catch past discussions, including their most recent chat with Mayra Cuevas & Marie Marquardt about their new novel, How to Fake a Southern Gentleman. Mark your calendars for October 26th for their next author guest, Kristy WoodsonHarvey, when they’ll discuss her new novel, Falling for Peachtree Bluff. The Book Club is also hosting the 2026 F&F Reading Challenge. Join them for a different category prompt each month to read outside your comfort zone. The October prompt is to read a southern gothic novel and for November it’s to read a work of foodie fiction.
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