Tune in at 7pm ET for TONIGHT’s episode!
Join us Wednesday, October 23rd LIVE at 7pm Eastern on the F&F Facebook page and YouTube channel as the Fab Four gather to welcome this month’s F&F Featured Author, Paula Hawkins, to discuss her propulsive and powerful new book, our October 2024 Pick of the Month, THE BLUE HOUR, an addictive thriller which takes place on a remote Scottish island with only one house, one inhabitant, and one way out.
Paula Hawkins is the #1 NYT-bestselling author of three suspense novels including Into the Water and A Slow Fire Burning. Her debut novel that shook the nation, The Girl on the Train, spent 80+ weeks on the NYT bestseller list — including 20 weeks at #1 — and was named the USA Today Book of the Year. It has gone on to sell more than 23-million copies worldwide, has been published in more than 50 languages, and was a box office hit film starring Emily Blunt. A former journalist, Paula was born and raised in Zimbabwe and moved to London in 1989 and now splits her time between there and Edinburgh.She joins us to discuss her masterful, page-turning, unsettling new novel that recalls the sophisticated suspense of Shirley Jackson and Patricia Highsmith and cements Hawkins's place among the very best of our most nuanced and stylish storytellers. Lee Child has called The Blue Hour “the best Paula Hawkins yet — by a tense and haunting mile,” and we cannot wait to talk to her all about it.
Watch the LIVE video broadcast of this interview as it airs Wed 10/23 at 7pm ET on the F&F Facebook group page & YouTube channel. Catch the audio version on our podcast Fri 10/25.
Order Paula’s book on Bookshop.org!
Shop all of our guests’ & hosts’ books in our F&F Shop on Bookshop.org!
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PATTI CALLAHAN HENRY first wants to tell you some exciting news! Her publishing house (S&S/Atria) has organized the most beautiful gift for readers! Check it all out HERE! Once you pre-order from any retailer in any format, you’ll be eligible for lots of great goodies including a gorgeous digital travel journal that shows all the amazing pictures and stories from Patti’s research trip to London and England’s Lake District, along with custom-designed bookplates. Atria has also just launched another Goodreads giveaway on now through Nov 12. Enter HERE to be a winner of one of 100 ARCs. Patti had the most amazing week in New York City with her publishing house and agent, along with Meg Walker and a truly synchronistic visit with our Mary Kay Andrews who was in the city at the same time. From a lunch where Patti met some of the most fascinating people in media, to publishing meetings where they brainstormed some amazing things for our readers, as well as two plays and some time with friends (See instagram post with photos!). It was a whirlwind before she set off to the mountains in NC for the wedding of a dear friend’s daughter whom she’s known since she was four years old. (Time is moving too fast.) She LOVES the fall weather and has so many exciting things coming up with the new release, The Story She Left Behind.
What Patti is reading and why she’s loving it: Where the Rivers Merge by Mary Alice Monroe. “The FF Book Club did a cover reveal for Mary Alice’s newest and I have been diving into this family saga while traveling. This book has all the things that mean the most to Mary Alice – family, nature, and our connection to both! It follows the Rivers family and their deep connection to the land and one very particular place along the river. I can’t wait to see what happens to this complicated family and their matriarch, Eliza Rivers.”
KRISTY WOODSON HARVEY was completely enchanted by seeing Taylor Swift in person in Miami last weekend! If you want to see her photos, her instagram is basically a Swiftie fan page right now! She is hard at work on her 2026 novel and is getting so excited to announce her 2025 book to you all this week! Be on the lookout for the exciting news!
What Kristy is reading and why she’s loving it: The Merry Matchmaker by Sheila Roberts. “Sheila always gets me in the holiday spirit with her Christmas books and this one is no exception! The Merry Matchmaker is a reimagining of Jane Austen’s, Emma. It is set in a small rural town that is all about Christmas. I am really enjoying it so far!”
KRISTIN HARMEL spent some time on Florida’s east coast over the weekend with her in-laws, to celebrate her niece’s 12th birthday. And now that her 2025 book has a cover and a title (The Stolen Life of Colette Marceau), it will be out in galley form (advanced readers copies) in less than a month, and she’s excited to begin sharing it with early reviewers! She’s also excited that this week marks the re-release of When We Meet Again (originally published in 2016), with a brand-new cover, updated text, and a new Author’s Note! If you haven’t read it yet, she’d be deeply grateful if you’d take a look this week! It’s out now!
What Kristin is reading and why she’s loving it: Where the Rivers Merge by Mary Alice Monroe. “Our friend Mary Alice, one of the original co-founders of Friends & Fiction back in 2020 (alongside me, Mary Kay, Patti, and Kristy), is back this May with a sweeping family saga set in 20th century South Carolina. Spanning between 1908 and 1988, Where the Rivers Merge is the first book in a duology about headstrong family matriarch Eliza Pinckney Rivers, who comes of age during a period of great transition for the South, and in the twilight of her life, is holding on fiercely to the family property she has loved and protected for nearly a century. Filled with both great heartbreak and great joy, the novel is also a reminder to all of us to conserve the land–an environmental message that Mary Alice has long held dear.”
MARY KAY ANDREWS spent a whirlwind few days in New York City last week. She had an amazing lunch with her St. Martin’s Press publishing team, and managed to meet up with PCH and Meg to sneak in dinner and a play–a touching rom-com called Left On Tenth. For research purposes for her next novel she toured the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, and then Ellis Island, before heading over to New Jersey for the Morristown Festival of Books. She’s excited about the publication of her Amazon Original Christmas short story Holiday Hideaway, which will be available Tuesday 10/29 as an e-book and as an Audible Original. Go here to pre-order.
What MKA is reading and why she’s loving it: The Page Turner by Viola Shipman. “It’s a funny and sharply-observed tale of a young romance writer confronting the secrets and snobbery of her publishing insider family.”
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Wednesday, November 6, 6pm ET — Join us at the Grand Bohemian Hotel in Orlando, FL for a unique fundraising event benefiting the Florida Cancer Specialists (FCS) Foundation which will include a reception over cocktails and hors d’oeuvres, an intimate presentation, book sales, and an autograph session. Get tickets HERE. * The last day to buy tickets is Oct. 31, so get yours now!
Thursday, November 7, 12:30pm ET — Tim Ehrenberg of Tim Talks Books will emcee a lively and fun F&F Live luncheon event hosted by the Amelia Island Book Festival at The Ritz-Carlton in Amelia Island, FL. Ticket includes book signing, photo opps, and tea fare: light lunch, snacks, and refreshments. Get tickets HERE.
Saturday, January 18, 2025 at 11am – Sunday, January 19, 2025 at 2pm — Patti & Kristin together with Kwame Alexander at the 20th Annual Wild Dunes Author Event & Weekend hosted by Mary Alice Monroe. Info & tickets HERE.
Want to know what these F&F Live events are all about? Watch this video compilation!
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On last week’s episode of The Friends & Fiction Show, Ron Block & Kristy Woodson Harvey welcomed Marybeth Whalen to discuss her new novel EVERY MOMENT SINCE (Harper Muse, Oct. 1), a book that, with hauntingly vivid prose, peels back the curtain on the inner turmoil of those left behind in a small Southern community after a little boy goes missing.Order Marybeth’s book from the F&F Shop on Bookshop.org, where you’ll also find books by all our hosts and guests, all at a discount—and where all your purchases support our show and our beloved indie bookstores nationwide!
You can WATCH that episode on Facebook or YouTube, or LISTEN to it on our podcast.
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: F&F Pick of the Month: Jodi Picoult, By Any Other Name
WATCH now! | LISTEN now!
Already aired: Liane Moriarty, Here One Moment
WATCH now! | LISTEN now!
Already aired: Jean Hanff Korelitz, The Sequel
WATCH now! | LISTEN now!
Already aired: Sophie Kinsella, What Does It Feel Like
WATCH now! | LISTEN now!
Already aired: Marybeth Whalen, Every Moment Since
WATCH now! | LISTEN now!
F&F Pick of the Month: Paula Hawkins, The Blue Hour
WATCH LIVE Oct. 23 | Listen Oct. 25
Louise Penny, The Grey Wolf
Watch Oct. 30 | Listen Nov. 1
J.T. Ellison, A Very Bad Thing
Watch Nov. 6 | Listen Nov. 8
David Baldacci, To Die For
Watch Nov. 13 | Listen Nov. 15
F&F Pick of the Month: Michael Connelly, The Waiting
WATCH LIVE Nov. 20 | Listen Nov. 22
Craig Johnson, Tooth and Claw
Watch Nov. 27 | Listen Nov. 29
Signe Pike, The Shadowed Land
Watch Dec 4 | Listen Dec. 6
Jillian Cantor, The Greatest Lie of All
Watch Dec. 11 | Listen Dec. 13
F&F Pick of the Month: Hazel Gaynor & Heather Webb, Christmas with the Queen
WATCH LIVE Dec. 18 | Listen Dec. 20
F&F Secret Santa Holiday Party
Watch Dec. 25 | Listen Dec. 27
We have a Friends & Fiction merch store with t-shirts, sweatshirts, coffee mugs and a book bag on Bonfire. We also have other items like wine tumblers, reading journals, and our original white v-neck logo tees available through Oxford Exchange.
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 more than 30k 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 Sarah Pekkanen about her novel, HOUSE OF GLASS. Mark your calendars for November 18th for their next author guest, Kimberly Brock, when they’ll discuss her novel, THE FABLED EARTH. With the help of Annissa Armstrong, the Book Club is also hosting the 2024 F&F Reading Challenge. Join them for a different category prompt each month to read outside your comfort zone. The October prompt is “Team Vampire or Team Werewolf: You Decide!” and for November it’s to read a collection of short stories or essays.
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Shop our guests’ & hosts’ books in our shop on BOOKSHOP.
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