A group of college friends lose one member of the group to suicide just before graduation in 1995. The loss resonates and shapes their relationships for decades in this funny and moving novel by Steven Rowley. Steven returns to the podcast to talk about his fantastic 2023 release, a story that is personal to the author in many ways, “there’s so much story in these middle years,” he says of the characters who align with his own path.  He talks with Olivia about the book’s success, the screen adaptations for his work that are awaiting the end of the writers’ strike, and his own marriage.

The book is available in hardcover from GP Putnam & Sons, and the author narrates the audiobook. For more visit his website

This is the last episode of the Olivia’s Book Club podcast. Keep up with the group on Facebook, and stay connected with Olivia on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube  

Riley Sager is back and this creepy, twisty thriller takes readers on a tense ride to reveal what really happened the night of the Hope family murders, and why then 17-year-old Lenora was THE ONLY ONE LEFT.

Sager returns to the podcast for the third time to talk about his latest work, his book tour, and the plans for upcoming adaptation of THE HOUSE ACROSS THE LAKE for Netflix. For more on the author visit his website.

Riley Sager will be at The Poisoned Pen Bookstore in Scottsdale on June 19th, information is here. 

Ashley Audrain, the author of the 2021 powerhouse women’s fiction debut, THE PUSH, returns to the podcast to talk with Olivia about her new novel, THE WHISPERS.

THE WHISPERS takes us to an affluent street where we experience life, frustration, marriage concerns, parenting failures, heartbreaks, tragedies, embarrassment, suspicions, all through the eyes (and whispers) of four women: Whitney, Blair, Rebecca and Mara.

Ashley says her experience during the restrictions of the pandemic helped to shape the novel. “Your world became so small, your world was only as big as what you could see outside your front window, which was your neighbor and your neighboring houses. I think we all became a little more intimate and closer with the people we lived in proximity with, that was very much on my mind when I was writing the characters of this book and their settings on the street” she says.

THE WHISPERS is out now from Pamela Dorman/Viking and is also available in audio. For more on the author visit her website.

Click here to revisit Olivia and Ashley’s conversation about THE PUSH.

Happiness Project Founder and New York Times bestselling author
Gretchen Rubin returns to the podcast to talk with Olivia about her new 
book, LIFE IN FIVE SENSES, another useful tool for the toolkit of anyone 
who shares her insatiable desire to understand human nature and find 
ways to live a happier life.

For this book Gretchen embarks on an experiment to see how a focus 
on her senses might change her perspective and discovered she found 
greater calm, joy, and connection to the people and places surrounding 
her. Gretchen shares surprising discoveries from daily visits the New 
York Metropolitan Museum of Art and which life experience she’d like a 
do-over for, after practicing these methods to be more in her body and 
in the moment.

LIFE IN FIVE SENSES is available in hardcover from Crown Publishing and 
is also available in audio format, read by the author.

Want to better tap into your five senses? Check out the Happier With 
Gretchen Rubin podcast.

“A plane crashes into the ocean, sinks with people trapped inside,” T.J. Newman says in describing the premise of this summer’s new novel, DROWNING. The writer returns to the podcast to talk with Olivia about battling the pressures of following up her debut bestseller, and her gratitude for the opportunity to live her dream as a full-time writer. A former bookseller and flight attendant, Newman’s commercial airline centered thrillers sparked bidding wars in publishing and in Hollywood. This time around, deadline pressures were as intense as the burden of expectation, but Newman said she loved writing this intensely emotional book: “At its core, this story would not work if it were not a story of grief and loss and hope and survival and a family coming together” she says. 

DROWNING is published by Avid Reader Press, available for pre-order before its May 30, 2023 release.

Newman will be signing books at Changing Hands Bookstore, where she used to work, on Monday May 29, 2023. She’ll be at The Poisoned Pen Bookstore the following night. For more on TJ Newman, and to follow the latest developments as both her books head to the big screen, visit her website.

Christina Hobbs and Lauren Billings, the besties and writing duo who make readers’ smiles and hearts grow with every book published under the pen name Christina Lauren, return to the podcast to talk with Olivia about this summer’s release. THE TRUE LOVE EXPERIMENT is a stand alone novel focused on “Fizzy” aka Felicity Chen, who readers first met in their instant bestseller THE SOULMATE EQUATION.

“No two people complete each other, it is who is perfect for our heroine or our hero,” says Christina, and in this book it’s the divorced dad/documentary producer Conner who is clearly meant for Fizzy. The way the relationship unfolds slowly, Lauren explains, is what makes it good. “What more fun can you imagine than taking that person who thinks she knows everything about love and showing her that maybe that’s not actually true… they really became friends,” she says.

THE TRUE LOVE EXPERIMENT is out May 16, 2023 from Gallery Books. For more on the writers and their book tour, visit https://christinalaurenbooks.com/

A Mardi Gras bachelorette party leads to a chance encounter for bridesmaid Serena Khan that leads her considering blowing up the life she’s carefully built just weeks before her thirtieth birthday. As if that’s not challenging enough, she’ll need to get it back together (or at least look together) before she’s featured in a Life at 30 profile she’s been anticipating since graduation,

Neely Tubati Alexander joins the podcast to talk about her debut novel, LOVE BUZZ. She chats with Olivia about her favorite parts of the writing process, her approach to inclusion and representation in her work, and what it all has to do with Nirvana.

LOVE BUZZ is out in paperback and audio on May 2, 2023 from Harper Perennial. For more on the author, who has a contract for two more novels currently in the works, visit www.neelytubatialexander.com

Neely will celebrate her book’s launch locally at Changing Hands Bookstore in Phoenix on Friday May 12.

“He’s driving across America, running from the mob, the feds, the cops, a whole bunch of people just to try to find a place to be and exist,” says Don Winslow of where readers find the character of Danny Ryan in his new book, CITY OF DREAMS.

Don returns to the podcast to talk with Olivia about the second novel in the crime trilogy that began with CITY ON FIRE.  Winslow shares his advice for aspiring writers, and recollections of his stranger than fiction life prior to becoming a bestselling writer of crime fiction.

CITY OF DREAMS is available in hardcover from William Morrow and in audio from HarperAudio. For more on his work, visit https://www.donwinslow.com/

Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist Rebecca Makkai joins the podcast to discuss her novel, I HAVE SOME QUESTIONS FOR YOU. The book follows film professor and podcaster Bodie Kane’s return to her alma mater to teach a two-week course. The environment and her students’ interest in producing a true crime podcast about the murder of her former roommate resurrect strong feelings, questions and concerns for Bodie.  Rebecca tells Olivia about making changes to the character of Bodie, her interest in the obsession with true crime, the emotional moments that arise on the book tour when readers discuss her highly acclaimed book, THE GREAT BELIEVERS, and her SubMakk substack. She also shares her tribute to her late father, the 84 Books Project.

I HAVE SOME QUESTIONS FOR YOU is available in hardcover from Viking and audio from Penguin Audio. For more on the author visit https://rebeccamakkai.com/

Larry Loftis writers non-fiction thrillers. Not a genre Olivia was familiar with before reading his 2023 book THE WATCHMAKER’S DAUGHTER, Larry joined the podcast to talk about his approach to telling true stories that read like fiction. “I like thrillers, that’s what’s fun for me to read, turning the page, getting your heart rate going, so I just merged the two genres.”

Larry spends at least a year on research before beginning to write his books- and telling Corrie Ten Boom’s story was no different. Once he completes his extensive research, he exercises his creativity in the formatting and pacing of the story. He takes no creative license with the details: “I can’t make anything up. What I can do is decide when chapters end, that’s up to me. When there's a dead body, a gun, a briefcase stolen… then, I can end the chapter there. The reader says, ‘wait, wait, what happened? That's what a thriller is.”

Larry Loftis is the author of: THE PRINCESS SPY, CODE NAME: LISE, INTO THE LION’S MOUTH, and 2023’s THE WATCHMAKER’S DAUGHTER, published by William Morrow and is also available as an audiobook from Harper Audio.