I had the absolute pleasure to interview Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan in Cambridge, Massachusetts as part of their book tour last fall for the October 2022 Good Morning America Book Club pick Mad Honey. I can’t wait to bring the conversation here for our Nantucket Book Festival this June. And what a conversation it is!

I have been a fan of Jodi Picoult for decades, particularly her social issue fiction that really makes you think. Jodi always says that ideas for her novels are the things that are keeping her up at night and I have definitely lost some shut eye over several of her books. This time around she has teamed up with an equally gifted writer, Jennifer Finney Boylan, to tell the story of Lily Campanello and Olivia McAfee. It tackles enough subjects for a library of books; from transgender rights to beekeeping, from domestic abuse to gender identity. There are also some suspenseful courtroom scenes in this book to keep you on the edge of your jury seat. It is truly the characters, however, that kept my eyes stuck like honey to these pages. This moving novel is seamless storytelling about authenticity, identity, and belonging. It has the power to change opinions, create empathy, and connect us all. All aspects found in the transformative power of literature we strive to amplify here at the Nantucket Book Festival each June.

If you loved Mad Honey and are looking for more books by these authors to pick up I highly recommend Nineteen Minutes, Wish You Were Here, Second Glance, Lone Wolf, and Small Great Things (my top 5 Jodi Picoult novels). I had never read a Jennifer Finney Boylan book before Mad Honey, but now I consider myself a fan and she’s added to my automatic read list. I urge you to start with her memoir She’s Not There: A Life in Two Genders.