Check This Out with Rachel Barenbaum

Ep. 136 NHPR Sameer Pandya: OUR BEAUTIFUL BOYS

Three star players on a high school football team are accused of violence by another student. Their secrets, and the secrets of their parents, threaten to shatter their entire community in a novel of race, class, and privilege.

Ep. 135 NHPR Tova Mirvis: WE WOULD NEVER

Inspired by a true story, “We Would Never” is a gripping murder mystery and an intimate family drama. It explores the issues of loyalty, betrayal, and the blurred line between protecting and forsaking the ones we love most.

Ep. 134 NHPR Julie Iromuanya: SEASON OF LIGHT

When 276 schoolgirls are abducted from their school in Nigeria, a Florida-based lawyer and former POW of the Nigerian Civil War is consumed by memories of his younger sister who went missing during that conflict. “A Season of Light” explores the shaky promise of the immigrant American dream and a family struggling with intergenerational trauma.

Ep. 133 NHPR Callan Wink: BEARTOOTH

Two brothers are living off the grid on the edge of Yellowstone. In dire straits and desperate for money, they accept a dangerous proposition that permanently alters their lives and their relationship to each other. 

Ep. 132 NHPR Olivia Wolfgang-Smith: MUTUAL INTEREST

A novel about marriage and ambition, sexuality and secrecy, and the true costs of building an empire. “Mutual Interest” explores the lives of “three queer misfits turned business titans” during the Gilded Age with immersive period detail and compelling emotional stakes.

Ep. 131 NHPR Karissa Chen: HOMESEEKING

“Homeseeking” follows Haiwen and Suchi, two separated lovers through six decades of Chinese history. War, famine, and opportunity take them from Hong Kong, to Taiwan, New York, and LA. This debut novel is a story of family, sacrifice, and loyalty, and of the power of love to endure beyond distance and time.

Ep. 130 NHPR Alison Espach: THE WEDDING PEOPLE

It's a beautiful day in Newport, Rhode Island, when Phoebe Stone arrives at the grand Cornwall Inn, the only guest who isn’t there for the big event.

A novel about depression, love, the ways women make themselves small, and the chance encounters it sometimes takes to reroute us.

Ep. 129 NHPR Yael Van der Wouden: THE SAFEKEEP

Shortlisted for the Booker Prize, this is a story of desire, suspicion, and obsession between two women staying in the same house in the Dutch countryside during the summer of 1961. An exploration of the legacy of WWII and the darker parts of our collective past.

Ep. 128 NHPR NH Librarians Recommend Their Favorite Books of 2024

A special Check This Out episode featuring three librarians from around the state chatting about their favorite books of the year and offering suggestions for this holiday reading season.

We also discuss how librarians feel about audiobooks — does it count as reading? Plus, the explosion of "Young Adult" titles and whether the name should be changed, how libraries decide which books to put on their shelves, and the pros and cons of self-publishing.

Ep. 127 NHPR Cherry Lou Sy: LOVE CAN'T FEED YOU

A beautiful, tender, yet searing debut novel about intergenerational fractures and coming of age, following a young woman who immigrates to the United States from the Philippines and finds herself adrift between familial expectations and her own desires.