Check This Out with Rachel Barenbaum

Ep. 144 NHPR Jennifer L. Armentrout: THE PRIMAL OF BLOOD AND BONE

“Romantasy” titles from indie presses, along with their enormous fan bases on BookTok, are reshaping the publishing landscape. Jennifer Armentrout is proving that the next giant of fiction doesn’t need a giant publisher. This is the sixth book in the Blood and Ash series- all published by a tiny Indie press that is taking publishing by storm.

Ep. 143 NHPR Maria Reva: ENDLING

Set in Ukraine, an eccentric scientist breeding rare snails crosses paths with sisters posing as members of the marriage industry. As Russia invades, they embark on a wild journey involving kidnapped bachelors and a last-of-its-kind snail.

Ep. 142 NHPR Lucas Schaefer: THE SLIP

A novel about a missing teenage boy, cases of fluid and mistaken identity, and the transformative power of boxing.

Ep. 141 NHPR Aaron John Curtis: OLD SCHOOL INDIAN

A coming-of-middle-age novel full of humor and grief. When Abe Jacobs is faced with an unthinkable diagnosis, he follows his fragile hope for a cure to the Mohawk Rez where he grew up. In his family’s hands, Abe just might find hope.

Ep. 140 NHPR Rob Franklin: GREAT BLACK HOPE

A young Stanford graduate caught between worlds of race and class, glamour and tragedy, a friend’s mysterious death and his own arrest. Pulled into the court system and mandated treatment, he finds himself in an absurd but dangerous situation: his class protects him, but his race does not.

Ep. 139 NHPR Emma Pattee: TILT

Annie is nine months pregnant and shopping for a crib when a massive earthquake hits Portland, Oregon. All she can do is try to walk home. We follow her journey across a transformed city as she reflects on her life and re-considers hope for the future.

Ep. 138 NHPR Jemima Wei: THE ORIGINAL DAUGHTER

In this debut novel, two sisters are betrayed and violently estranged. They must weigh the value of ambition versus familial love and home versus the outside world. An exploration of family bonds in a story of sisterhood in turn-of-the-millennium Singapore.

Ep. 137 NHPR Colwill Brown: WE PRETTY PIECES OF FLESH

A coming of age novel about working-class female friendship, set in the schoolyards, nightclubs, and alleyways of a gritty, post-industrial town in Yorkshire, England. Three girls are inseparable, their friendship as indestructible as they are, but as they grow up and away from one another, a long-festering secret threatens to rip the trio apart.

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.