Check This Out with Rachel Barenbaum

Some favorite authors offer their suggestions for summer reading, plus host Rachel Barenbaum has some books by New England authors to recommend.

A debut novel about Ophir—not her real name—who starts a confessional podcast about her years on the run around the globe. Filled with danger and twists, it’s ultimately a story about immigration and belonging—one unlike any you’ve seen before.

And on the Book Biz, Katherine Center talks about what it takes to hang in the business for 20 years, how the Book Biz has changed, and her newest novel THE SHIPPERS. 

In this novel of friendship and hard-won hope, four lives are entangled across time by one story, saved to a floppy disk in the 1980s and destined to ripple across the centuries. For fans of punk rock, robots, 80’s nostalgia, and post-apocalyptic pirates.

And on our Book Biz segment, bookseller Rachel Kanter discusses the boom in audiobooks.

This debut novel, based on a Welsh myth, explores the themes of autonomy and choice when a lonely boy has a magical playmate created for him. It’s a lush, unsettling tale blending romance, horror, and fairytale elements, with a nod to Frankenstein.

And on our Book Biz segment, former Washington Post book critic, Ron Charles, on the future of literary criticism.

A viral dark dystopian romance set in a corrupt surveillance state ruled by the masked elite, following a mercenary who botches the assassination of the president’s son and ends up forced to marry him. Plus, Sarah MacLean discusses romance as the engine of the book industry. 

In a saga of survival and the secrets that haunt us, one desperate decision creates a fault line that spans decades and threatens to break a family wide open.

In the wreckage of a fateful Thanksgiving reunion at their Nigerian-American family’s table, four siblings are forced to reckon with the past, take stock of what really matters, and find a way back to each other.

On the Book Biz we talk with Laura McGrath, an English professor at Temple University and the author of the new book, "Middlemen: Literary Agents and the Making of American Fiction" about the role of agents in publishing today and whether we still need them.

A young woman faces a deadly competition where survival depends on mastering forbidden powers she barely understands. As secrets about her past and the ruling powers emerge, Arvelle must decide whom to trust before the trials—and her enemies—claim her life.

Through intertwining narratives set in both the U.S. and Pakistan, the novel reveals how class, power, and desire trap its characters in cycles of deception and emotional isolation.

And on our segment, The Book Biz, journalist Vauhini Vara, author of "Searches; Selfhood in the Digital Age," discusses how AI is changing writing, reading, and publishing.

In 1938, Fanny Zelshinsky, is deciding whether or not to go through with her upcoming wedding. Meanwhile, Zosia Dror has fled her religious family to become part of a new youth movement. But when artist Wanda Petrovsky goes missing, this unlikely duo works together to find Wanda before it’s too late.

And on our segment, The Book Biz, Rachel Kanter, owner and founder of Lovestruck Books, discusses digital-first publishing.