Check This Out with Rachel Barenbaum

A Southern Black family drama unfolds as long-held secrets about a beloved son surface, shaking the foundation of a Mississippi town.

Based on a strange historical anecdote, this novel tells the story of five sisters in18th-century England whose neighbors become convinced they’re turning into dogs.

With Ruben we see a genre-blending, speculative historical novel about revolution and empire, following two families across alternate timelines of the Salvadoran civil war. Plus, a look into the publishing world with Zibby Owens. 

“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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.