The Thread

When Derrick Barnes began writing children's books 15 years ago, he didn't see Black kids — boys in particular — depicted in positive, affirming ways. Barnes has four sons of his own and he wrote his new book — “I Am Every Good Thing” — to be empowering and affirming.

Angela Libal from Title Wave Books in Anchorage, Alaska, recommended a book with Alaska significance and national appeal: the memoir “The Adventurer’s Son” by Roman Dial.

Minnesota Public Radio and the Star Tribune are proud to announce the 21st season of Talking Volumes. Talking Volumes is hosted by award-winning MPR News journalist Kerri Miller.

Kerri Miller hosts a conversation with award-winning author Sarah Broom about her book “The Yellow House.”

Mike Curato's new young adult graphic novel “Flamer” follows a teenager struggling with self-hate and all the different parts of his identity — being a Catholic, a Boy Scout, and being gay.

Megan Rosenbloom tells readers an adventurous tale of how her morbid curiosity brought her across an ocean to investigate the origins, motivations and techniques behind this macabre practice.

P. Djèlí Clark's new novella is set in an alternate Jim Crow America where the Ku Klux Klan contains actual pointy-headed white demons, and “The Birth Of a Nation” is not just a film but an incantation.

Brian Selfon spent years working in the criminal justice field, and he brings that knowledge to bear in his debut, about a family of money launderers whose lives are upended when a bag goes missing.

Former Minnesota Secretary of State Joan Anderson Growe talks with MPR News host Cathy Wurzer about her new book, "Turnout,” and reflects on the current election.

The Minnesota author's new book, "Somewhere in the Unknown World," began when she collected her uncle’s story about fleeing Laos. Then she spoke to a Liberian hospital worker, a Karen parent from school, a Jewish singer from Ukraine — and created “a collective refugee memoir.”