The Thread® - Books and Literary News

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Sign up for The Thread newsletter to get reading recommendations from Kerri Miller and other bookworms around the MPR newsroom. Sam Stroozas rounds up local events and Minnesota book news you may have missed.

Ask a Bookseller

Ask a Bookseller is a weekly series where host Emily Bright checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. Listen to Ask a Bookseller to find your next favorite book.

Big Books and Bold Ideas

Big Books and Bold Ideas is a weekly series hosted by Kerri Miller and produced by Kelly Gordon every Friday at 11 a.m., featuring conversations about books and other literary ideas. Listen to Big Books and Bold Ideas here.

Talking Volumes

Talking Volumes is an annual event series featuring notable authors in conversation about their new books. Presented by MPR News and The Minnesota Star Tribune.

From the archives: How immigration shapes America
We’re teeing up this week’s Big Books and Bold Ideas conversation with historian Kelly Lytle Hernandez by throwing it back to 2017. That’s when Kerri Miller hosted a national call-in show called “Indivisible,” and in this episode from the archives, experts Eboo Patel and Tamar Jacoby tackle the question: Is America still a land of immigrants?
Two sisters fight for Vietnam's independence
The novel Bronze Drum explores the legend of the sisters' rebellion against Chinese rule and the idea of collective memory as resistance.
Funeral director Caleb Wilde on 'All the Ways Our Dead Still Speak'
Is the promise of heaven a coping mechanism that allows us to avoid the inevitable truth of our own mortality? In his new book, funeral director, theology student and author Caleb Wilde shares his thoughtful, unexpected and ultimately hopeful reflections about death, the afterlife and staying connected with those we’ve lost.
Old books, new perspectives: Program aims to diversify rare books field
The rare and antiquarian books field has historically been dominated by white men, and difficult to enter for anyone without a prior connection. A new fellowship at a Minnesota rare book seminar is aimed at bringing more diverse voices into the industry.
Historian Carol Anderson on the assault to undermine voting rights
The Voting Rights Act turns 57 this week. But its power to outlaw discriminatory voting practices has been slowly chipped away. On a special Big Books and Bold Ideas, MPR News host Kerri Miller talks with historian and scholar Carol Anderson about what’s next for voting rights.
From the archives: Sunita Puri on living — and dying — well
This Friday’s Big Books and Bold Ideas will feature a conversation between host Kerri Miller and author Caleb Wilde, a sixth-generation funeral director who’s written a new book, “All the Ways Our Dead Still Speak.” It hearkens back to a 2019 discussion Miller had with Dr. Sunita Puri, about her poetic and practical book, "That Good Night: Life and Medicine in the Eleventh Hour." Modern medicine can help us live longer. But can it help us die well?