The Thread® - Books and Literary News

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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.

In 'Like Other Girls,' you can be — and play — whatever you want. Even football.
Britta Lundin's “Like Other Girls” follows Mara, a hot-tempered 6'2" high school sports star who's booted from basketball for brawling, but finds a new life and a new way of being on the football field.
Osama bin Laden biography goes inside al-Qaida leader's final hideout
Journalist Peter Bergen visited bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, before it was demolished. His new book, “The Rise and Fall of Osama bin Laden,” draws on materials seized in the raid.
'Until Justice Be Done' examines northern free states' so-called black laws
The South practiced slavery before the Civil War — but Northern states like Ohio and Indiana had Black laws, restrictive codes that criminalized and constrained the lives of free Black residents
Oprah picked it, so did Obama — why this novel is THE summer book
Nathan Harris's debut, set in a small Southern town just after Appomattox, has captured American readersthis summer by asking a question we haven't yet answered: How do you make peace after civil war?
In 'Goldenrod,' a poet finds lessons in the good, the bad and the unexpected
Maggie Smith's new poetry collection considers the human tendency to search for universal truths — but she looks for those truths in things we can see every day, as ordinary as rosebushes and rocks.
Talking Volumes 2021 season guide
Join host Kerri Miller as she welcomes — in person! — an amazing lineup of writers to the stage. From deeply loved Minnesota novelists to huge New York Times bestsellers, you won’t want to miss this lineup.
Ask a Bookseller: 'Skunk and Badger'
Bookseller Linda Crowder recommends the kids’ chapter book “Skunk and Badger,” written by Amy Timberlake and illustrated by Jon Klassen. "This book will be a classic someday," predicts Crowder.