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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.

Monsters and magic run in the family in these 2 YA novels
“Six Crimson Cranes” and “The River Has Teeth” — two new July YA novels — both focus on monstrous mothers and folkloric family magic. But apart from that, they couldn't be more different.
'The Council of Animals' holds humanity's fate in its ... paws
In Nick McDonell's new novel, sentient animals control the fate of the few remaining humans — and must decide to do about the fear that humans will regroup and seize supremacy over the Earth again.
 Set boundaries and find peace 
Host Angela Davis talks to therapist and New York Times best-selling author Nedra Glover Tawwab about her newest book “Set Boundaries, Find Peace.” 
Chronicling Trump’s chaotic last year in office
In their new book, “I Alone Can Fix It,” Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker detail the final days of the Trump White House.
Think of your COVID-19 vaccine like a very good raincoat, says Dr. Leana Wen
It protects from drizzles and thunderstorms but not a hurricane. In other words, if you are exposed again and again to infected people, there's some risk you could get sick.
One woman takes a 'Wayward' approach to menopause in this smart new novel
Messy and foundering in late midlife, Dana Spiotta's heroine is roiling — along with the rest of the country — amid the 2016 election and the rise of the #MeToo and Black Lives Matter movements.
How Sandra Cisneros found space to be 'barefoot' and 'rude'
On the latest episode of Code Switch, Cisneros talks about why she became obsessed with houses, what it was like to finally buy one, and—spoiler alert—what it felt like to fall out of love with it.
New graphic novel 'Celestia' wanders an Earth that's no longer home
Manuele Fior's latest, “Celestia,” is set on a far-future Earth, wracked by climate change — but the terrors of flood and fire stay under the surface of his dreamy, hazy, philosophical story.