The Thread® - Books and Literary News

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

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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. 

There are a lot of Pride Month reading lists out there — so we thought we'd get away from the classics everyone knows. We asked author Akwaeke Emezi to recommend some of their favorite reads.
These stories dance deftly between America and Cameroon
In her debut collection “Walking On Cowrie Shells,” Nana Nkweti bends language like a master, delivering keenly observed details and wicked humor no matter which side of the Atlantic she's on.
Ask a Bookseller: 'Bubblegum' offers a 'wonderous slog'
Bookseller Dan Carlisle was intrigued the moment he unpacked the box containing new copies of Adam Levin's novel "Bubblegum." The cover was colored and, more strikingly, scented like bubblegum.
Love rides the Q train in this supernaturally sweet romance
In Casey McQuiston's new “One Last Stop,” cynical August moves to New York, where she meets and falls for Jane, a mysterious punk who seems to have been trapped on the Q train ... since the 1970s.
This retelling of 'Gatsby' has demonic flair to spare
Nghi Vo recasts the classic book with Jordan Baker at the center, a Gatsby who's literally sold his soul and a speakeasy crowd that's partial to a drop of demon's blood in their illicit cocktails.
An Argentinean novel spins countless stories from a bicycle wheel
César Aira's “The Divorce,” a 2008 novel now out in English, centers around one charged moment at a Buenos Aires cafe, when water falling from an awning suddenly drenches a passing bicyclist.
Ecologist Suzanne Simard on understanding the wisdom of forests
Ecologist Suzanne Simard talked with host Kerri Miller about her new book “Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest” and what humans can learn from the way trees cooperate and communicate with other plants.