The Thread® - Books and Literary News

The Thread® is your source for book recommendations and other literary news.

Ask a Bookseller

Ask a Bookseller is a weekly series where The Thread 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 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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Sign up for The Thread newsletter to get reading recommendations from Kerri Miller and other bookworms around the MPR newsroom. Find reviews for new releases, as well as hidden gems you may have missed.

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.

Tickets are now available for our 26th season. Join award-winning journalist and MPR News host Kerri Miller (and special guest host Catharine Richart) as they talk with authors including Stacey Abrams, Patricia Lockwood, Misty Copeland, John Grisham, and Kate Baer.

March 24, 2021 3:29 PM

Out of prison but still trapped: Examining the 'afterlife' of incarceration

There are 45,000 laws, policies and administrative sanctions in the U.S. that target people with criminal records. Reuben Jonathan Miller researches how they affect people's lives in Halfway Home.

by Terry Gross

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March 23, 2021 1:11 PM

Farcical 'Life Of The Mind' skewers academic life and adjunct 'hell'

A graduate student is teaching four courses while also trying to finish a dissertation. Critic Maureen Corrigan calls Christine Smallwood's new novel one of the wittiest she's read in a long time.

by Maureen Corrigan

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March 23, 2021 8:27 AM

With 'Fierce Poise,' Helen Frankenthaler poured beauty onto canvas

Abstract expressionist Helen Frankenthaler poured pools of highly diluted pigments onto her raw canvases. Biographer Alexander Nemerov says her paintings are "about feeling the world."

by Susan Stamberg

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March 22, 2021 5:07 PM

Shankar Vedantam on the harms and benefits of self-deception

The truth is — we lie to ourselves every day. But according to Hidden Brain podcast host Shankar Vedantam, that might not be a bad thing.

by Kerri Miller and Kelly Gordon

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March 20, 2021 8:26 AM

'A Beginner's Guide To America' shows us the States through new eyes

Roya Hakakian was a teenager when she came to the United States from Iran. She says she hopes her book will help native-born Americans see all the small signs of democracy they don't usually notice.

by Scott Simon

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March 20, 2021 7:00 AM

Ask a bookseller: A picture book about recognizing value where others don’t

Zsamé Morgan travels across Minneapolis and St. Paul with her bookmobile, Babycake’s Book Stack. She is excited to spread the word about the picture book “Daisy” by Jessixa Bagley, which was published at the start of March.

by Emily Bright

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March 20, 2021 6:00 AM

'Firekeeper's Daughter' forges a new path between cultures and genres

A contemplative exploration of existing between two cultural identities meets fake relationship romance meets backwoods thriller in this powerhouse YA debut from Ojibwe author Angeline Boulley.

by Caitlyn Paxson

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March 19, 2021 11:26 AM

Talking Volumes: A conversation with writer N. Scott Momaday

Award-winning novelist and poet N. Scott Momaday cultivated a boundless imagination as a boy exploring the vast landscape of the American Southwest on horseback. He joined host Kerri Miller for Talking Volumes: Talking Race, a collaboration between MPR and the Star Tribune.

by Kerri Miller

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March 18, 2021 4:59 PM

'Shooting Midnight Cowboy' turns an eye to a dark, problematic masterpiece

John Schlesinger's flawed drama, the only X-rated film to win an Oscar for best picture, made Jon Voight a star and solidified Dustin Hoffman's status as one of his generation's greatest actors.

by Michael Schaub

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March 17, 2021 12:32 PM

Kazuo Ishiguro draws on his songwriting past to write novels about the future

The Nobel Prize-winning novelist says he honed his skills earlier in his career "as a writer of songs." Ishiguro's new book, Klara And The Sun, is set in the future and has an A.I. narrator.

by Terry Gross

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