The Thread® - Books and Literary News

The Thread from MPR 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. 

Inside the fight for the right to die: Logistical and ethical challenges
Katie Engelhart explores the complexity of physician-assisted death in the book The Inevitable. She says patients seeking to end their own lives sometimes resort to veterinary drugs from overseas.
CRISPR scientist's biography explores ethics of rewriting the code of life
“The Code Breaker” profiles Jennifer Doudna, a Nobel Prize-winning biochemist key to the development of CRISPR, and examines the technology's exciting possibilities and need for oversight.
Author explores preacher father's silence on racial injustice in 1960s Alabama
After Pulitzer Prize-winner John Archibald read sermons from his father's time as a Methodist preacher, he went on a quest to find out why his dad, a devout man, didn't speak out publicly on racism.
'Once Upon A Quinceañera' has fairy tale charm
Monica Gomez-Hira's debut novel follows a Miami teen whose job as a party princess brings her into contact with the ex who ruined her chance to have her own quinceañera — and of course, sparks fly.
 The movie 'Fargo' marks its 25th anniversary
Host Angela Davis talks with Todd Melby about his new book on the making of the movie “Fargo.” Was the 1996 crime drama by the Coen Brothers based on a true story and were those Minnesota accents for real?