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.

Survival is an invitation to push through hard times in 'White Magic'
Elissa Washuta's “White Magic” is full of magic — and pain — as it deals with trauma while exploring cultural inheritance and the way attacks on Native women never stopped.
How women can reclaim their power
In her new book, “Unbound,” former dominatrix Kasia Urbaniak teaches women how to step into their power.
'Mom Genes' aims to examine biological transformations of motherhood
Abigail Tucker's descriptions of how radically women may change at the time of motherhood — and, as an extension, how this might affect their ability to focus on other things — gets pretty harrowing.
Ask a Bookseller: 'Witches Steeped in Gold' is a Jamaican-inspired YA fantasy   
Kalima Desuze of Café con Libros in Brooklyn, N.Y., recommends a Jamaican-inspired YA fantasy novel that just hit the shelves on April 20: “Witches Steeped in Gold” by debut author Ciannon Smart.
Comic: Bringing the library home during the pandemic
It's been a year since teachers were handed an unprecedented request: educate students in entirely new ways, amid the backdrop of a global pandemic. This week takes us to a librarian and a bus driver.
Cheap, legal and everywhere: How food companies get us 'hooked' on junk
Reporter Michael Moss says processed foods can be as alluring in some ways as cocaine or cigarettes. His new book explains how companies keep us snacking by appealing to nostalgia and brain chemistry.