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. 

Thinking outside the ‘daily concrete life’: How puppets and picture books create a sense of possibility
Minnesota artist Anne Sawyer, a puppeteer and educator, channels her lifelong love of storytelling and improvisation into a new children’s book about pollinators that blends science, imagination and playful creativity.
‘I'm one American story’: Minnesota author Kao Kalia Yang resists being ‘the Hmong voice’
Author Kao Kalia Yang resists being boxed in, both as the only '“Hmong voice” in literature and in a singular genre. The Minnesota author has written memoirs, fiction, picture books, and even an opera.
One of literature's most lucrative prizes goes to debut fiction writer Canisia Lubrin
The judges of the annual prize for female and nonbinary writers praised Lubrin's debut short story collection, “Code Noir,” for breaking "new ground in short fiction." The award comes with $150K.
This Hollywood memoir is an expertly mixed cocktail of history and family drama
Matthew Specktor grew up the son of a famous Hollywood agent. In “The Golden Hour,” he serves up family saga, cultural criticism, fictionalized biography, history and lament for a vanishing world.
'Chooch Helped' this author and illustrator win the 2025 Caldecott Medal
Author Andrea L. Rogers and artist Rebecca Lee Kunz met by chance at the Cherokee National Holiday. Then they won the 2025 Caldecott Medal for their story about a helpful little boy named Chooch.