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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.

Sign Up for The Thread® Newsletter

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. 

Pigeons star in a tale of mining in 'Flight of the Diamond Smugglers'

Pigeons star in a tale of mining in 'Flight of the Diamond Smugglers'

Journalist Matthew Gavin Frank exposes the history of South Africa's nefarious diamond industry, accompanied by a tale of pigeons and their role in subversion, in crisp and poetic prose.
by Martha Anne Toll

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'Red Line' examines Syria's use of chemical weapons, and the world's discovery of it

'Red Line' examines Syria's use of chemical weapons, and the world's discovery of it

Journalist Joby Warrick takes a detailed look at an excruciating moment for the world — the time in 2013 when the U.S. concluded that Syria's government had used chemical weapons in its civil war.
by Steve Inskeep

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'Popular Longing' digs into everything we'd rather leave unsaid

'Popular Longing' digs into everything we'd rather leave unsaid

In her third collection of poems, Natalie Shapero takes a blunt, funny look at the uncomfortable realities of life under capitalism. She says her work engages with the things people don't talk about.
by Jeevika Verma

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Ep. 11: Books, burgers and croissants. (Like ya do)

Ep. 11: Books, burgers and croissants. (Like ya do)

The polar vortex a few days back made us want to get extra comfy in The Warming House this week. We got reading suggestions to curl up with from two booksellers. And as is the way in The Warming House, however, we quickly got distracted with food — officially launching The Great Minnesota Burger Bracket.
by Tiffany Hanssen, Sean McPherson and Nina Moini

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In 'Nubia: Real One,' trying to be a hero when society thinks you're a threat

In 'Nubia: Real One,' trying to be a hero when society thinks you're a threat

Nubia has been many things over decades of comics: Wonder Woman's sister, her rival, a guardian of the underworld. Now, L.L. McKinney and Robyn Smith have re-imagined her as a Black American teenager.
by Juanita Giles

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Ask a Bookseller: A northern Minn. author explores the aftermath of a shooting

Ask a Bookseller: A northern Minn. author explores the aftermath of a shooting

Sally Wizik Wills of Beagle and Wolf Books and Bindery in Park Rapids, Minn., recommends a new book by a local author this week: Doug Mayfield’s “The Saint Patrick’s Day Hero.” The novel begins after a horrific mass shooting at a fictional college in Minnesota.
by Emily Bright

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You actually will be talking about 'No One is Talking About This'

You actually will be talking about 'No One is Talking About This'

Patricia Lockwood's first novel follows an extremely online woman whose life changes forever when her niece is born with a serious illness — which sounds Hallmark-ready, but Lockwood pulls it off.
by Heller McAlpin

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Aspen Words announces 5 finalists for 2021's literary prize

Aspen Words announces 5 finalists for 2021's literary prize

The $35,000 prize honors fiction that "illuminates vital contemporary issues." This year's finalists deal with everything from Native American land ownership to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
by Petra Mayer

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'The Echo Wife' layers sci-fi and murder mystery for a twisty treat

'The Echo Wife' layers sci-fi and murder mystery for a twisty treat

Sarah Gailey's new novel follows a famed geneticist whose husband uses her methods to clone her — and has an affair with the clone. When he's murdered, the two women must figure out to do next.
by Jason Heller

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