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The Thread® - Books and Literary News

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

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. Sam Stroozas rounds up local events and Minnesota book news you may have missed.

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.

Photographers make kids' wildest dreams come to life

Photographers make kids' wildest dreams come to life

A husband and wife photography team create avant-garde and futuristic shoots for their clients. The couple hopes the portraits transcend the typical images of beauty.
by Kelley Dickens

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'Hunt, Gather, Parent' offers lessons collected around the world

'Hunt, Gather, Parent' offers lessons collected around the world

NPR's Michaeleen Doucleff found that parenting books she read after becoming a mom left a lot out. When she went through a tough period with her daughter, she traveled the world in search of guidance.
by Rachel Martin

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Tim O'Brien on late-in-life fatherhood and the things he carried from Vietnam

Tim O'Brien on late-in-life fatherhood and the things he carried from Vietnam

Now 74, Tim O'Brien didn't become a father until his late 50s. He reflects on writing, mortality and his experiences in Vietnam in the new documentary, “The War and Peace of Tim O'Brien.”
by Terry Gross

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A botched execution leads to a search for answers in 'Two Truths and a Lie'

A botched execution leads to a search for answers in 'Two Truths and a Lie'

Ellen McGarrahan was a young reporter for The Miami Herald, when she witnessed an execution that went horribly wrong. She revisits the case of Jesse Tafero in an intense new true crime book.
by Maureen Corrigan

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On 'The Kitchen Front,' 4 women cook their way to victory

On 'The Kitchen Front,' 4 women cook their way to victory

In Jennifer Ryan's new novel, set in England in 1942, four women from different backgrounds compete in a cooking contest with a possibly life-changing prize: The chance to cohost a BBC cooking show.
by Maria Godoy

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Lawrence Ferlinghetti, beat poet and small-press publisher, dies at 101

Lawrence Ferlinghetti, beat poet and small-press publisher, dies at 101

In 1956, Ferlinghetti published the first edition of Allen Ginsberg's “Howl.” According to one critic, his greatest accomplishments were fighting censorship and starting a small-press revolution.
by Tom Vitale

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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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