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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.

This year's National Book Awards — announced in a first-ever virtual streaming ceremony — went mostly to writers of color, as the foundation that gives the prizes vowed to be more inclusive.
Lin Enger's new novel delves into truth, lies and the apocalypse
Lin Enger says his own obsession with the rapture developed over the years, as did a story he first set out to write three decades ago. “American Gospel” is set in the 1970s but has an eerie ring of today.
You don't have to like astrology to love 'Written In The Stars'
A free-spirited astrology blogger and a straitlaced insurance actuary agree to fake a relationship — and then really fall for each other in Alexandria Bellefleur's charming queer romance.
Light punctures the darkness in 'One Night Two Souls Went Walking'
Ellen Cooney's new novel follows an unnamed hospital chaplain on her rounds, as she ministers to patients and grapples with her own internal questions. It's a quiet, inward-looking but hopeful story.
Ask a Bookseller: 'A heaping helping of joy'
Dionne Sims, owner of the new pop-up store Black Garnet Books in Minneapolis, recommended a book that’s been bringing her joy lately: "#Very Fat #Very Brave” by comedian Nicole Byer.
Booksellers of color lift up diverse voices
Host Kerri Miller talks to three bookshop owners about their recommendations for building empathy through reading.
Former President Obama tells his story his way — and makes his case for history
Former President Barack Obama's ascent thrilled millions but also stirred a countermovement that is still on the march. His new memoir, “A Promised Land,” covers his rise through the second year of his presidency.
Fareed Zakaria on a post-pandemic world
Will we ever recover from the pandemic? CNN host and journalist Fareed Zakaria says yes — and we will be stronger for it.