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.

Kao Kalia Yang started out writing her family’s refugee memoir. Now she’s sharing the journeys of others
The Minnesota author's new book, "Somewhere in the Unknown World," began when she collected her uncle’s story about fleeing Laos. Then she spoke to a Liberian hospital worker, a Karen parent from school, a Jewish singer from Ukraine — and created “a collective refugee memoir.”
'Where The Wild Ladies Are' is perfect Halloween reading
Aoko Matsuda's gently supernatural story collection — all about women who are something more than they seem — gets its unearthly feel not from jump scares, but from the quality of the writing.
Sixty years on, an NBA story teaches about racial injustice
The Minneapolis Laker’s Elgin Baylor’s high-flying style of basketball energized the early NBA, but it was his appearance courtside in a suit that changed the league. Now that story is being told in a children’s book.
'The Voice Of Sheila Chandra' echoes through time and space
Kazim Ali's new poetry collection was inspired by the story of Sheila Chandra, a well-known singer rendered voiceless by an incurable neurological condition.
'The Once And Future Witches' will have you spellbound
Alix Harrow's new book is set in an alternate 19th-century America where the suffragette movement exists alongside a quest to restore magic and end the banishment of witches and witchcraft.
'Piranesi,' a perfect fall read leading up to Halloween
Chloe Deblois of Sherman’s Maine Coast Book Shop in Damariscotta, Maine, recommended the novel “Piranesi” by Susanna Clarke, the bestselling author of “Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell.”
Talking Volumes: A conversation with Helen Macdonald
Kerri Miller hosts a conversation with bestselling author Helen Macdonald about her new book “Vesper Flights.”
Novel by Yaa Gyasi explores addiction, immigration and family ties
Kerri Miller talked with writer Yaa Gyasi about growing up in Alabama, sibling relationships and her new book “Transcendent Kingdom.”