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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.

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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. 

'A Most Beautiful Thing' tells of the first U.S. All-Black high school rowing team
In “A Most Beautiful Thing,” Arshay Cooper shares the story of how he, and others from rival gang neighborhoods on Chicago's West Side, found their way to crew — and each other.
Have questions about voting? A law professor tells you 'What you need to know'
In a new book, Kim Wehle explains voting basics. She tells NPR, "if we don't go to the polls to protect democracy itself, it could fail. And I believe that's what's on the ballot in November."
Fascinating, messy 'Death In Her Hands' is a portrait of an unraveling mind
Ottessa Moshfegh's latest isn't exactly a murder mystery, though there seems to be a mysterious murder. It's more a portrait of a woman gradually losing her mind, using the mystery to try to hang on.
'Jesus And John Wayne' explores Christian manhood — and how belief can bolster Trump
Author Kristin Kobes Du Mez says: "It seemed like evangelicals had betrayed their values. But if you look at this longer history of evangelical masculinity and militarism ... this wasn't a betrayal."
'The Tigers' two-way travelogue is a journey both within and without
Known for her meditative travel memoirs, Mary Morris' wanderings were nearly curtailed by a serious ankle injury. “All the Way to the Tigers” is a passage deep into the broken places that shaped her.