The Thread® - Books and Literary News

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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.

March 3, 2020 1:36 PM

The steel mill 'becomes a family' author of 'Rust' memoir reveals

Eliese Goldbach turned to a local steel mill in Ohio as a way to earn money after college. She's written a book about her journey — including its dangers and what she learned about the mill workers.

by Noel King

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March 3, 2020 11:21 AM

Publisher pushes back release date for John Bolton's book

Simon & Schuster cited the ongoing government security review of the former national security adviser's "The Room Where It Happened." The new date is May 12, the publisher said in a news release.

by The Associated Press

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March 3, 2020 6:37 AM

'The Power Notebooks' daringly explores contradictions in lives of women

Katie Roiphe's journal-like entries are a series of brief-but-potent meditations on women, autonomy, independence, and power — on "women strong in public, weak in private" — including herself.

by Heller McAlpin

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March 3, 2020 12:00 AM

John Barry speaks at St. Olaf about the history, science and politics of pandemics

John Barry speaks at St. Olaf College about pandemic preparedness and response.

by MPR News Staff

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March 2, 2020 11:31 AM

'Scratched' spotlights the value of a less orderly approach, harm of perfectionism

Elizabeth Tallent writes: "For the sake of perfection, I took a voice, my own, and twisted until mischance and error and experiment were wrung from it, and with them any chance of aliveness."

by Lily Meyer

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March 2, 2020 11:01 AM

Thread Must-Read: 'The Night Watchman' by Louise Erdrich

Two years ago, Louise Erdrich succumbed to a nasty bug and took to her bed for a time. She slept, she daydreamed and she finally rose with a conviction that her next novel could be found in letters that her grandfather, Patrick Gourneau, had written in a particularly tumultuous period of his life.

by Kerri Miller

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March 2, 2020 8:52 AM

'The Mirror & The Light' is a triumphant end to a spellbinding story

In this new novel, Hilary Mantel brings her award-winning trilogy on the life of Tudor politician Thomas Cromwell to an end. And even though readers know how this story will end, it's still gripping.

by Genevieve Valentine

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March 2, 2020 5:22 AM

St. Cloud's Zine Fest celebrates self-published booklets

A group of local artists is making sure that, for the first time this year, St. Cloud is part of the zine scene.

by The Associated Press

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March 2, 2020 4:00 AM

Former Viking Chris Kluwe attacks online harassment in YA sci-fi novel ‘Otaku’

Chris Kluwe, who retired from the NFL in 2014, combines a lifelong love of science fiction and a concern about equal rights to take on gamers who use the internet to make life miserable for female gamers.

by Euan Kerr

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February 29, 2020 9:21 AM

Louise Erdrich's grandfather inspired her new novel, 'The Night Watchman'

Louise Erdrich's new novel, set in the 1950s, follows a Native American tribe fighting for their rights as the U.S. Congress prepares to terminate their nation-to-nation treaties and land ownership rights.

by Scott Simon

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