The Thread® - Books and Literary News

The Thread from MPR News

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

Ask a Bookseller

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.

Big Books and Bold Ideas

Big Books and Bold Ideas is a weekly series hosted by Kerri Miller every Friday at 11 a.m., featuring conversations about books and other literary ideas. Listen to Big Books and Bold Ideas here.

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Sign up for The Thread newsletter to get reading recommendations from Kerri Miller and other bookworms around the MPR newsroom. Find reviews for new releases, as well as hidden gems you may have missed.

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. 

Latinx critics speak out against 'American Dirt;' Jeanine Cummins responds
Latinx writers and critics are speaking out against Jeanine Cummins' new book “American Dirt,” calling its depiction of the migrant experience inauthentic and harmful. We asked Cummins to respond.
In 'Sexual Citizens,' students open up about sex, power and assault on campus
Profs. Jennifer Hirsch and Shamus Khan asked more than 150 undergrads about their sex lives — what they wanted out of sex, how troubling encounters unfolded, and how misunderstandings led to assault.
Anyone will be allowed to publish the book, adapt it to a movie, make it into an opera or stage a Broadway musical. No longer will you need to get permission to write a sequel, a prequel, a Jay Gatsby detective novel or a Gatsby narrative populated with zombies.
In true tale 'The Third Rainbow Girl,' townspeople accuse one another of murder
Emma Copley Eisenberg's book offers a deep-dive into rural Appalachia — and digs into questions of how misogyny and bias can take root inside a community — as she tracks a double murder.
In 'Agency,' William Gibson builds a bomb that doesn't boom (and that's OK)
Gibson's new novel is a sequel to 2014's “The Peripheral,” jumping back and forth in time as investigators, military contractors and killers chase down a rogue AI, and tensions flare in the Middle East.