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The Thread® - Books and Literary 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.

Sign Up for The Thread® Newsletter

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. 

Author says 'mixed solutions can feel like a cop-out' but may solve housing inequity

Author says 'mixed solutions can feel like a cop-out' but may solve housing inequity

Journalist Conor Dougherty doesn't traffic radical ideas in “Golden Gates,” but tells the story of housing in all its complexity, acknowledging that imperfect solutions are often the only solutions.
by Nicholas Cannariato

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'Little Legends' celebrates big lives of black history

'Little Legends' celebrates big lives of black history

Vashti Harrison's new picture book showcases black leaders throughout American history — but not just the big names. She also focuses on artists, athletes and scientists who may be less well-known.
by David Greene

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'And I Do Not Forgive You' pokes piquant fun at the patriarchy

'And I Do Not Forgive You' pokes piquant fun at the patriarchy

Amber Sparks' new story collection is full of vivid language, compelling imagery, sharp wit and tenderness; many of the pieces also share a thread of anger in their treatment of the patriarchy.
by Ilana Masad

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Missteps lead publishing industry to review diversity effort

Missteps lead publishing industry to review diversity effort

Diversity in publishing has been an industry issue for years. But the current controversy over Jeanine Cummins' novel “American Dirt" has intensified the debate. Flatiron Books admits it was caught off guard by the objections of Mexican American writers to Cummins' story of a mother and child fleeing to the U.S. border.
by The Associated Press

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Stormy 'Weather' captures our anxious age with bracing wit

Stormy 'Weather' captures our anxious age with bracing wit

Jenny Offill's darkly funny, urgent new novel follows a librarian who gets involved in doomsday prepping. It's a perfect portrait of our age of rising anxiety over climate change and
by Heller McAlpin

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What fictional pandemics can teach us about real-world survival

What fictional pandemics can teach us about real-world survival

People have been telling stories about pandemics for thousands of years — once, they were tales of divine retribution, but today they're often rooted in current events like the coronavirus outbreak.
by Neda Ulaby

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Author Michael Pollan explains caffeine cravings (and why you don't have to quit)

Author Michael Pollan explains caffeine cravings (and why you don't have to quit)

When Pollan decided to write about caffeine, he gave it up — cold turkey. "I just couldn't focus," he says. "I was irritable. I lost confidence." Caffeine reshapes the brain in surprising ways.
by Terry Gross

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'Black Sunday' will destroy you — let it

'Black Sunday' will destroy you — let it

Tola Rotimi Abraham's wrenching novel follows a four young children in Lagos, Nigeria, whose comfortable life is blown apart when their mother loses her job, and their father abandons them.
by Gabino Iglesias

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Love has a ghost of a chance in 'The Regrets'

Love has a ghost of a chance in 'The Regrets'

Amy Bonaffons deftly avoids the trap of saccharine sweetness in her new novel about a ghost serving out a 90-day sentence on Earth — and the woman he falls in love with.
by Michael Schaub

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