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.

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. 

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. 

Got a young reader on your holiday gift list? Here are some options
Are you shopping for gifts for that special child or teenager in your life? How about a book? On Friday, MPR News host Angela Davis was joined by two local children’s book experts. They offered up some of the best titles for kids and teens this holiday season.
'1973: Rock at the Crossroads' acts as a mirror for one moment in time
Via popular music, Andrew Grant Jackson paints a vivid portrait of a year that was the last gasp of an age of possibility, when idealism gave way to economic recession and cynical disillusionment.
'At the Mountains of Madness,' spheroid space monsters are just like us
Gou Tanabe's graphic novel adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's novella makes its monsters both terrifying and weirdly human. Even if space spheres aren't your thing, Tanabe's art still prompts wonder.
He was a horse that never won a race. So why should someone steal him?
On Christmas Eve 2004, Urgent Envoy disappeared from his stable in the middle of the night. He had finished his only ever race in last place, but that didn't matter to the trainer who took him.
'The best thing you can do is not buy more stuff,' says 'Secondhand' expert
"Your average thrift store in the United States only sells about one-third of the stuff that ends up on its shelves," Adam Minter says. His book explores what happens to the things that don't sell.
Maureen Corrigan's favorite books of 2019: Here are 10 unputdownable reads
This year's list is a mix of literary fiction, true crime, memoirs and essays, from acclaimed authors as well as some brand new voices — and you won't be able to put any of them down.
Greely's polar expedition faces heartbreak amid heroism in 'Labyrinth of Ice'
Author Buddy Levy's superbly written, meticulously researched chronicle tells the adventure story of a group of explorers aiming to achieve "Farthest North" and claim the win for the U.S. in 1881.