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. 

From lawn mowers to rock concerts, our 'Deafening World' is hurting our ears
Volume Control author David Owen says our ears largely evolved in a far quieter time than the one we currently live in. He warns that the ambient noises that surround us pose a threat to our hearing.
'In The Dream House' invents a new form of memoir to convey a haunting nightmare
Under Carmen Maria Machado's narrative of a psychologically abusive relationship lies an academic view of female queerness, a play, a choose your own adventure book, a look at the mechanisms of abuse.
'The Great Pretender' seeks the truth 'on being sane in insane places'
Journalist and Brain on Fire author Susannah Cahalan writes in an urgent, personal book that the '70s study by David Rosenhan had an outsized effect on psychiatry — and may have been fatally flawed.
In 'Get a Life, Chloe Brown,' love doesn't cure all — but it sure is fun
Talia Hibbert's new novel stars Chloe, who's determined to get a life after years of coping with chronic pain, and Red, the mysterious and extremely annoying (at first) super at her new building.