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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.

October 31, 2019 6:00 AM

'Eat Joy': Top authors serve up recipes that gave them comfort in dark times

In a new book of essays, writers such as Claire Messud and Edwidge Danticat share stories of surviving dark times and the foods entwined with those memories. Think of it as a cathartic dinner party.

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October 30, 2019 6:31 PM

Racial unrest of early '90s Los Angeles resurfaces in 'Your House Will Pay'

Steph Cha's new novel takes place in the present day, but she connects her story of Korean American and black communities in LA to the riots and injustices of nearly three decades ago.

by Ailsa Chang

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October 30, 2019 1:46 PM

For author Kevin Wilson, writing offers a brief reprieve from Tourette's

For Wilson, Tourette's syndrome means living with intrusive thoughts that flash disturbing images without warning. His novel, Nothing to See Here, was inspired by visions of spontaneous combustion.

by Terry Gross

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October 30, 2019 9:18 AM

In 'Females,' the state is less a biological condition than an existential one

Beneath the veneer of provocation, Andrea Long Chu's book is surprisingly tender, aiming to care for a universal ache — the frayed knot of selfhood, desire and power.

by Marissa Lorusso

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October 29, 2019 4:33 PM

In new memoir 'Ordinary Girls,' Jaquira Díaz searches for home

Jaquira Díaz grew up in a public housing project in Puerto Rico; her father was a drug dealer and her mother was diagnosed as schizophrenic. As a child, she says, "I thought everyone lived like this."

by Steve Inskeep

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October 29, 2019 9:30 AM

'Shadow Network' offers a lesson on the American right's mastery of politics

Anne Nelson links "the manpower and media of the Christian right," "finances of Western plutocrats," and "strategy of right-wing Republican political operatives" via the Council for National Policy.

by Michael Schaub

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October 28, 2019 11:28 AM

Blending memoir and reporting, 'The In-Betweens' exposes an otherworldly community

Mira Ptacin spends time at Camp Etna and finds herself believing, at least, in the ideals of Spiritualism — emphasizing kindness, the importance of intuition, and the power of the unseen.

by Genevieve Valentine

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October 28, 2019 9:16 AM

'It Would Be Night in Caracas' mourns a mother and a country

Karina Sainz Borgo's novel follows a woman dealing with the death of her mother while trying to escape the violence and scarcity gripping Venezuela — an anarchy the book presents in shocking detail.

by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

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October 27, 2019 8:39 AM

Prince memoir, 'The Beautiful Ones,' brings to life a vision in one's mind

You won't get a full picture of Prince from this book, but it does manage to pierce through some of the mystery the renowned artist purposely cultivated around and about himself.

by Tanya Ballard Brown

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October 27, 2019 4:01 AM

'Burn It Down' diagnoses, analyzes the state of American women's anger

The anthology demonstrates that American women are just now at the starting line of exploring and understanding their anger; it's more about how they live with anger than about what makes them angry.

by Katharine Coldiron

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