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.

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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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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. 

As personal challenge, writer makes climate change a mainstream literary topic
Writer Amitav Ghosh chided the literary world of writers, critics and readers to take climate change seriously and make it a central topic. While his new novel “Gun Island” does that, it’s also a page turner.
Navigating culture and crushes in 'Frankly in Love'
David Yoon's young adult debut follows Frank Li, a Korean American kid who concocts a plan to keep his strict parents from finding out that he's dating a non-Korean girl — what could go wrong?
Motherless children make their own family in Ann Patchett's 'The Dutch House'
Patchett's new novel is a story of paradise lost, dusted with fairy tale. It follows two siblings who bond after their mother leaves the family home — an ornate mansion she always hated.
A boy and a puppy come to each other's rescue in 'The Dog Who Lost His Bark'
“The Dog Who Lost His Bark” is a story in two halves, says author Eoin Colfer: "In the first half the boy heals the dog, and in the second half the dog heals the boy."
'They Will Have to Die Now' is a bare-knuckles account of the fight against ISIS
James Verini's book will stand up with some of the best war reporting, as he takes an unblinking look at the dirtiest kind of battle — urban combat — and the human wreckage it leaves in its wake.
Bookseller Hans Weyandt recommends a collection of Anthony Bourdain’s interviews, which show the famous chef as the “charming, belligerent, interesting traveler” he was.
'Heaven, My Home' is a complicated place
Attica Locke returns to the world of Highway 59 in Heaven, My Home, which finds Texas Ranger Darren Mathews dealing with the disappearance of the young son of an imprisoned white supremacist leader.