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. 

'The Testaments' takes us back to Gilead for a fast-paced, female-centered adventure
Margaret Atwood's long-awaited sequel to The Handmaid's Tale brings readers new voices (and one familiar one) and a whole new view of Gilead, the dystopian theocracy that was once the United States.
Margaret Atwood, Salman Rushdie headline 2019 Booker Prize shortlist
Atwood made the list for her sequel to The Handmaid's Tale, and Rushdie for his reimagining of Don Quixote. Chigozie Obioma, Elif Shafak, Lucy Ellmann and Bernardine Evaristo round out the finalists.
'Just Ask!' says Sonia Sotomayor. She knows what it's like to feel different
We're all different and that's good, says the U.S. Supreme Court justice. Her new children's book about embracing diversity portrays kids of all abilities working together to create a gorgeous garden.
Coming to terms with loss and grief in the gorgeous 'Everything Inside'
Edwidge Danticat's new story collection explores the ways people deal with death, from a woman whose barely known father is dying to a man facing his last seconds as he falls from a construction site.