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 Pinkneys are a picture-book perfect, author-illustrator couple
Author Andrea Davis Pinkney and illustrator Brian Pinkney have been together for 30 years and collaborated on nearly 20 books. "It's fun to work with the one you love," Andrea says.
A very different dragon tale
Think less magic, more Victorian-era memoir. That’s the twist on this fantasy series following the world’s most respected dragon expert.
'When I Was White' centers on the formation of race, identity and self
As the U.S. becomes more brown and black — resulting in a xenophobic backlash and nostalgia by some for white European immigrants — the ideas in Sarah Valentine's memoir become even more necessary.
'New Yorker' writer fears we're fooling ourselves in the internet's 'Trick Mirror'
In her new book of essays, culture writer Jia Tolentino explores how social media shapes identity, public discourse and political engagement — particularly for millennials such as herself.
Toni Morrison, whose soaring novels were rooted in black lives, dies at 88
Morrison was the author of “Beloved,” “Song of Solomon” and “The Bluest Eye.” She was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
'Our Women on the Ground' unites stories from female journalist in the Arab world
There's a deep fascination in the West with how women function in ultra-conservative societies where repression can be violent and even deadly. This anthology pulls back the curtain on those places.