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The Thread® - Books and Literary News

The Thread® is your source for book recommendations and other literary news.

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Sign up for The Thread newsletter to get reading recommendations from Kerri Miller and other bookworms around the MPR newsroom. Sam Stroozas rounds up local events and Minnesota book news you may have missed.

Ask a Bookseller

Ask a Bookseller is a weekly series where host Emily Bright 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 and produced by Kelly Gordon every Friday at 11 a.m., featuring conversations about books and other literary ideas. Listen to Big Books and Bold Ideas here.

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.

As personal challenge, writer makes climate change a mainstream literary topic

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.
by Euan Kerr

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Navigating culture and crushes in 'Frankly in Love'

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?
by Scott Simon

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'A Cosmology of Monsters' blends freaky frights and family feels

'A Cosmology of Monsters' blends freaky frights and family feels

Shaun Hamill's new novel uses the lens of horror to examine the ways we interact and fail to interact with each other, and the way a family can be held together by the very things that tear it apart.
by Jason Heller

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'They Will Have to Die Now' is a bare-knuckles account of the fight against ISIS

'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.
by Tom Bowman

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The wisdom of Anthony Bourdain

Bookseller Hans Weyandt recommends a collection of Anthony Bourdain’s interviews, which show the famous chef as the “charming, belligerent, interesting traveler” he was.
by Tracy Mumford

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Here are the nominees for the 2019 National Book Awards

Here are the nominees for the 2019 National Book Awards

Colson Whitehead and Marlon James headline the longlists of names in contention for the literary prize. Altogether, 50 books across five categories stand a chance at winning the award in November.
by Colin Dwyer

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'Heaven, My Home' is a complicated place

'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.
by Bethanne Patrick

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'Red at the Bone' cuts close to the bone

'Red at the Bone' cuts close to the bone

Jacqueline Woodson's exquisitely wrought new novel follows two black families of different classes whose lives become intertwined when their only children conceive a child together in their teens.
by Heller McAlpin

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