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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.

'My Papi has a Motorcycle' pays loving tribute to a California childhood

'My Papi has a Motorcycle' pays loving tribute to a California childhood

Author Isabel Quintero and illustrator Zeke Peña worked together on My Papi Has a Motorcycle, a homage to Quintero's childhood in California's Inland Empire, and to her hard-working father.
by Leila Fadel and Samantha Balaban

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'The Downstairs Girl' faces difficult history with joy and style

'The Downstairs Girl' faces difficult history with joy and style

In Stacey Lee's new novel, an opinionated and talented Chinese American girl makes her way in Reconstruction-era Atlanta while preserving her secret work as an advice columnist in the local paper.
by Caitlyn Paxson

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In 'Automatic Eve,' steampunk meets 'Blade Runner' — in Japan

In 'Automatic Eve,' steampunk meets 'Blade Runner' — in Japan

Rokuro Inui's mosaic novel is set in a lush alternate Japan, full of cricket fighting tournaments, beautiful automata and intricate webs of plot and counter-plot around the mysterious Eve.
by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

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A girl goes missing, but it's not a mystery

A girl goes missing, but it's not a mystery

“It is the most surprising book I have read all year,” says bookseller Emilie Sommer.
by Tracy Mumford

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Characters shine in powerful, dreamy 'The World Doesn't Require You'

Characters shine in powerful, dreamy 'The World Doesn't Require You'

Rion Amilcar Scott's second story collection returns readers to his fictional town of Cross River, Md., site of America's only successful slave uprising, and God is one of the best-known residents.
by Michael Schaub

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'Going Dutch' is a charming, well-observed debut

'Going Dutch' is a charming, well-observed debut

James Gregor's novel about a gay man who falls into an intense relationship with a woman mixes old-fashioned style and contemporary setting. His observations on human nature are precisely rendered.
by Ilana Masad

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'The Trojan War Museum' is a gorgeous gallery of dreams

'The Trojan War Museum' is a gorgeous gallery of dreams

Ayşe Papatya Bucak's debut collection is full of musical, lyrical stories that occupy a dreamscape of Turkish culture, art history and surprise encounters between humans, ghosts and djinns.
by Marcela Davison Avilés

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