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. 

Herman Wouk, 'The Jackie Robinson of Jewish-American fiction,' dies at 103
Wouk was famous for writing "The Winds of War," "Marjorie Morningstar" and "The Caine Mutiny," which won a Pulitzer Prize. He also helped popularize themes that writers like Philip Roth later tackled.
Friendship keeps you human in 'Rules for Visiting'
Jessica Francis Kane's new novel follows a prickly, 40-something gardener who -- inspired by the friendless fate of Beowulf's monstrous Grendel -- decides to reconnect with four of her oldest friends.
'Middlegame' makes mathematical magic
Seanan McGuire's new standalone novel stars twins: Roger is good at words and Dodger is good at math -- and both of them find themselves caught up in a shadowy alchemical plan for world domination.