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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.

'At Dusk' exposes South Korea through a variety of lenses

'At Dusk' exposes South Korea through a variety of lenses

Hwang Sok-yong's novel is a perfect slice of Koreana; a touching, somewhat depressive narrative full of nostalgia exposing the underbelly of a nation via the people inhabiting society's bottom rung.
by Gabino Iglesias

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Spirited 'Family of Origin' defends the maligned millennial

Spirited 'Family of Origin' defends the maligned millennial

CJ Hauser's new novel centers on two estranged siblings trying to unravel their late father's work with a group of fringe biologists who believe evolution is running backward, away from millenials.
by Lily Meyer

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An imagined future speaks in 'Talking to Robots'

An imagined future speaks in 'Talking to Robots'

If you want to see what that future might look like, David Ewing Duncan's book is a fun place to start; he envisions various bots based on interviews with scientists and engineers, among others.
by Adam Frank

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Constantinople; Michelangelo; Elephants

Constantinople; Michelangelo; Elephants

Bookseller Matt Keliher recommends a short summer read by one of France's greatest living writers.
by Tracy Mumford

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34 ways to beat the system in 'Raised in Captivity'

34 ways to beat the system in 'Raised in Captivity'

Chuck Klosterman's new collection of "fictional nonfiction" is full of people who subvert expectations and find ways around the systems that rule our lives. Also, there's a puma in an airplane toilet.
by Jason Sheehan

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Rooted in history, 'The Nickel Boys' is a great American novel

Rooted in history, 'The Nickel Boys' is a great American novel

Colson Whitehead's deeply affecting new novel is based on the true story of a segregated reform school in Florida where African American boys were brutalized and possibly murdered.
by Maureen Corrigan

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Two views from Israel and Palestine

What has the conflict between Israel and Palestine meant to individuals from each country? MPR News host Kerri Miller asks Palestinian author Yousef Bashir and Israeli author Yossi Klein Halevi.
by Kerri Miller and Jeffrey Bissoy

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'Spin the Dawn' stitches up a fabulous fantasy

'Spin the Dawn' stitches up a fabulous fantasy

Elizabeth Lim's new young adult novel follows a girl who disguises herself as a boy and sets off for the emperor's court in place of her ailing father, who's been summoned as an imperial tailor.
by Caitlyn Paxson

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