Stay Curious. Stay Connected.
MailNewsletters♡Donate Now

The Thread® - Books and Literary News

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

Sign Up for The Thread® Newsletter

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.

'I Like To Watch' is a passionate, brilliant defense of TV

'I Like To Watch' is a passionate, brilliant defense of TV

The collection of 32 mostly previously published essays by New Yorker TV Critic Emily Nussbaum includes a new consideration of the question: "What should we do with the art of terrible men?"
by Annalisa Quinn

Go Deeper.

Create an account or log in to save stories.

Like this?

Thanks for liking this story! We have added it to a list of your favorite stories.

Show me!
A former Jehovah's Witness on leaving the faith

A former Jehovah's Witness on leaving the faith

"I felt like everything that had mattered to me was gone," Amber Scorah says of her decision to leave the Jehovah's Witness community she grew up in.
by Terry Gross

Go Deeper.

Create an account or log in to save stories.

Like this?

Thanks for liking this story! We have added it to a list of your favorite stories.

Show me!
Simple, sassy 'Summer of '69' is the perfect beach read

Simple, sassy 'Summer of '69' is the perfect beach read

Elin Hilderbrand -- known as the "Queen of Summer" -- is back with another beachy tale of family secrets and intrigue (and tasty period details), set on Nantucket during the turbulent summer of 1969.
by Jean Zimmerman

Go Deeper.

Create an account or log in to save stories.

Like this?

Thanks for liking this story! We have added it to a list of your favorite stories.

Show me!
2 fractured halves make a whole in 'Evvie Drake'

2 fractured halves make a whole in 'Evvie Drake'

The debut novel from NPR's own Linda Holmes follows a suddenly widowed (and not all that grief-stricken) woman and her new lodger -- a former major league ballplayer who's lost his ability to pitch.
by Scott Simon

Go Deeper.

Create an account or log in to save stories.

Like this?

Thanks for liking this story! We have added it to a list of your favorite stories.

Show me!
'Great writing, great style, a nice long page turner'

'Great writing, great style, a nice long page turner'

"You kind of fall in love with the heroine," said bookseller Darryl Peck. "Which is always a nice way to make it through a summer read."
by Tracy Mumford

Go Deeper.

Create an account or log in to save stories.

Like this?

Thanks for liking this story! We have added it to a list of your favorite stories.

Show me!
'The Accident of Color' looks at the failure of Reconstruction

'The Accident of Color' looks at the failure of Reconstruction

Daniel Brook has written a book that goes a long way toward injecting thoughtfulness into popular notions of the history of race and racism in America but doesn't delve far enough into class conflict.
by Kamil Ahsan

Go Deeper.

Create an account or log in to save stories.

Like this?

Thanks for liking this story! We have added it to a list of your favorite stories.

Show me!
A noir stalwart builds a new old world in 'The Grand Dark'

A noir stalwart builds a new old world in 'The Grand Dark'

Richard Kadrey-- known for his Sandman Slim series of supernatural noirs -- reinvents himself in grand fashion with 'The Grand Dark,' a diesel-punk fantasy set in a simulacrum of Weimar Germany.
by Jason Heller

Go Deeper.

Create an account or log in to save stories.

Like this?

Thanks for liking this story! We have added it to a list of your favorite stories.

Show me!
This 'Spectral Hue' has a shimmering life of its own

This 'Spectral Hue' has a shimmering life of its own

Craig Laurance Gidney's debut adult novel is set in a marshy, mysterious rural town where a community of artists, students and townspeople are united by visions of a strange, pinkish-purple color.
by Jason Heller

Go Deeper.

Create an account or log in to save stories.

Like this?

Thanks for liking this story! We have added it to a list of your favorite stories.

Show me!
Will you love this book in all its 'Damaged Glory'? Maybe

Will you love this book in all its 'Damaged Glory'? Maybe

This debut story collection from Raphael Bob-Waksberg, creator of the TV show 'BoJack Horseman,' has some excellent, risk-taking work in it -- but stumbles sometimes over its higher concepts.
by Michael Schaub

Go Deeper.

Create an account or log in to save stories.

Like this?

Thanks for liking this story! We have added it to a list of your favorite stories.

Show me!
Joy Harjo is first Native American named U.S. poet laureate

Joy Harjo is first Native American named U.S. poet laureate

"I want to bring the contribution of poetry of the tribal nations to the forefront and include it in the discussion of poetry," says Harjo, an enrolled member of the Muscogee Creek Nation and a native of Tulsa, Okla.
by The Associated Press

Go Deeper.

Create an account or log in to save stories.

Like this?

Thanks for liking this story! We have added it to a list of your favorite stories.

Show me!