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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.

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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.

In 'Ayesha at Last,' a take on Austen that's sparky and sensitive

In 'Ayesha at Last,' a take on Austen that's sparky and sensitive

There have been an awful lot of South Asian adaptations of 'Pride and Prejudice' recently, but Uzma Jalaluddin's tale of two Toronto Muslims -- one conservative, one liberal -- stands out beautifully.
by Kamrun Nesa

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In Scotland's Outer Hebrides, mobile libraries are a lifeline

In Scotland's Outer Hebrides, mobile libraries are a lifeline

Library vans ply lonely roads and deliver books, including works in Gaelic, to hundreds of isolated residents. Seeing the mobile librarian is sometimes the only human contact they will have for days.
by Celeste Noche

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'Magic for Liars' asks: What if you're actually not magic?

'Magic for Liars' asks: What if you're actually not magic?

Sarah Gailey's new novel centers on estranged sisters, one magically talented and one just a talented private investigator -- who gets called in to solve a crime at her sister's school for magic.
by Liza Graham

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Macabre and irreverent, 'Mostly Dead Things' is a satisfying journey

Macabre and irreverent, 'Mostly Dead Things' is a satisfying journey

Kristin Arnett's new novel follows a woman dealing with the suicide of her father, while running the taxidermy business she inherited from him, getting over an ex, and learning to live for herself.
by Ilana Masad

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'The Sentence is Death' is a bracing addition to any beach bag

'The Sentence is Death' is a bracing addition to any beach bag

Anthony Horowitz's new Inspector Hawthorne mystery is a sometimes too-complex but ultimately fun tale set in and around London's literary scene, with plenty of axes to grind and nibs to sharpen.
by Bethanne Patrick

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'Hands down, it's the best book I've ever read'

'Hands down, it's the best book I've ever read'

Could you name the best book you've ever read? Could you pick just one? Bookseller Wesley Minter has his ready.
by Tracy Mumford

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Barnes & Noble set to be sold to Elliott Management for about $683 million

Barnes & Noble set to be sold to Elliott Management for about $683 million

That price tag includes all of the book megachain's debt. Elliott's acquisition of the largest retail bookseller in the U.S. comes less than a year after it bought Waterstones, the largest in the U.K.
by Colin Dwyer

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The end of the world ought to be the start of the story in 'Oval'

The end of the world ought to be the start of the story in 'Oval'

Elvia Wilk's new novel follows a group of aimless young people in Berlin, working, going out, coming home -- until something happens that brings about a cataclysm. But is the aimlessness intentional?
by Jason Sheehan

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David Sedaris talks Brexit, Duluth and blackened toenails

David Sedaris talks Brexit, Duluth and blackened toenails

Writer David Sedaris will read from his latest collection of work in Duluth Thursday night. The essays in the book "Calypso" are funny at times and deeply sad at others as Sedaris wrestles with life.
by Euan Kerr

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