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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.

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

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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

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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

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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

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Regular old sci-fi not weird enough for you? Try 'FKA USA'

Regular old sci-fi not weird enough for you? Try 'FKA USA'

The pseudonymous Reed King's new novel is a loopy, violent, funny Technicolor road trip across a post-apocalyptic America. There are robots, talking goats, and even the occasional lone songbird.
by Jason Sheehan

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'Fleishman Is In Trouble' flips expectations upside down

'Fleishman Is In Trouble' flips expectations upside down

Taffy Brodesser-Akner's debut novel seems like a 'Portnoy'-esque tale of a lovable lout, but halfway through, the story shakes itself up and reorients itself in a completely different direction.
by Lily Meyer

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A clearer map for aging: 'Elderhood' shows how geriatricians can help

A clearer map for aging: 'Elderhood' shows how geriatricians can help

Physician Louise Aronson treats patients who are in their 60s — as well as those who are older than 100. She writes about changing approaches to elder health care in the book, "Elderhood.
by Terry Gross

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'Hunger Games' prequel novel coming in 2020

'Hunger Games' prequel novel coming in 2020

Author Suzanne Collins says that she would go back to the years following the so-called "Dark Days," the failed rebellion in Panem.
by The Associated Press

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