The Thread® - Books and Literary News

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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.

March 27, 2019 12:00 AM

Could a novel lead someone to kill? 'Murder by the Book' explores the notion

Author Claire Harman writes that one reason Francois Benjamin Courvoisier gave for why he murdered his boss Lord William Russell in 1840 was that he wanted to model himself on a book character.

by Annalisa Quinn

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March 26, 2019 12:00 AM

'What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Blacker' is a powerful look at one black man's life

Writer, critic and humorist Damon Young chronicles his efforts to endure the battles that come with being black; the beauty of his book is that he never tries to make it comfortable for his audience.

by Gabino Iglesias

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March 25, 2019 12:51 PM

New climate books stress we are already far down the road to a different Earth

David Wallace-Wells' "The Uninhabitable Earth" and Nathaniel Rich's "Losing Earth" offer valuable perspectives on climate change -- if we're committed to being adult enough to face the future.

by Adam Frank

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March 25, 2019 12:00 AM

'Sing to It' is worth the wait

Amy Hempel's first book of new material in 14 years showcases her immense talents as a fiction writer. It's a powerful collection of stories about uneasy, unmoored, even desperate people.

by Michael Schaub

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March 24, 2019 12:00 AM

'Miranda in Milan:' No woman is an island

Katharine Duckett's new novel picks up where Shakespeare's Tempest left off, following sorceror's daughter Miranda to her new life as a court lady -- a life which proves darker than she'd hoped.

by Elizabeth Graham

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March 24, 2019 12:00 AM

9 first-person perspectives give voice to 'The Other Americans'

The narrators in Laila Lalami's new novel have one thing in common: They've all "had the experience of dislocation," Lalami says. Together, they form a mosaic of race and class in America.

by Lulu Garcia-Navarro

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March 22, 2019 3:30 PM

Coming up: A return to America's Eden

He was personal physician to both Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr, a brilliant professor and the creator of America's first botanical garden. But the fascinating story of David Hosack has largely been lost to history -- until now.

by Stephanie Curtis and Kelly Gordon

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March 22, 2019 2:00 PM

Coming up: A return to America's Eden

He was the personal doctor of both Hamilton and Burr, and the surgeon behind America's first botanical garden, which he planted for medicinal purposes. But most people have never heard of David Hosack.

by Stephanie Curtis and Kelly Gordon

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March 22, 2019 8:32 AM

A space opera with a side of Byzantine history? Let's do this

"The whole time I was reading the book, I felt like I was reliving the experience of reading Frank Herbert's 'Dune' for the very first time," says bookseller Aaron Cance.

by Tracy Mumford

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March 21, 2019 4:00 AM

Real life creates a recipe for baker's poetry

Master baker Danny Klecko's St. Agnes Bakery was the official bread supplier for the Super Bowl and they had a huge number of orders. Then ICE informed him that 23 of his staff, many of whom he had worked with for two decades, had failed an immigration audit, and would have to leave.

by Euan Kerr

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