The Thread® - Books and Literary News

The Thread from MPR News

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

Ask a Bookseller

Ask a Bookseller is a weekly series where The Thread 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 every Friday at 11 a.m., featuring conversations about books and other literary ideas. Listen to Big Books and Bold Ideas here.

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Sign up for The Thread newsletter to get reading recommendations from Kerri Miller and other bookworms around the MPR newsroom. Find reviews for new releases, as well as hidden gems you may have missed.

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. 

A man looks back on those he lost
Bookseller Vicki Burger recommends a novel that's "just lovely, about how we look back on our lives ... and the people who have been important to us either for good or bad."
'Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls' is compassionate, without being apologetic
In exposing the bad and ugly of girlhood alongside the good, T Kira Madden has succeeded in creating a mirror of larger concerns, even as her own story is achingly specific and personal.
In wildly satirical 'Man-Eaters,' teen girls turn into ferocious panthers
In the world of writer Chelsea Cain and artist Kate Niemczyk, women are seen as dangerous animals. They bring that world to life with pages and pages of ephemera: fake ads, pamphlets, even a magazine.
'A Friend is a Gift' for crime novel fans
William Boyle's new novel follows mob widow Rena, her granddaughter and an ex-porn-star neighbor, on the run from a crazed mafia enforcer in -- what else? -- a 1962 Chevy Impala.