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. 

'Say Nothing': Murder, memory and a masterful history of the Troubles
Patrick Radden Keefe's new book begins with the 1972 disappearance of a 38-year-old widowed mother in Belfast, then spins into an epic account of Northern Ireland's bloody sectarian conflict.
What 'The Heavens'? This extraordinary new book feels like five novels in one
Sandra Newman tells the story of a woman whose recurring dream feels increasingly real. 'The Heavens' is historical fiction, time traveling fantasy, political allegory, social realism and a love story.
'We Set the Dark on Fire' burns bright
Tehlor Kay Mejia's debut novel is set at a posh girls' school in a dystopian world where the students are being trained for lives as political consorts to powerful men.