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The Thread® - Books and Literary 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.

Sign Up for The Thread® Newsletter

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. 

Poet Ross Gay finds delight even in difficult times

Poet Ross Gay finds delight even in difficult times

After writing an essay every day about something that delighted him for a year, Ross Gay discovered things about himself -- and everyone else.
by Euan Kerr

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'A Friend is a Gift' for crime novel fans

'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.
by Gabino Iglesias

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In 'Solitary,' determination and humanity win over injustice

In 'Solitary,' determination and humanity win over injustice

Albert Woodfox's timely account of his wrongful conviction and time in solitary confinement shows that some spirits are unbreakable; it should be required reading in an age of Black Lives Matter.
by Gabino Iglesias

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'Survival Math' is a spellbinding narrative in essays

'Survival Math' is a spellbinding narrative in essays

Author Mitchell S. Jackson trains his formidable linguistic skills on his turbulent youth growing up in a poor black community in Portland, Ore., one of the whitest cities in the country.
by Ericka Taylor

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'Say Nothing': Murder, memory and a masterful history of the Troubles

'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.
by Maureen Corrigan

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'The Border' is Shakespeare for our times -- seriously

'The Border' is Shakespeare for our times -- seriously

Don Winslow's sprawling, operatic epic about the War on Drugs has some flaws, but it does the same thing Shakespeare's histories did: It simplifies current events into messy, bloody, gripping theater.
by Jason Sheehan

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What 'The Heavens'? This extraordinary new book feels like five novels in one

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.
by Lynn Neary

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