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.

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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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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. 

In 'Why We Fight,' one man searches for self-knowledge through mixed martial arts
Josh Rosenblatt's personal meditation on fighting and selfhood is replete with engaging literary and historical excursions -- giving the idea of fighting a dignity it might be harder to grant without.
'Help Me!' documents a year of self-help books
Marianne Power decided to read one self-help book a month, for a year -- and follow the advice in each, to the letter. She says it became a much more intense undertaking than she'd anticipated.
'Inheritance' investigates a family secret, with self-discovery at the core
Dani Shapiro, at age 54, is shocked to learn that the man she thought was her biological father wasn't a blood relative. Her memoir, a quest for the truth, reads like an emotional detective story.
'Ghost Wall' is an eerie coming-of-age tale that begs for a second read
Sarah Moss' beautifully written novel is set in the 1970s in the rugged countryside of the far north of England, where a group of campers are reenacting the daily lives of Iron Age Britons.
'The First Conspiracy' details foiled Hickey plot to assassinate George Washington
Thriller author Brad Meltzer and documentary producer Josh Mensch offer an intriguing look at a true-life, foiled plan that, had it succeeded, may have killed the American dream before it even began.
Childbirth injury led a new mom to start a parenting podcast 'to feel less alone'
Hillary Frank struggled after a childbirth injury left her in chronic pain for months. Her podcast 'The Longest Shortest Time,' and her book 'Weird Parenting Wins' aim to give other parents a voice.