The Thread® - Books and Literary News

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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. 

Suspenseful 'Water Cure' dips into 2019's dystopian zeitgeist
Sophie Mackintosh's debut novel centers on four women living in a decrepit hotel on an isolated island. Critic Maureen Corrigan says the book is 'everything this age seems to be demanding.'
'Amsterdam Noir' finds its darkness inside us
Akashic Books' Noir series continues with a visit to Amsterdam -- and finding the shadowy side of a peaceful city where crime is low proves a challenge for editors Rene Appel and Josh Pachter.
A new novel makes the 'Sugar Run' out of jail and back to West Virginia
Mesha Maren's debut book follows a queer woman trying to restart her life and return to rural Appalachia. For the author, it's a place sometimes 'difficult to love,' but loved with 'extra fierceness.'
The spirit tells the story in 'Orchestra of Minorities'
Chigozie Obioma's latest novel is a love story, a story of exile, a mix of classical tragedy and Igbo folklore, narrated by a chi -- a guardian spirit that refers to Obioma's protagonist as its host.
At the end of the year, N.K. Jemisin ponders the end of the world
N.K. Jemisin is the only author to win three Hugo Awards in a row -- for her Broken Earth trilogy, which begins with an apocalypse. She says she likes to explore what apocalypses mean for different people.
Tell-alls, dramatic warnings and the Obamas lead political books of 2018
This year brought memoirs from several former Trump administration officials, investigations by journalists reporting on Trump's White House -- and a look back from former first lady Michelle Obama.
Book 'without borders' by 80+ artists lets kids color outside the lines
Children are invited to use their imaginations to fill in the blanks in "Coloring Without Borders." The bilingual book was created to help immigrant families separated at the U.S.-Mexico border.