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The Thread® - Books and Literary News

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

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Sign up for The Thread newsletter to get reading recommendations from Kerri Miller and other bookworms around the MPR newsroom. Sam Stroozas rounds up local events and Minnesota book news you may have missed.

Ask a Bookseller

Ask a Bookseller is a weekly series where host Emily Bright 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 and produced by Kelly Gordon every Friday at 11 a.m., featuring conversations about books and other literary ideas. Listen to Big Books and Bold Ideas here.

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.

The personal, the political, the poetic

The personal, the political, the poetic

Bookseller Danny Caine recommends a new "dazzling" collection of poetry that mixes the personal and political.
by Tracy Mumford

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Youthful angst is fresh and compelling in 'Last Night in Nuuk'

Youthful angst is fresh and compelling in 'Last Night in Nuuk'

Niviaq Korneliussen's new novel follows five people in Greenland's capital Nuuk; it's a heartbreaking yet hopeful look at young, queer life in one of the most isolated places in the world.
by Michael Schaub

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In 'Why We Fight,' one man searches for self-knowledge through mixed martial arts

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.
by Nicholas Cannariato

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'Help Me!' documents a year of self-help books

'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.
by Mary Louise Kelly

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'Inheritance' investigates a family secret, with self-discovery at the core

'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.
by Heller McAlpin

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'Ghost Wall' is an eerie coming-of-age tale that begs for a second read

'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.
by Maureen Corrigan

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Keeping a famous theater's myth alive in 'Showtime at the Apollo'

Keeping a famous theater's myth alive in 'Showtime at the Apollo'

This new graphic adaptation of Ted Fox's history of the Apollo Theater captures countless electrifying performances, but goes easy on the grittier aspects of the fabled theater.
by Etelka Lehoczky

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Existential dread is deceptively simple in 'Mouthful of Birds'

Existential dread is deceptively simple in 'Mouthful of Birds'

Samanta Schweblin has a gift for treating the otherworldly with a matter-of-fact attitude; her new story collection proves that she's a master of elegant, uncanny fiction.
by Michael Schaub

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