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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.

'Travelling Cat' chronicles friendship, loss and life on the road

'Travelling Cat' chronicles friendship, loss and life on the road

You don't have to be a cat lover to enjoy Hiro Arikawa's novel about a man and his cat, traveling across Japan to visit old friends. And you may find yourself tearing up by the end.
by Ilana Masad

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'Glimmer of Hope' provides a blueprint for launching social change

'Glimmer of Hope' provides a blueprint for launching social change

With a new collection of essays, the 25 founders of March For Our Lives return the subject of the Parkland shooting and gun violence to national consciousness just in time for midterms elections.
by Aubri Juhasz

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Fierce, spiky 'Friday Black' packs a big punch

Fierce, spiky 'Friday Black' packs a big punch

Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah's intellectually hefty debut works through ideas about racism, about classism and capitalism, about the apocalypse, and, most of all, about the corrosive power of belief.
by Lily Meyer

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The Beastie Boys on their hip-hop journey and missing Adam Yauch

The Beastie Boys on their hip-hop journey and missing Adam Yauch

Adam Horovitz (aka Ad-Rock) and Mike Diamond (Mike D) of the hip-hop group Beastie Boys talk about their new book, which is largely a love letter to their late band mate, Adam 'MCA' Yauch. Plus they reflect on growing up in 1980s New York City and how they gained respect in hip-hop.

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Futuristic dreams turn to nightmare in 'Electric State'

Futuristic dreams turn to nightmare in 'Electric State'

In his latest book, Swedish artist Simon Stalenhag uses his ghostly photorealism to create an alternate America overcome by an addiction to technology, by drought, by war and loss and loneliness.
by Jason Sheehan

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An urban ink forager explains how to paint with all the colors of the alley

An urban ink forager explains how to paint with all the colors of the alley

Concerned about keeping toxic art supplies around his kids, Jason Logan began making his own all-natural inks. He shares his process in a new book — and on a gathering expedition in Washington, D.C.
by Ari Shapiro and Kat Lonsdorf

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'Woman World': Where the future is female

'Woman World': Where the future is female

Bookseller Emma Nichols recommends a comic collection centered on a post-apocalyptic world where men have gone extinct, and only women remain.
by Tracy Mumford

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Little Free Library creator Todd Bol dies

Little Free Library creator Todd Bol dies

Todd Bol launched the freestanding receptacles for books in 2010 as a tribute to his mother, who was a teacher.
by Tim Nelson

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