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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. 

'The Third Hotel' will get under your skin

'The Third Hotel' will get under your skin

Laura Van Den Berg's new novel follows a woman who runs into her ostensibly-dead husband at a Cuban film festival. It operates in symbols and layers, leaving readers disoriented, but fascinated.
by Lily Meyer

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Why it's still OK to 'trash' poor white people

Why it's still OK to 'trash' poor white people

A lot has changed in the U.S. over two centuries. One thing that hasn't? How we talk about poor white people.
by Leah Donnella

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'The Incendiaries' is a poignant and powerful look at campus life

'The Incendiaries' is a poignant and powerful look at campus life

R.O. Kwon's new novel explores the attractions -- and dangers -- of faith, against the overheated, over-the-top backdrop of an upper-crust college somewhere in the Northeastern United State.
by Maureen Corrigan

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Cartoonist Thi Bui weaves together personal and political history

Cartoonist Thi Bui weaves together personal and political history

Thi Bui's Eisner Award-nominated graphic memoir "The Best We Could Do" chronicles her family's struggles in fleeing war-torn Vietnam to immigrate to the United States.
by Mallory Yu

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Scientists are 'Spying on Whales' to learn how they eat, talk and ... walked?

Scientists are 'Spying on Whales' to learn how they eat, talk and ... walked?

Paleobiologist Nick Pyenson is dedicated to uncovering the "hidden lives" of whales. He says that 40 million to 50 million years ago, they had four legs and lived at least part of their lives on land.
by Dave Davies

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Violence leaves a lasting scar in 'I Didn't Talk'

Violence leaves a lasting scar in 'I Didn't Talk'

Brazilian author Beatriz Bracher's new novel -- her first to be published in English -- follows a professor who, years later, is still haunted by his arrest and torture during Brazil's dictatorship.
by Michael Schaub

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A thwarted child kidnapping inspired 'Fruit of the Drunken Tree'

A thwarted child kidnapping inspired 'Fruit of the Drunken Tree'

Growing up amid widespread violence in Colombia, Ingrid Rojas Contreras and her sister were targeted for kidnapping. They were saved by the courage and compassion of a teenager working in their home.

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An aging Philip Marlowe returns in 'Only to Sleep'

An aging Philip Marlowe returns in 'Only to Sleep'

Lawrence Osborne's new Marlowe novel brings us a version of the gumshoe in his 70s, lonely and slow, looking into another mysterious death. It's a book that seems simple, but hides cavernous depths.
by Jason Sheehan

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Parker Posey writes her own myth in 'You're on an Airplane'

Parker Posey writes her own myth in 'You're on an Airplane'

This "self-mythologizing memoir," which Parker Posey pronounces "me-moir," is written as if it's a monologue to an airplane seatmate, full of collages, cocktail recipes and stories from her life and career.
by Ari Shapiro

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