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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.

'Gross Anatomy' turns humor on taboos about the female body

'Gross Anatomy' turns humor on taboos about the female body

Author Mara Altman got tired of hiding her hairy, sweaty self from the world, and set out to reframe the shame in her latest book of essays -- part memoir, part scientific exploration, part manifesto.
by Ailsa Chang and Alyssa Edes

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'The Air You Breathe' is a glorious, glittery saga of friendship and loss

'The Air You Breathe' is a glorious, glittery saga of friendship and loss

Frances de Pontes Peebles' new novel about two women in Brazil -- and later Hollywood -- who take the music world by storm can sometimes slip into corniness, but it's a genuinely exciting read.
by Lily Meyer

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'Ohio' is a wild, angry, devastating debut

'Ohio' is a wild, angry, devastating debut

Stephen Markley's novel follows four friends, each with their own baggage, who return to their home town on the same night, but for different reasons -- leading to an explosive moment of violence.
by Michael Schaub

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'Chesapeake Requiem' chronicles life on an endangered island

'Chesapeake Requiem' chronicles life on an endangered island

Tangier Island, in the Chesapeake Bay, has been home to a small, self-reliant community of watermen for centuries -- and now climate change is threatening to swamp the island and its way of life.
by Petra Mayer

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The connections between sci-fi and David Bowie

The connections between sci-fi and David Bowie

Critic and author Jason Heller's new book traces the considerable influence of David Bowie on the science-fiction inflected music of the 1970s, from "Space Oddity" to the glittery glory of Funkadelic.
by Petra Mayer

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In 'Red, White, Blue,' high peaks and low blows

In 'Red, White, Blue,' high peaks and low blows

Lea Carpenter's new novel combines literary sensibility with genre readability, for a dark spy thriller about a young woman finding out all kinds of strange truths about her father's past in the CIA.
by Bethanne Patrick

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'A River of Stars' is an Asian-American, 'pregnant Thelma & Louise'

'A River of Stars' is an Asian-American, 'pregnant Thelma & Louise'

Vanessa Hua's debut novel follows two women at a secret California maternity center where rich Chinese send expectant mothers to give birth to U.S. citizens. Then they run away.

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'The Wedding Portrait' explains activism for a young audience

'The Wedding Portrait' explains activism for a young audience

Innosanto Nagara first built a following with "A is for Activist." His newest children's book opens with the story of a couple who decides to get married in the middle of a protest.
by Tracy Mumford

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