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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. 

New kids' books put a human face on the refugee crisis

New kids' books put a human face on the refugee crisis

In classrooms and at home, kids are reading a new genre of books about a timely topic: refugees. They're selling well and providing a sympathetic view of people often portrayed as threats.
by Deborah Amos

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'Rest and Relaxation' is as sharp as its heroine is bleary

'Rest and Relaxation' is as sharp as its heroine is bleary

Ottessa Moshfegh's bizarrely fascinating new novel follows a young woman in Manhattan who decides to sleep her life away with a combination of pills, waking occasionally for bad bodega coffee.
by Heller McAlpin

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This novel is 'a thinker's summer read'

This novel is 'a thinker's summer read'

Bookseller Melissa DeMotte says Anthony Horowitz styles his mysteries like Agatha Christie -- but he takes it up a notch.
by Tracy Mumford

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Gillian Flynn's 'Sharp Objects' is a whodunit... And a who is she?

Gillian Flynn's 'Sharp Objects' is a whodunit... And a who is she?

Amy Adams stars as Camille Preaker in the HBO adaptation of the mystery novel. Gillian Flynn helped adapt the book for the screen, and says the story is a murder mystery wrapped around a character study.
by Lynn Neary

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Author Kevin Powers on the literature of war

Author Kevin Powers on the literature of war

Author and Iraq war veteran Kevin Powers takes readers back to Civil War America in his new novel. It's a bleak look at the inhumanity and fallout of war.
by Kerri Miller and Marcheta Fornoff

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Robin DiAngelo on why it's so hard for white people to talk about racism

Robin DiAngelo on why it's so hard for white people to talk about racism

In a new book, writer and speaker Robin DiAngelo provides history and context to explain why many white people react emotionally and defensively when confronted with issues of race.
by Kerri Miller and Suzanne Pekow

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Scouting wildflowers in Minnesota's prairie

Scouting wildflowers in Minnesota's prairie

With summer in full swing, it's a great time to get out and see Minnesota's wildflowers in bloom -- especially on the prairie. Wildflower guide authors Phyllis Root and Kelly Povo have tips on some prime places to find them.
by Cathy Wurzer and Phil Picardi

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Confused in midlife? You're in good company with 'The Cost of Living'

Confused in midlife? You're in good company with 'The Cost of Living'

Deborah Levy thought her life would slow down at 50, but instead, it became "faster, unstable, unpredictable." Critic Maureen Corrigan says Levy's memoir is a "smart, slim meditation on womanhood."
by Maureen Corrigan

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'How To Be Famous' says: Don't hide your love away

'How To Be Famous' says: Don't hide your love away

Caitlin Moran's new novel, the second installment in the adventures of teen rock critic Dolly Wilde, is a dirty, jolly, book-length defense of teenage enthusiasm -- for music, sex and life in general.
by Annalisa Quinn

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Read 'The Cabin at the End of the World' and you won't sleep for a week

Read 'The Cabin at the End of the World' and you won't sleep for a week

Paul Tremblay's new novel is the best (and scariest) kind of horror -- the quiet, believable kind of story that doesn't involve possessed dolls or body doubles, and could absolutely happen to you.
by Jason Sheehan

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