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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. 

David Lynch's memoir charms -- but doesn't demystify

David Lynch's memoir charms -- but doesn't demystify

The book -- which Lynch wrote with journalist Kristine McKenna -- is intimate and honest about the filmmaker's quirks and flaws, but doesn't dislodge the air of mystery that's settled around his work.
by Tasha Robinson

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'A powerful story, simply told': When children marched

'A powerful story, simply told': When children marched

Bookseller Lia Lent recommends a picture book that tells the story of the 1963 Children's Crusade in Birmingham, Ala.
by Tracy Mumford

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Librarian Nancy Pearl picks 7 books for summer reading

Librarian Nancy Pearl picks 7 books for summer reading

Nancy Pearl's under-the-radar recommendations include a children's fantasy, a murder mystery set in 1919 Kolkata and an entire book dedicated to the events of 1947.
by Nancy Pearl

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2 books find fuel in the American landscape

2 books find fuel in the American landscape

Critic Maureen Corrigan recommends two books to expand your horizons: One is a cultural history of the great American road trip; the other an early 20th-century classic of Midwestern rural life.
by Maureen Corrigan

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'Born Trump' examines the 'emotional hold' the president has on his family

'Born Trump' examines the 'emotional hold' the president has on his family

Journalist Emily Jane Fox focused on Donald Trump's three marriages and five children when writing her new book. "His presence is overwhelming," she says of the president's role in the family.
by Terry Gross

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'Tell the Machine' is a lucid dream of sci-fi perfection

'Tell the Machine' is a lucid dream of sci-fi perfection

Katie Williams' debut novel follows a woman who works for a company that can tell you infallibly how to become happy -- and a drifting group of characters who aren't really looking for happiness.
by Jason Sheehan

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'The Melody' will draw you in, then take you somewhere unexpected

'The Melody' will draw you in, then take you somewhere unexpected

Jim Crace's superb new novel is a trickster -- it seems to be a bittersweet tale of late-life love, but then it becomes a meditation on gentrification and the toll poverty can take on human beings.
by Bethanne Patrick

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'Where the Nightmares Go' maps the territory of fear

'Where the Nightmares Go' maps the territory of fear

C. Robert Cargill's new story collection covers the globe and genres of horror from classic to modern, with ghost stories, thrillers, gore and puzzles that would be right at home on premium cable.
by Jason Sheehan

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Inside 'The Secret Life of Cows'

Farmer Rosamund Young's book will charm people who want to lap up more evidence that animals have personalities, but may not warm hearts of animal lovers who don't eat meat.
by Barbara J. King

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