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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. 

In 'Fight No More,' life rushes by, but sometimes there's beauty

In 'Fight No More,' life rushes by, but sometimes there's beauty

Lydia Millet's latest is a novel about death, disguised as a short story collection about real estate, alternately wrenching and hilarious, and full of joys on every scale.
by Lily Meyer

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Puerto Rico faces a 'Battle for Paradise'

Puerto Rico faces a 'Battle for Paradise'

Bookseller Sam Faulkner recommends a topical read on the competing opinions over how to reshape the hurricane-damaged areas of Puerto Rico.
by Tracy Mumford

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Struggling for words, a boy and his grandfather are 'Drawn Together' at last

Struggling for words, a boy and his grandfather are 'Drawn Together' at last

Author Minh Le had a loving relationship with his grandparents, but he also remembers a lot of "awkward silence." His new book explores barriers of language and culture between generations.
by Audie Cornish

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'The Soul of America': what can history teach us?

'The Soul of America': what can history teach us?

MPR News host Kerri Miller spoke to historian Jon Meacham about his new book, "The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels."
by Kerri Miller

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'A Place for Us' is a skillfully-drawn family saga

'A Place for Us' is a skillfully-drawn family saga

Fatima Farheen Mirza's first novel follows an Indian-American Muslim family -- at its best, a happy family, but torn by tensions between a father and son who keep missing opportunities to connect.
by Michael Schaub

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Thread Book Hour: U.S. poet laureate Tracy K. Smith

Thread Book Hour: U.S. poet laureate Tracy K. Smith

Since getting the job in 2017, Smith has been on a mission to take her poetry on the road, visiting rural areas where most writers aren't expected to go.
by MPR News Staff

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A.M. Homes: Short stories are 'food for the soul and for the mind'

A.M. Homes: Short stories are 'food for the soul and for the mind'

Her first story collection in 15 years is called "Days of Awe," and it covers everything from a chat room for bird lovers, to a summit on genocide, to a superstore where someone's abandoned a baby.
by Audie Cornish

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'Vera Kelly' finds the connections between deep cover and the closet

'Vera Kelly' finds the connections between deep cover and the closet

The personal is most definitely political in Rosalie Knecht's crisp, lively and subversive novel about a queer woman who discovers her early life in the closet makes her well-suited for espionage.
by Jean Zimmerman

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The stress of a shepherd's life, and other Somali stories

The stress of a shepherd's life, and other Somali stories

The Minnesota writer Ahmed Ismail Yusuf hopes the tales in his book, "The Lion's Binding Oath," will promote understanding about his Somali homeland.
by Euan Kerr

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Somali refugee Abdi Nor Iftin: 'I am here to make America great'

Somali refugee Abdi Nor Iftin: 'I am here to make America great'

Back in Somalia, Abdi Nor Iftin was nicknamed "Abdi the American," and his love of this country put him in danger -- but then he got a visa to come here. Iftin has a new memoir out: "Call Me American."
by Lulu Garcia-Navarro

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