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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.

Muscle and bone meet machinery in 'Hullmetal Girls'

Muscle and bone meet machinery in 'Hullmetal Girls'

In Emily Skrutskie's new book, two girls make the choice to give up part of their humanity and become bionic super-soldiers in service to the great fleet of spaceships they live among.
by Caitlyn Paxson

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Twist alert: Here's the 'perfect mystery for summer'

Twist alert: Here's the 'perfect mystery for summer'

Bookseller Aubrey Restifo recommends a young adult page-turner about a teenage girl who goes missing — and her best friend who won't stop looking.
by Tracy Mumford

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Without breaking new ground, 'The Death of Truth' is convincing

Without breaking new ground, 'The Death of Truth' is convincing

In her new book, former New York Times book critic Michiko Kakutani suggests that truth should be added to the list of casualties of the Trump administration.
by Michael Schaub

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A journalist investigates the troubled life of her own father

A journalist investigates the troubled life of her own father

At age 11, Jean Guerrero's mother told her that her dad had schizophrenia. Years later, the author is unable to verify the diagnosis -- and refuses to accept it.
by Mariya Karimjee

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'Silver' spins gold from the moldiest of old straw

'Silver' spins gold from the moldiest of old straw

Naomi Novik's new reimagining of "Rumpelstiltskin" digs deep into the anti-Semitism of the original story and drags out a warm, solid story about the nature of debt, friendship and hospitality.
by Amal El-Mohtar

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Punk legend Viv Albertine on a lifetime of fighting the patriarchy

Punk legend Viv Albertine on a lifetime of fighting the patriarchy

"What we conjured up ... was that we weren't going to try and be this constructed ideal of femininity," Viv Albertine says of her band's approach. She recently released a memoir, "To Throw Away Unopened."
by Terry Gross

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Russia -- and grandma -- defy expectations in 'A Terrible Country'

Russia -- and grandma -- defy expectations in 'A Terrible Country'

When Andrei Kaplan returns to Moscow to care for his grandmother, he hopes to write an article based on her Soviet-era stories. But things don't go according to plan in this new novel by Keith Gessen.
by Renee Montagne

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'Give Me Your Hand' explores female mysteries and monstrosities

'Give Me Your Hand' explores female mysteries and monstrosities

Megan Abbott's new thriller is set partly in a scientific lab studying a severe form of PMS. Abbott says she's fascinated by "this sort of idea that the female body is monstrous."
by Lulu Garcia-Navarro

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'Buzz' offers an admiration for bees amid continued die-offs

'Buzz' offers an admiration for bees amid continued die-offs

The severity of the enormous reduction in bee numbers over the past decade is at the heart of a new book by conservation biologist Thor Hanson, whose appreciation for the pollinators shines through.
by Barbara J. King

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Historical fiction and magical realism meet in Alaska

Historical fiction and magical realism meet in Alaska

"There are just so many elements to this book that make it so satisfying and so delicious and so worth reading over and over again, that it's just ruined me," says bookseller Charlotte Glover.
by Tracy Mumford

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