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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.

Once militantly anti-abortion, evangelical minister now lives 'with regret'

Once militantly anti-abortion, evangelical minister now lives 'with regret'

After decades working to block access to clinics, the Rev. Rob Schenck says he had a change of heart and sees abortion as an issue that should be resolved by "an individual and his or her conscience."
by Terry Gross

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Tommy Orange on the lives of urban Native Americans

Tommy Orange on the lives of urban Native Americans

Tommy Orange's debut novel is a "must-read of the summer," according to MPR News host Kerri Miller. She spoke to Orange about why he chose to write about urban Native Americans.
by Kerri Miller and Suzanne Pekow

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'The Fall of Wisconsin' puts the state's 2016 presidential choice in context

'The Fall of Wisconsin' puts the state's 2016 presidential choice in context

In 2016, Wisconsin picked a Republican for president for the first time since 1984. In his new book, Dan Kaufman, who grew up in the state, tries to show the vote for Trump was part of a larger story.
by Ron Elving

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Floating prison drones equal menace in 'The Furnace'

Floating prison drones equal menace in 'The Furnace'

Prentis Rollins' new graphic novel is set in a near future where the government uses drone-powered mobile invisibility fields to control its prisoners, keeping them out of sight and incommunicado.
by Etelka Lehoczky

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'The Last Cruise' is a bit more than a 3-hour tour

'The Last Cruise' is a bit more than a 3-hour tour

Kate Christensen's new novel follows a group of people on a vintage-themed cruise -- think cabaret, cocktails and no internet -- who are thrown together unexpectedly when things go wrong on board.
by Michael Schaub

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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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