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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.

What it's like to be held hostage by Somali pirates for 2 1/2 years

What it's like to be held hostage by Somali pirates for 2 1/2 years

Journalist Michael Scott Moore went to East Africa to write about piracy. Then he got kidnapped and imprisoned for 977 days. The "Desert and the Sea" chronicles his incredible ordeal.
by Ari Shapiro

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Talking Volumes 2018 season

Talking Volumes 2018 season

The 2018 season will feature interviews with Dessa, Leif Enger, Rebecca Traister, Sally Field and Alexander McCall Smith.
by MPR News Staff

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Beowulf in the suburbs? 'The Mere Wife' is an epic retelling

Beowulf in the suburbs? 'The Mere Wife' is an epic retelling

For too long the Old English poem has long been perceived as a "masculine text," says Maria Dahvana Headley. Her new adaptation is told from the perspective of Grendel's mother.
by Korva Coleman

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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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