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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. 

You can't solve this 'Rubik,' but it'll still make you feel smart

You can't solve this 'Rubik,' but it'll still make you feel smart

Elizabeth Tan's novel jumps between different characters and timelines, beginning with the death of the main character and only getting weirder -- but there's a true heart underneath the cleverness.
by Ilana Masad

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Brilliant but devastating, 'The Mars Room' chronicles lift behind bars

Brilliant but devastating, 'The Mars Room' chronicles lift behind bars

Rachel Kushner's heartbreaking, nearly flawless third novel centers on Romy Hall, a young woman who's just been sentenced to two life sentences for beating her stalker to death.
by Michael Schaub

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My first existential crisis: The sweet story of an angsty 'Square'

My first existential crisis: The sweet story of an angsty 'Square'

Jon Klassen and Mac Barnett are writing a children's book trilogy about shapes who are just like us. The second installment follows a straight-laced square who wonders if he's really a genius.
by Rachel Martin

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'Undead Girl Gang': Mister, they are the weirdos

'Undead Girl Gang': Mister, they are the weirdos

In Lily Anderson's debut novel, a string of suspicious deaths prompts teen witch Mila to try to solve the mystery by raising the dead girls to ask who killed them -- but of course, it's not that easy.
by Caitlyn Paxson

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'Warlight' illumines family secrets in Ondaatje's latest

'Warlight' illumines family secrets in Ondaatje's latest

Set during and after World War II, 'Warlight' follows a young man trying to find out what really happened when his parents disappeared and left him and a young sister in the care of two mystery men.
by Heller McAlpin

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'Barracoon' brings a lost slave story to light

'Barracoon' brings a lost slave story to light

Both terrifying and wonderful, "Barracoon" is Zora Neale Hurston's long-unpublished account of her conversations with Cudjo Lewis, who was brought to America on the last trans-Atlantic slave ship.
by Jean Zimmerman

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Duplass Brothers on working together and growing apart: 'We are ex-soulmates'

Duplass Brothers on working together and growing apart: 'We are ex-soulmates'

Filmmaker siblings Jay and Mark Duplass have been making movies together since they were kids. More recently, Mark says, "We had to dig out space from that beautiful co-dependence."
by Terry Gross

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