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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.

'Tell the Machine' is a lucid dream of sci-fi perfection

'Tell the Machine' is a lucid dream of sci-fi perfection

Katie Williams' debut novel follows a woman who works for a company that can tell you infallibly how to become happy -- and a drifting group of characters who aren't really looking for happiness.
by Jason Sheehan

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'The Melody' will draw you in, then take you somewhere unexpected

'The Melody' will draw you in, then take you somewhere unexpected

Jim Crace's superb new novel is a trickster -- it seems to be a bittersweet tale of late-life love, but then it becomes a meditation on gentrification and the toll poverty can take on human beings.
by Bethanne Patrick

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'Where the Nightmares Go' maps the territory of fear

'Where the Nightmares Go' maps the territory of fear

C. Robert Cargill's new story collection covers the globe and genres of horror from classic to modern, with ghost stories, thrillers, gore and puzzles that would be right at home on premium cable.
by Jason Sheehan

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Inside 'The Secret Life of Cows'

Farmer Rosamund Young's book will charm people who want to lap up more evidence that animals have personalities, but may not warm hearts of animal lovers who don't eat meat.
by Barbara J. King

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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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