The Thread® - Books and Literary News

The Thread from MPR 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.

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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. 

Tickets are now available for our 26th season. Join award-winning journalist and MPR News host Kerri Miller (and special guest host Catharine Richart) as they talk with authors including Stacey Abrams, Patricia Lockwood, Misty Copeland, John Grisham, and Kate Baer. 

She's done the sums on Santa, and the math checks out
Hannah Fry is co-author of The Indisputable Existence Of Santa Claus, an application of mathematics to holiday quandaries like wrapping round presents, turkey roasting and one man's annual journey.
A brutal crime and the beginning of the FBI
Bookseller Karen Barros recommends David Grann's book on the murders of the Osage tribe in Oklahoma in the 1920s and 30s: "This book explores those murders, and the birth of the FBI in solving those murders."
As she turns 90, suspense still thrills author Mary Higgins Clark
Known as the "queen of suspense," Higgins Clark still publishes two books a year. She says the greatest compliment she gets is when someone tells her, "'I read your darn book till 4 in the morning.'"
In 'Fortress America,' examining how fear crept into American life
Historian Elaine Tyler May says that since the Cold War, fear has crept into American life. Her new book, "Fortress America," examines key events that shaped today's political climate.