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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.

Dolly Parton gives the gift of literacy: A library of 100 million books

Dolly Parton gives the gift of literacy: A library of 100 million books

In 1995, the entertainer and philanthropist started the Imagination Library, inspired by her father, who couldn't read and write. Now, it mails free books to more than a million kids each month.
by Maureen Pao

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More than just nostalgia, 'Time Pieces' is a multilayered memoir of Dublin

More than just nostalgia, 'Time Pieces' is a multilayered memoir of Dublin

Irish writer John Banville's new book is a shimmering, frequently elusive book about a city, but also an inquiry into memory, shifting attention, and above all time as it passes and becomes the past.
by Heller McAlpin

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Sherman Alexie apologizes amid sexual misconduct allegations

Sherman Alexie apologizes amid sexual misconduct allegations

"Over the years, I have done things that have harmed other people, including those I love most deeply," the author said in a statement. "To those whom I have hurt, I genuinely apologize. I am so sorry."
by The Associated Press

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The rise of yeast: How civilization was shaped by sugar fungi

The rise of yeast: How civilization was shaped by sugar fungi

Without yeast, bread wouldn't rise and beer wouldn't foam. As Nicholas Money's new book, "The Rise of Yeast," points out, it leaves its mark on other foods, too, including coffee, and even chocolate.
by Menaka Wilhelm

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Two decades in the making, 'Green Sun' is worth the wait

Two decades in the making, 'Green Sun' is worth the wait

Kent Anderson's new novel is a sequel to 1997's "Night Dogs," and it picks up with antihero Hanson, once an English teacher, now working as a police officer in Oakland -- bad attitude entirely intact.
by Michael Schaub

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Children's publishing house takes food literacy literally

Children's publishing house takes food literacy literally

Teaching kids how to eat healthfully and appreciate the cultural diversity of food begins with getting books about these themes into their hands, says Readers to Eaters' founding publisher.
by Lela Nargi

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'Eat the Apple' is a brilliant and barbed memoir of the Iraq war

'Eat the Apple' is a brilliant and barbed memoir of the Iraq war

In his experimental new memoir, Matt Young conveys the chaos of his three deployments in Iraq. Critic Maureen Corrigan calls Young "a frank, funny and mercilessly self-lacerating narrator."
by Maureen Corrigan

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Michelle Obama to release memoir in November

Michelle Obama to release memoir in November

The former first lady tweeted Sunday that the book, to come out a week after the 2018 midterm elections, is called "Becoming."
by Associated Press

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'Black Panther' fans, here's your next read

'Black Panther' fans, here's your next read

If you've been gripped by the excitement of T'Challa, Wakanda, and more, bookseller Jeffrey Blair knows what to put on your reading pile.
by Tracy Mumford

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Patton Oswalt on his late wife's search for The Golden State Killer

Patton Oswalt on his late wife's search for The Golden State Killer

Before Michelle McNamara died in 2016, she was working on a book that aimed to bring a serial rapist and murderer to justice. "I'll Be Gone in the Dark" has now been published.

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