Stay Curious. Stay Connected.
MailNewsletters♡Donate Now

The Thread® - Books and Literary News

The Thread® is your source for book recommendations and other literary news.

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. 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.

National Book Awards add category honoring works in translation

National Book Awards add category honoring works in translation

The new prize will consider both fiction and nonfiction translated into English and published in the U.S. It's the first addition to the National Book Foundation's annual slate in over two decades.
by Colin Dwyer

Go Deeper.

Create an account or log in to save stories.

Like this?

Thanks for liking this story! We have added it to a list of your favorite stories.

Show me!
'The Hazel Wood' explores the dangerous side of fairy tales

'The Hazel Wood' explores the dangerous side of fairy tales

In Melissa Albert's dark take on fairy tales, 17-year-old Alice has spent her entire life on the run from her family legacy: a terrifying mythical world created by her grandmother, a famous author.
by Caitlyn Paxson

Go Deeper.

Create an account or log in to save stories.

Like this?

Thanks for liking this story! We have added it to a list of your favorite stories.

Show me!
3 Harlem Renaissance novels deliver an ingenious take on race

3 Harlem Renaissance novels deliver an ingenious take on race

Novelists Nella Larsen, Wallace Thurman and George S. Schuyler forged their art in what W.E.B. Du Bois famously called the "double-consciousness" of African-Americans.
by Maureen Corrigan

Go Deeper.

Create an account or log in to save stories.

Like this?

Thanks for liking this story! We have added it to a list of your favorite stories.

Show me!
Minnesota Book Award finalists announced

Minnesota Book Award finalists announced

The Minnesota Book Awards have announced four finalists each for nine categories, including children's literature, poetry and Minnesota-focused nonfiction.
by Tracy Mumford

Go Deeper.

Create an account or log in to save stories.

Like this?

Thanks for liking this story! We have added it to a list of your favorite stories.

Show me!
The personal is always political: A 2018 poetry preview

The personal is always political: A 2018 poetry preview

Many of the books of poems coming out this year are sad, but also powerful; full of poets processing their lives, looking into pains both personal and political through the cracked glass of poetry.
by Craig Morgan Teicher

Go Deeper.

Create an account or log in to save stories.

Like this?

Thanks for liking this story! We have added it to a list of your favorite stories.

Show me!
A perfect example of 'if these walls could talk'

A perfect example of 'if these walls could talk'

Bookseller Lori Fazio recommends a novel where a family moves into a house, only to discover strong connections to its previous owner.
by Tracy Mumford

Go Deeper.

Create an account or log in to save stories.

Like this?

Thanks for liking this story! We have added it to a list of your favorite stories.

Show me!
A puzzled teen seeks answers and finds crosswords in 'Down and Across'

A puzzled teen seeks answers and finds crosswords in 'Down and Across'

Author Arvin Ahmadi's debut novel follows Scott Ferdowsi, a disenchanted Iranian-American high school student who runs away to Washington, D.C. to find an expert on the psychology of success.

Go Deeper.

Create an account or log in to save stories.

Like this?

Thanks for liking this story! We have added it to a list of your favorite stories.

Show me!
Regency romance crashes into dragon-filled dystopia in 'The Sky is Yours'

Regency romance crashes into dragon-filled dystopia in 'The Sky is Yours'

Chandler Klang Smith's novel, set in a crumbling far-future metropolis menaced by dragons, is a dizzying, delirious crash of wonders and grotesqueries, spiked with crackling dialogue and detail.
by Jason Heller

Go Deeper.

Create an account or log in to save stories.

Like this?

Thanks for liking this story! We have added it to a list of your favorite stories.

Show me!