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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.

Reproductive freedom lies just outside the U.S. border in 'Red Clocks'

Reproductive freedom lies just outside the U.S. border in 'Red Clocks'

Leni Zumas' new novel follows five women in an Oregon town, living in an alternate reality where abortion and IVF are illegal -- a world that Zumas says "could happen next week."

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In a time of wishes, two books for young readers

In a time of wishes, two books for young readers

Bookseller Carla Ketner has two recommendations that explore the power, magic and consequences of wishes.
by Tracy Mumford

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People are buying the wrong 'Fire and Fury' book

People are buying the wrong 'Fire and Fury' book

Historian and author Randall Hansen's book, "Fire And Fury: The Allied Bombing Of Germany 1942-1945," has been mistaken by buyers for Michael Wolff's Trump expose and selling out.
by Ari Shapiro and Kelly McEvers

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'Winter' balances dark days with flashes of joy and light

'Winter' balances dark days with flashes of joy and light

he second volume in Ali Smith's seasonal quartet takes place over a tense family Christmas in Cornwall that reunites two sisters whose lives have taken vastly diverging paths.
by Heller McAlpin

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For 'The Immortalists,' knowledge of death changes lives

For 'The Immortalists,' knowledge of death changes lives

In Chloe Benjamin's new book, four siblings growing up on the Lower East Side amid the upheavals of the 1960s gain forbidden, life-changing knowledge: The exact year and date of their deaths.
by Jean Zimmerman

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Posthumously published 'Sea Maiden' affirms Denis Johnson's eternal voice

Posthumously published 'Sea Maiden' affirms Denis Johnson's eternal voice

A new collection features five stand-alone stories by Johnson, who died in 2017. Critic Maureen Corrigan says "The Largesse of the Sea Maiden" is "the kind of work every writer would like to go out on."
by Maureen Corrigan

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Want a new you for the New Year? These books might actually help

Want a new you for the New Year? These books might actually help

Jolenta Greenberg and Kristen Meinzer live by a new self-help book for each episode of their podcast By the Book, so they're experts on which ones might really help us keep our New Year's resolutions.
by Ari Shapiro

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