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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.

What history and fiction teach us about women and power

What history and fiction teach us about women and power

Psychologist Tania Lombrozo considers two books: In one, we learn what ancient Greece can tell us about Twitter trolls and, in the other, we're shown a world in which women have power over men.
by Tania Lombrozo

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In 'Red Sky at Noon,' a Western on the Eastern front

In 'Red Sky at Noon,' a Western on the Eastern front

Simon Sebag Montefiore's new novel, set during World War II, follows a Jewish political prisoner who's pressed into a battalion of convicts and Cossacks and sent to fight the Nazis on horseback.

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Nixon's manhunt for the high priest of LSD

Nixon's manhunt for the high priest of LSD

Author Bill Minutaglio's new book chronicles Timothy Leary's international escape from a California prison and the president's campaign to make him the poster child for his war on drugs.
by Ari Shapiro

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'Women & Power' links today's trolls with ancient ancestors

'Women & Power' links today's trolls with ancient ancestors

Classicist Mary Beard's new book -- a compilation of two of her lectures -- traces current strains of misogyny back to the ancient world (one 7th century B.C. poet compared women to yapping dogs).
by Annalisa Quinn

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'I'm not a hit man,' Michael Wolff tells NPR about his controversial Trump book

'I'm not a hit man,' Michael Wolff tells NPR about his controversial Trump book

President Trump's lawyer sent a cease-and-desist letter to the publisher, but the book went on sale days ahead of schedule. The White House has pushed back on the criticism in the book.

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Thread Book Hour: David Grann, 'Killers of the Flower Moon'

Thread Book Hour: David Grann, 'Killers of the Flower Moon'

Best-selling author David Grann tells the story of a little-remembered crime that modernized investigative procedure in the United States.
by MPR News Staff

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In 'A State of Freedom,' be careful what you wish for

In 'A State of Freedom,' be careful what you wish for

The characters Neel Mukherjee's new novel all want better lives, and -- to say the least -- they're seldom rewarded. 'A State of Freedom' is a dark, brutal read, but also surprisingly beautiful.
by Michael Schaub

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'He lost his mind,' Trump says after Bannon reportedly slammed Russian meeting

'He lost his mind,' Trump says after Bannon reportedly slammed Russian meeting

"Even if you thought that this was not treasonous," President Trump's former chief strategist is quoted as saying, "... you should have called the FBI immediately."

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Minnesota teen's book explores injustice of India's caste system

The self-published book, "Free Birds," takes place in India in the 1750s, where the caste system divides people into social categories. It follows a young girl named Navya who is born into an upper rank.
by Kirsti Marohn

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