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.

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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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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. 

I saved every letter you wrote me: The Library of Congress digitizes Hamilton
For fans of Hamilton and history alike, the Library of Congress has put the hippest founding father online by digitizing Alexander Hamilton's papers and making them available on the Library's website
Love and cruelty are bound together in 'My Absolute Darling'
Gabriel Tallent's debut novel has been called a masterpiece on the level of 'To Kill a Mockingbird.' It's the difficult story of a young girl living in the California woods with her abusive father.
The brief, tumultuous reign of an erstwhile best-seller
For a while Thursday, Lani Sarem's debut, 'Handbook for Mortals,' stood as the reigning best-seller in young adult literature. Within hours, it had been removed from the list entirely. What happened?
What science 'gone wrong' can teach us
Pandora's Lab stresses that for science to work, it needs to base claims on data, studies need to be replicable, and scientists must be more attached to science than to their own ideas, says Alva Noe.