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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.

Thread Book Hour: Dan Brown, author of 'Origin'

Thread Book Hour: Dan Brown, author of 'Origin'

Kerri Miller interviews best-selling author Dan Brown about his latest novel, "Origin," for the Talking Volumes series.
by MPR News Staff

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Teen angst has a body count in 'I Am Not Okay With This'

Teen angst has a body count in 'I Am Not Okay With This'

Sydney, the teenage protagonist of Charles Forsman's new graphic novel, has all the usual problems of her age, plus one: She's telekinetic. And it quickly becomes clear that her story is a grim one.
by Etelka Lehoczky

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Two towering figures collide on the world stage in '1917'

Two towering figures collide on the world stage in '1917'

Arthur Herman's new book zooms in on Vladimir Lenin, Woodrow Wilson, and the vast, conflicting historical forces they embodied -- and which came to a head in the fateful year of 1917.
by Jason Heller

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'The World Goes On,' with tiny moments of joy amid the uncertainty

'The World Goes On,' with tiny moments of joy amid the uncertainty

Susan Sontag once called author Laszlo Krasznahorkai the "contemporary Hungarian master of apocalypse," but his new book -- while disturbing -- isn't as hopeless as that might lead you to think.
by Ilana Masad

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Brush up your Shelley with 'Frankenstein: The First Two Hundred Years'

Brush up your Shelley with 'Frankenstein: The First Two Hundred Years'

Christopher Frayling's new celebration of "Frankenstein" is half art book, half scholarly study, tracing the famous monster's path from page to stage to screen, just in time for his 200th birthday.
by Genevieve Valentine

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A book about the "small acts that can turn friends into family"

A book about the "small acts that can turn friends into family"

"I didn't want it to end. I tell you, anyone who reads this book is going to fall in love with Arthur Truluv, and with his new family as well," said bookseller Vivien Jennings.
by Tracy Mumford

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When making books was as much of an art as writing them

When making books was as much of an art as writing them

The Larkspur Press in Kentucky is two years behind schedule, with no plans to catch up. Printer Gray Zeitz sets each letter of the book by hand and then prints on a press from the early 1900s.
by Noah Adams

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Thread Book Hour: Stephen Greenblatt and Mark Bowden

Thread Book Hour: Stephen Greenblatt and Mark Bowden

Thread Book Hour featuring Stephen Greenblatt on "The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve" and Mark Bowden on "Hue, 1968."
by MPR News Staff

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