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.

Big Books and Bold Ideas

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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Sign up for The Thread newsletter to get reading recommendations from Kerri Miller and other bookworms around the MPR newsroom. Find reviews for new releases, as well as hidden gems you may have missed.

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. 

Michiko Kakutani, chief 'Times' book critic, steps down after nearly 4 decades
For 38 years the Pulitzer Prize winner was one of the most influential voices in the world of books. During her tenure, she lauded -- or lambasted -- just about all of this generation's great writers.
New memoir unpacks the life and tragic death of 'The Hot One'
Carolyn Murnick and Ashley Ellerin were childhood best friends -- but as sometimes happens, they grew older and drifted apart. Then, in 2001, Ellerin was brutally murdered in her Hollywood Hills home.
Love and arson in rural Virginia
True crime is bookseller Hans Weyandt's guilty pleasure during the summer. 'American Fire' tells the story of a dying relationship, in a dying place.
'Strange Practice:' The doctor is in
In "Strange Practice," Vivian Shaw kicks off a new series about Dr. Greta Helsing, descendant of the famous Professor Abraham Van Helsing and general practitioner to the ghouls and ghasts of London.
A veteran TV news anchor pens a prescient novel in 'Amanda Wakes Up'
Alisyn Camerota's book is about a political newcomer fresh from Hollywood facing off against a female senator. But 2016 similarities aside, the CNN anchor says she wrote it long before the election.