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. 

In the event of attack, here's how the government plans 'to save itself'
In "Raven Rock," Garrett Graff describes the bunkers designed to protect U.S. leaders in the event of a catastrophe. One Cold War-era plan put the post office in charge of cataloging the dead.
Eddie Izzard: Coming out gave me the confidence for everything else
Fair warning: There are no actual jazz chickens in Eddie Izzard's new "Believe Me: A Memoir of Love, Death and Jazz Chickens." But it does provide insight into what makes the acclaimed comedian tick.
Be bigger, fight harder: Roxane Gay on a lifetime of 'Hunger'
Gay has finally written the book that she "wanted to write the least." The moment she realized she would "never want to write about fatness" was the same moment she knew this was a memoir she had to write.
'A project in empathy': Poems on the spot for mall shoppers
Brian Sonia-Wallace on Sunday wrapped up his stint as the Mall of America's first ever artist-in-residence. He wrote about a variety of topics, from chickens and family relationships to spirituality and Dippin' Dots.