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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.

Sign Up for The Thread® Newsletter

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. 

A literary mystery planted around Monet's water lilies

A literary mystery planted around Monet's water lilies

Vicki Burger is still entranced with "Black Water Lilies," a literary mystery that takes place on the shores of the pond where Claude Monet once painted the water lilies.

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Poetry Friday: The final week

Poetry Friday: The final week

To celebrate National Poetry Month, we are showcasing weekly poems from Graywolf Press, Milkweed Editions and Coffee House Press.
by Tracy Mumford

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Paula Hawkins prepares to dive 'Into the Water'

Paula Hawkins prepares to dive 'Into the Water'

Author Paula Hawkins was down on her luck when her 2015 book 'The Girl on the Train' became a smash hit. Now she's grappling with success and preparing to launch her followup, 'Into the Water.'
by Petra Mayer

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Brave New Workshop's Dudley Riggs remembers when improv was considered 'shameful'

Brave New Workshop's Dudley Riggs remembers when improv was considered 'shameful'

In his new memoir, "Flying Funny: My Life Without a Net," the improv theater pioneer recounts his early days as a trapeze artist in the circus, to fighting naysayers who said improv theater was a slap in the face to great playwrights.
by Tom Weber and Nancy Yang

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'Just show up': Sheryl Sandberg on how to help someone who's grieving

'Just show up': Sheryl Sandberg on how to help someone who's grieving

The Facebook executive lost her husband in 2015. She says, "Rather than offer to do something, it's often better to do anything. Just do something specific." Her new book is called "Option B."
by Ari Shapiro

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Hulu's 'The Handmaid's Tale' is compelling -- and chilling

Hulu's 'The Handmaid's Tale' is compelling -- and chilling

The adaptation of Margaret Atwood's dystopian 1985 novel is a horror show revealed in slow motion -- and the true horror of its brutal, patriarchal future theocracy is how possible it seems today.
by Eric Deggans

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Gripping comics memoir 'Hostage' puts you in the room where nothing happens

Gripping comics memoir 'Hostage' puts you in the room where nothing happens

Cartoonist Guy Delisle departs from the first-person travelogue format which has won him acclaim to chronicle the true story of a man kidnapped and detained for months in the Caucasus region in 1997.
by Glen Weldon

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