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The Thread® - Books and Literary 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. 

In public understanding of science, alternative facts are the norm

In public understanding of science, alternative facts are the norm

If we are committed to combating "alternate facts" in science - as we should be - then we must also combat the alternative theories that license them, says guest blogger Andrew Shtulman.
by Andrew Shtulman

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Sen. Al Franken embraces 'The Funny' again in new book

Sen. Al Franken embraces 'The Funny' again in new book

The Minnesota Democrat recounts his journey from "Saturday Night Live" to the Senate -- and explains why comedy works in confirmation hearings: "Comedians kind of get to the point in an effective way."
by Scott Detrow

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Love, money and betrayal make for great storytelling in 'The Heirs'

Love, money and betrayal make for great storytelling in 'The Heirs'

Susan Rieger's new book follows an upper-crust, Upper West Side family whose certainties are thrown into doubt after their father dies and an unknown Other Woman sues his estate for child support.
by Jason Sheehan

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Remembering the great poet Gwendolyn Brooks at 100

Remembering the great poet Gwendolyn Brooks at 100

A new biography celebrates the life and legacy of Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Gwendolyn Brooks, who wrote about ordinary black life using extraordinary language.
by Karen Grigsby Bates

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A brilliant novel told through ten conversations

A brilliant novel told through ten conversations

"I think it's so disarming because it's so simple, and yet I kept re-reading 'Outline.' I kept going back to it and being spellbound by how brilliant it is," said bookseller Richard DeWyngaert.
by Tracy Mumford

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A dancer is unstrung by grief in 'Isadora'

A dancer is unstrung by grief in 'Isadora'

The great American dancer Isadora Duncan led a tragic life. Her worst year -- just after the deaths of her first two children in an accident, forms the core of Amelia Gray's powerful new novel.
by Michael Schaub

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The power of music is at the heart of 'Black Mad Wheel'

The power of music is at the heart of 'Black Mad Wheel'

Detroit garage-rocker Josh Malerman's second novel follows a fictional 1950s rock bad recruited by the government to find the source of a mysterious, ominous sound emanating from the Namib Desert.
by Jason Heller

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Second thoughts about a second marriage in 'Standard Deviation'

Second thoughts about a second marriage in 'Standard Deviation'

A husband and wife are complete opposites. She's charming and effusive, he's a buttoned-down man of routine. Katherine Heiny tells NPR's Scott Simon about her first novel, 'Standard Deviation.'
by Heller McAlpin

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