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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.

If Thoreau were alive, he'd be 'shouting from the rafters,' biographer says

If Thoreau were alive, he'd be 'shouting from the rafters,' biographer says

Henry David Thoreau, author of Walden and Civil Disobedience, was born 200 years ago in 1817. Biographer Kevin Dann says the philosopher's ideas about individual sovereignty remain relevant today.
by Tom Vitale

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Octavia Butler: Writing herself into the story

Octavia Butler: Writing herself into the story

An exhibit at the Huntington Library shows visitors how famed science fiction writer Octavia Butler created a career for herself in a genre that had few women and even fewer African-Americans.
by Karen Grigsby Bates

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Searching for a summer escape? These 6 books will carry you away

Searching for a summer escape? These 6 books will carry you away

Journeys -- near and far, into the past and even into near space -- are the subject of the novels, memoirs and narrative histories that make up this summer reading list.
by Maureen Corrigan

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Talking Volumes 2017 season guide

Talking Volumes 2017 season guide

The 2017 season includes Sherman Alexie, Amy Tan, Jacqueline Woodson, Ron Chernow and Dan Brown.
by MPR News Staff

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'How to Be a Muslim' author on being a spokesperson for his faith

'How to Be a Muslim' author on being a spokesperson for his faith

"Professional Muslim" Haroon Moghul says, "Every time something bad happens you're called upon to apologize. ... Your entire identity is pegged to events in other parts of the world."
by Terry Gross

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Summer reading for your woke kid

Summer reading for your woke kid

Looking for books to feed your child's curiosity and ignite the social activist inside of them? Here's our list of children's books to keep your child occupied all summer long.
by Kayla Lattimore

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