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. 

Cannibalism: It's 'perfectly natural,' a new scientific history argues
It's gruesome, but from a scientific standpoint, there's a predictable calculus for when humans and animals go cannibal, a new book says. And who knew European aristocrats ate body parts as medicine?
Are cyborgs in our future? 'Homo Deus' author thinks so
Yuval Noah Harari expects we'll soon engineer our bodies in the same way we design products. "I think in general medicine ... will switch from healing the sick to upgrading the healthy," he says.
The story of Dorothy Day, her 'disorderly years' and her possible sainthood
A new biography of social justice advocate Dorothy Day, written by her granddaughter, reveals the life story of the woman whose legacy lives on in dozens of homeless shelters.
How Rorschach's 'Inkblots' took on a life of their own
These days, you're more likely to come across the concept of a Rorschach test in a cultural context than a clinical one. In a new book, author Damion Searls traces the history of the famous inkblots.