The Thread® - Books and Literary News

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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.

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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.

April 27, 2017 4:00 AM

28 ways to celebrate Indie Bookstore Day in Minnesota

Despite many stories of bookstores' demise over the last decade, Minnesota is actually ringing in this Indie Bookstore Day with more bookstores than last year.

by Tracy Mumford

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April 27, 2017 12:00 AM

In 'Walkaway,' a blueprint for a new, weird (but better) world

Cory Doctorow's latest novel is set in a ripped-from-the-headlines near future dystopia, where the creative and the capable are walking into the wilderness to build a new world.

by Jason Sheehan

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April 26, 2017 2:35 PM

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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April 26, 2017 10:31 AM

'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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April 26, 2017 8:45 AM

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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April 26, 2017 12:00 AM

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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April 25, 2017 9:36 AM

Bookstore on wheels turns heads in Baghdad

A 25-year-old resident of Baghdad has opened a mobile bookstore to share his passion for reading and revive a love for books in Iraq.

by Associated Press

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April 25, 2017 12:00 AM

'Anything is Possible' is unafraid to be gentle

Elizabeth Strout's new novel-in-stories is a welcome salve for troubled times. A companion volume to last year's 'My Name is Lucy Barton,' 'Anything is Possible' looks at the people Lucy grew up with.

by Heller McAlpin