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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.

'Swimmer Among the Stars' infuses relics with resonance

'Swimmer Among the Stars' infuses relics with resonance

Kanishk Tharoor's collection of short stories explores the complicated relationship between language and technology. Tharoor's rich voice and immaculate craftsmanship both comfort and unnerve.
by Jason Heller

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Derek Walcott, who wrote of Caribbean beauty and bondage, dies at 87

Derek Walcott, who wrote of Caribbean beauty and bondage, dies at 87

The Nobel Prize winner celebrated his Caribbean homeland and described its brutal colonial history. "You didn't make yourself a poet," he said. "You entered a situation in which there was poetry."
by Tom Vitale

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Louise Erdrich wins National Book Critics Circle prize for fiction

Louise Erdrich wins National Book Critics Circle prize for fiction

Louise Erdrich's "LaRose" has won the National Book Critics Circle prize for fiction, an honor she first received more than 30 years ago for her debut novel "Love Medicine."
by Associated Press

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'Inexplicable Logic' maps a teen boy's complicated mind

'Inexplicable Logic' maps a teen boy's complicated mind

'The Inexplicable Logic of My Life' is as much a doorstopper as any young adult fantasy novel, but the world it builds is inside the head of teenaged Sal, who's struggling with difficult new emotions.
by Caitlyn Paxson

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Cheech Marin on how his famed comic collaboration was like Chicano art

Cheech Marin on how his famed comic collaboration was like Chicano art

Marin, who has been collecting Chicano art for years, writes about the art of Cheech and Chong's comedy in "Cheech is Not My Real Name ... But Don't Call Me Chong!"
by David Greene

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'Dark at the Crossing': A story of love and loss in Syria

'Dark at the Crossing': A story of love and loss in Syria

Elliot Ackerman served five tours in Iraq and Afghanistan and now works as a war correspondent in Turkey. He talks about his latest novel, which is a look at a failed revolution and a failed marriage in Syria.
by Kerri Miller and Marcheta Fornoff

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Exploring the death, and life, of the Great Lakes

Exploring the death, and life, of the Great Lakes

Journalist Dan Egan dives into the history of the Great Lakes and the problems facing the natural resource.
by Tom Weber and MPR News Staff

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Author, 'Modern Love' essayist Amy Krouse Rosenthal dies at 51

Author, 'Modern Love' essayist Amy Krouse Rosenthal dies at 51

Rosenthal won hearts with her children's book and memoirs -- and broke them with her essay announcing her terminal illness, a Modern Love piece called "You May Want To Marry My Husband."
by Associated Press

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