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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.

A book inspired by bad stand-up comedy

A book inspired by bad stand-up comedy

David Grossman's unsettling new novel takes place over the course of a two-hour comedy set, as what seems like just a bad performance evolves into something truly strange, painful and urgent.
by Michael Schaub

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Adolescence isn't the only horror in 'The Mercy Of The Tide'

Adolescence isn't the only horror in 'The Mercy Of The Tide'

Zinemaker and designer Keith Rosson's debut novel is set in a small Oregon town in the 1980s, where the rain pours down, jellyfish rot on the beach -- and a strange supernatural force is on the move.
by Jason Heller

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'Crack in the Sea' poses refugee theme to young readers

'Crack in the Sea' poses refugee theme to young readers

St. Paul writer Heather Bouwman's novel is part fantasy, part history and part current events.
by Euan Kerr

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Cannibalism: It's 'perfectly natural,' a new scientific history argues

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?
by Angus Chen

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Grad student discovers a lost novel written by Walt Whitman

Grad student discovers a lost novel written by Walt Whitman

An ad in a March 1852 edition of The New York Times led Zachary Turpin on an electronic search that uncovered a rags-to-riches novella that Whitman published anonymously.
by Glen Weldon

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Are cyborgs in our future? 'Homo Deus' author thinks so

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.

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The story of Dorothy Day, her 'disorderly years' and her possible sainthood

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.
by MPR News Staff

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How Rorschach's 'Inkblots' took on a life of their own

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.

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In 'Things We Lost,' Argentina's haunted history gets a supernatural twist

In 'Things We Lost,' Argentina's haunted history gets a supernatural twist

The country's military dictatorship ended decades ago, but author Mariana Enriquez says there's still "a ghostly quality to everyday life" there.

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