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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.

Author unravels her spy dad's life, one secret mission at a time

Author unravels her spy dad's life, one secret mission at a time

Keggie Carew grew up with her father's stories of parachuting into the jungle and working as a spy in Burma. She wasn't sure how much to believe until she started researching her new book, "Dadland."
by Ari Shapiro

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Gaiman says dark stories from Nordic myth are perfect for hard times

Gaiman says dark stories from Nordic myth are perfect for hard times

In his new book, author Neil Gaiman takes the gods from Nordic myths and thrusts them into the modern world for a showdown against new deities.
by Euan Kerr

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Author says Hitler was 'Blitzed' on cocaine and opiates during the war

Author says Hitler was 'Blitzed' on cocaine and opiates during the war

Author Norman Ohler says that Hitler's drug abuse increased "significantly" from the fall of 1941 until winter of 1944: "Hitler needed those highs to substitute [for] his natural charisma."

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Louise Erdrich among 2017 PEN/Faulkner Award nominees

Louise Erdrich among 2017 PEN/Faulkner Award nominees

The judges for the award said the nominees show "that American fiction cannot be defined or contained by any particular border, wall, or edict."
by Tracy Mumford

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A middle-aged coming of age in 'All Grown Up'

A middle-aged coming of age in 'All Grown Up'

Novelist Jami Attenberg tells the story of Andrea Bern -- a failed artist who, as she turns 40, is seeking a path to personal and professional happiness.
by Mary Louise Kelly

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An unnerving thriller that will stick with you for weeks

An unnerving thriller that will stick with you for weeks

"It's a literary novel and it's a horror novel at the same time," said bookstore owner Michael Herrmann.
by Tracy Mumford

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Writing past the white gaze as a black author

"I wanted my characters to be respectable," LJ Alonge writes. "I wanted them to somehow escape the judgement they'd get for just being, the same kind of judgement I've gotten for just being..."
by LJ Alonge

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