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. 

10 deaths, one day: A look at the youngest victims of gun violence
On average, seven children and teens are killed by guns each day in the U.S. Reporter Gary Younge picked one day -- Nov. 23, 2013 -- and profiled the ten boys who died on that date.
'Thrill Me' gets personal about life and writing
Writer Benjamin Percy has been on both sides of the divide between literary and genre fiction, and "Thrill Me" is both a meditation on the writing life and a passionate argument against that divide.
For John Sandford, Minnesota remains the perfect crime scene
Thrill master John Sandford, who set his latest book, "Escape Clause," at the Minnesota Zoo, talks with MPR News about his characters' Minnesota roots -- and the hardest part about crime writing.
Ask a bookseller: Left Bank Books in St. Louis
Bookseller Shane Mullen has two eerie, unsettling reads for your October book list. The first deals with a horror film gone awry in the Amazon and the second revolves around the mysterious disappearance of young twin girls.
Here's the only good thing -- books! -- about the Lynx losing the WNBA championship
The mayors of Minneapolis and Los Angeles staged a friendly wager over the game: The loser has to send a shipment of books by local women authors to the winning city. Minneapolis is preparing to send the books next week.
'American Crime Story' to tackle the tale of a serial killer with Minnesota connections
The third season of the television show will tell the story of Andrew Cunanan, who killed fashion designer Gianni Versace in Florida in 1997 — after a killing spree that began in Minnesota just weeks before.