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. 

What if Romeo and Juliet didn't have to die?
What if Romeo and Juliet had lived? In Ryan North's new "chooseable-path adventure" about Romeo and Juliet, you can make sure the two never meet -- or have them take over Verona in giant robot suits.
The future of Cuban sci-fi is 'Super Extra Grande'
In "Super Extra Grande," Cuban sci-fi author Yoss imagines a world where faster-than-light travel has brought humanity into contact with a vast array of strange and marvelous intergalactic creatures.
Annie Proulx's bloody new novel 'Barkskins' is about more deforestation
"Barkskins" follows two loggers' stories over three centuries. Proulx says the forest is the hero of her book, but it's also "one facet of larger things, like climate change and the melting of the ice."
A wry, warm look at the indignities of aging
Cathleen Schine's new novel stars that literary rarity: a functional family. But matriarch Joy is struggling; her husband is ailing and her worried children don't like seeing their parents' decline.