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. 

A new book, "In a Different Key: The Story of Autism," by John Donvan and Caren Zucker, tracks the history of the diagnosis from 75 years ago to today.
Scott Frank on relearning to write
Scott Frank has written screenplays for years, including for blockbusters like "Minority Report." But when it came to writing his first novel, he felt like a beginner.
Exploring the 'quiet New York' with Emma Straub
Straub's new book, "Modern Lovers," is a tale of old friendships, secrets and family entanglements set in a part of Brooklyn writers often ignore: leafy, largely residential Ditmas Park.
'Black Gods Of The Asphalt' takes basketball beyond the court
When you see a bunch of guys playing street basketball you might not just see a game. In his new book, "Black Gods of the Asphalt," author Onaje Woodbine shows how it's also a spiritual experience.
Slavery scars a transatlantic family tree in 'Homegoing'
Yaa Gyasi's debut novel follows the family lines of two separated half-sisters in 18th-century Ghana: One is married off to an Englishman, while the other is sent to America and sold into slavery.