The Thread® - Books and Literary News

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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.

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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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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. 

Questlove on Prince, doo-wop and the food equivalent of the 'Mona Lisa'
In his new book, "somethingtofoodabout," The Roots' drummer discusses the artistry involved in creating a great meal. "I'm more obsessed with the journey ... than the destination," Questlove says.
The fate of Prince's memoir is uncertain
Prince announced just last month that he was working on a memoir to be published in 2017. Rolling Stone called it "one of the most anticipated memoirs in music history."
'Sleeping Giants' kicks off a new series in style
Sylvain Neuvel's debut begins with a young girl who falls into a hole in the ground and is found soon after, sitting on a 20-foot-long mechanical hand. And that's just the (finger) tip of the iceberg.
As I Lay Trying: How to read William Faulkner
"Believe me, when it comes to finding Faulkner difficult, we've all been there," writes Christopher Rieger, director of the Center for Faulkner Studies at Southeast Missouri State University.
A great American novel about a great American crisis
Angela Flournoy's debut novel, "The Turner House," follows the fate of a family home on Detroit's East Side during the foreclosure crisis in 2008. The book was a finalist for the National Book Award.
Timbuktu's 'Badass Librarians': Checking out books under al-Qaida's nose
Librarian Abdel Kader Haidara organized a smuggling operation to keep centuries-old manuscripts out of the hands of al-Qaida. Joshua Hammer wrote about it in "The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu."