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. 

'The Rope' chronicles a good death, and a bad start
Kanan Makiya's new novel is named for the rope used to execute Saddam Hussein. It follows one Shiite militiaman from the day of Saddam's fall through the tumultuous years that follow.
A St. Patrick's poem on shamrocks and stereotypes
"All that mindlessness, shouting and getting plain stocious / That isn't Irish, that's simply atrocious," writes author and Irish expatriate Frank Delaney in "Drowning the Shamrock."
10 words turning 40 in 2016
Mental Floss has compiled a list of words and phrases that entered our language in 1976. Chicken nugget, anyone?