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The Thread® - Books and Literary News

The Thread® is your source for book recommendations and other literary news.

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Sign up for The Thread newsletter to get reading recommendations from Kerri Miller and other bookworms around the MPR newsroom. Sam Stroozas rounds up local events and Minnesota book news you may have missed.

Ask a Bookseller

Ask a Bookseller is a weekly series where host Emily Bright 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 and produced by Kelly Gordon every Friday at 11 a.m., featuring conversations about books and other literary ideas. Listen to Big Books and Bold Ideas here.

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.

The fate of Prince's memoir is uncertain

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."
by Tracy Mumford

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'Sleeping Giants' kicks off a new series in style

'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.
by Jason Heller

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As I Lay Trying: How to read William Faulkner

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.
by MPR News Staff

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A great American novel about a great American crisis

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.
by MPR News Staff

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Timbuktu's 'Badass Librarians': Checking out books under al-Qaida's nose

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."

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Aparna Nancherla on finding her voice

Aparna Nancherla on finding her voice

Aparna Nancherla has a made a career of telling jokes, but her tastes in literature run toward the serious.
by MPR News Staff

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In the lines of Ocean Vuong, echoes of his family's past in Vietnam

In the lines of Ocean Vuong, echoes of his family's past in Vietnam

Award-winning poet Ocean Vuong speaks about his new book "Night Sky with Exit Wounds," which weaves growing up in America with his family's memories of a war-torn Vietnam.

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Poetry Friday: Take a (line) break

Poetry Friday: Take a (line) break

To celebrate National Poetry Month, The Thread is sharing a collection of poetry from local presses every Friday in April.
by MPR News Staff

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Angels, mobsters, monsters: This 'Box' really does have everything

Angels, mobsters, monsters: This 'Box' really does have everything

Richard Kadrey kicks off a new series about a magic-immune thief in a magic-soaked Los Angeles with 'The Everything Box.' It's a madcap ride in which the end of humanity is just the beginning.
by Jason Sheehan

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Cooking with the Bard: We suss out Shakespeare's forgotten foods

Cooking with the Bard: We suss out Shakespeare's forgotten foods

Shakespeare's audiences have devoured tales of Twelfth Night's "cakes and ale" and Hamlet's "funeral baked meats." But there's a whole lot more to the bard's culinary story. How about chewets, gallimaufries, and fools?
by Anne Bramley

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