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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.

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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 novelists who are now writing superhero comics

The novelists who are now writing superhero comics

Margaret Atwood has dreamed up a superhero who is part cat, part bird. Ta-Nehisi Coates, Michael Chabon and other prominent writers are also dabbling in comics.
by Tracy Mumford

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New Beatrix Potter story uncovered after 100 years

New Beatrix Potter story uncovered after 100 years

Publisher Jo Hanks unearthed "The Tale of Kitty-in-Boots" in the archives of the Victoria and Albert Museum. It will be published this September, with original illustrations from Quentin Blake.
by Tracy Mumford

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'All The Birds' overturns sci-fi and fantasy, gently

'All The Birds' overturns sci-fi and fantasy, gently

Charlie Jane Anders' debut novel follows a girl with magical powers and a technically brilliant boy, uneasy friends since childhood, who get caught up in an apocalyptic war between science and magic.
by Jason Heller

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A suspenseful novel that reflects on the modern Muslim experience

A suspenseful novel that reflects on the modern Muslim experience

Leila Aboulela's new novel jumps between a professor in modern Scotland and a Muslim leader fighting for his freedom in nineteenth-century Russia.
by MPR News Staff

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How to bake a cake like it's 1820

How to bake a cake like it's 1820

Hundreds of rare recipes, from as far back as the 1500s, can be found at the Wangensteen Historical Library at the University of Minnesota.
by MPR News Staff

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In first novel, former hostage Ingrid Betancourt tells a story of captivity

In first novel, former hostage Ingrid Betancourt tells a story of captivity

"The Blue Line" follows a woman who is detained during Argentina's Dirty War. Betancourt says writing the novel helped her process the years she spent as a captive of Colombian revolutionaries.
by NPR Staff

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