The Thread® - Books and Literary News

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

October 16, 2015 11:01 AM

Google's book-scanning project is legal, U.S. appeals court says

A group of authors had sued over Google's effort to compile a digital library, claiming that it's costing them a lot of money in lost revenue. The court found the program complies with copyright law.

by Alina Selyukh

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October 16, 2015 10:29 AM

'Asking for It': Analyzing rape culture -- and what can change it

A discussion on sexual violence and how colleges, the media and parents are — and are not — addressing it.

by MPR News Staff

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October 15, 2015 6:00 PM

Ta-Nehisi Coates, Hanya Yanagihara and Pam Munoz Ryan win Kirkus Prizes

The literary award, now in its second year, awards $50,000 to the winner in each category -- nonfiction, fiction and young readers' literature.

by Colin Dwyer

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October 15, 2015 3:48 PM

Your weekend's 'booked': Catch the Twin Cities Book Festival

The largest literary gathering in the upper Midwest comes to the Minnesota State Fairgrounds Saturday with a lineup of local stars and national names.

by Tracy Mumford

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October 15, 2015 1:51 PM

Epic 'City on Fire' burns almost too brightly

Garth Risk Hallberg's massive debut novel is a headlong rush through New York in the 1970s; critic Jason Sheehan says Hallberg writes "like he's not sure anyone will ever give him a second chance."

by Jason Sheehan

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October 14, 2015 11:26 AM

'The Rest Of Us' is apocalypse-adjacent

Patrick Ness' wry new young adult novel wonders what happens to the normal kids who have to make their lives in the margins of the explosive adventures depicted in mainstream young adult fantasy.

by Tasha Robinson

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October 14, 2015 9:01 AM

Finalists unveiled for this year's National Book Awards

Lauren Groff, Terrance Hayes, Sally Mann and Ta-Nehisi Coates are among the 20 writers still in the running for the prestigious literary prize. Soon, that number will be whittled to just four winners.

by Colin Dwyer

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October 13, 2015 4:04 PM

Macalester's Marlon James wins Man Booker Prize

His third novel, "A Brief History of Seven Killings," which centers on the attempted assassination of Bob Marley, has already won an American Book Award and a Minnesota Book Award.

by Euan Kerr

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October 13, 2015 3:50 PM

Why are we suspicious of do-gooders?

Donate a kidney to a stranger. Give half your income to charity. Adopt 20 children. Larissa MacFarquhar's new book profiles people who can't help but be generous — even when others consider them crazy.

by Tracy Mumford