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The Thread® - Books and Literary 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.

Sign Up for The Thread® Newsletter

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. 

Who really wrote 'it was a dark and stormy night'?

Who really wrote 'it was a dark and stormy night'?

'It was a dark and stormy night' has become the most cliche phrase in literature. Who wrote it first?
by Tracy Mumford

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'Welcome to Night Vale': Where supernatural is super normal

'Welcome to Night Vale': Where supernatural is super normal

Glow Clouds, shadow governments, five-headed dragons and the Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives In Your Home — these are all part of life in "Night Vale," a popular podcast-turned-novel.
by MPR News Staff

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'Modern Girl' Carrie Brownstein describes finding (and hiding) herself in music

'Modern Girl' Carrie Brownstein describes finding (and hiding) herself in music

The Sleater-Kinney guitarist and singer is known for her defiant performances, but it was vulnerability that initially drew her to music. Brownstein's new memoir is 'Hunger Makes Me A Modern Girl.'

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Five haunting stories in time for Halloween

Five haunting stories in time for Halloween

Crack open these scary stories from the 19th century to now. You may want to read them with the light on.
by Tracy Mumford

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A witch's brew of fear and fantasy: America's tiny reign of terror

A witch's brew of fear and fantasy: America's tiny reign of terror

Pulitizer Prize-winning author Stacy Schiff's last book was a best-seller about Cleopatra. Now, the Massachusetts native is out with a history of a subject closer to home: the 1692 Salem witch trials.

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Don't necessarily judge your next e-book by its online review

Don't necessarily judge your next e-book by its online review

Online scams known as catfishing and astroturfing produce fake reviews for e-books published under fake names or generate false praise for restaurants. In either case, it pays to be skeptical.

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At 81, feminist Gloria Steinem finds herself free of the 'demands of gender'

At 81, feminist Gloria Steinem finds herself free of the 'demands of gender'

As she approached 60, the co-founder of Ms. magazine says, she entered a new phase in life, one in which "you can do what you want." Steinem's new memoir is "My Life on the Road."

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Notorious RBG: The Supreme Court justice turned cultural icon

Notorious RBG: The Supreme Court justice turned cultural icon

Ruth Bader Ginsburg became a cultural icon about the time she turned 80 and became known as "Notorius RBG" -- an unusual identify for a member of the U.S. Supreme Court.
by Nina Totenberg

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Welcome to Night Vale creators on fear and the unknown

Welcome to Night Vale creators on fear and the unknown

The creators of Welcome to Night Vale on being "caught between what they know and what they don't yet know that they don't know."
by Kerri Miller

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