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.

October 27, 2015 10:12 AM

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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October 27, 2015 8:57 AM

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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October 27, 2015 8:24 AM

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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October 26, 2015 1:43 PM

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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October 26, 2015 1:40 PM

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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October 26, 2015 1:39 PM

Salman Rushdie on ancient genies and 'Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights'

Salman Rushdie's genies are troublemaking, impudent, amoral genies based on Islamic folklore. He joined Kerri Miller to talk about their appearance in his new novel.

by MPR News Staff

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October 26, 2015 1:08 PM

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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October 26, 2015 12:00 AM

Canada in the headlines provides the perfect excuse to read 'Canada'

Richard Ford's compulsively readable novel spins around a 15-year-old, a bank robbery and two very naive parents.

by Kerri Miller

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October 25, 2015 12:00 AM

'After Alice' gets lost in Wonderland, sensible bestie comes to her resuce

Gregory Maguire, of 'Wicked fame,' has written a kind of parallel narrative to Lewis Carroll's 'Alice in Wonderland.' This story focuses on Ada, a friend who knows Alice needs help getting home.