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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 'Harry Potter' story continues -- on the stage

The 'Harry Potter' story continues -- on the stage

The new play, "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child," will center on an adult Harry and his son Albus Severus. It opens in London this summer.
by The Associated Press

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4 kitchen tips from a 'mad scientist'

4 kitchen tips from a 'mad scientist'

J. Kenji Lopez-Alt is an MIT grad with a passion for cooking. He's taken chemistry and science into the kitchen with him in his cookbook, "Food Lab."
by Tracy Mumford

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Books: Best sellers for the week of Oct. 18

"See Me" by Nicholas Sparks took the top spot in fiction, while "Killing Reagan" by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard is No. 1 in non-fiction.
by The Associated Press

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All hail the Glow Cloud: 'Night Vale' welcomes readers

All hail the Glow Cloud: 'Night Vale' welcomes readers

The creators of the popular podcast 'Welcome to Night Vale' are now telling their tales of a strange desert town in a 'splendid, weird, moving' novel.
by Amal El-Mohtar

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Roaming and reading in the U.S. Virgin Islands

Roaming and reading in the U.S. Virgin Islands

"The Caribbean has an incredibly rich literary history," said Tiphanie Yanique, the author of "Land of Love and Drowning."
by MPR News Staff

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Reimagining the Reagan years in 'Finale'

Reimagining the Reagan years in 'Finale'

"Reagan was so elusive and mysterious. For someone so charming, he was very remote," said novelist Thomas Mallon.
by Tracy Mumford

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'Somewhat United': Founding fathers who bicker, bumble and snore

'Somewhat United': Founding fathers who bicker, bumble and snore

Sarah Vowell's charming not-quite-a-history gives us a young, glory-hungry Marquis de Lafayette, and the Founding Fathers not as marble statues, but as real men who bicker, bumble and snore.
by Colin Dwyer

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'The End': The most memorable literary death scenes

'The End': The most memorable literary death scenes

What characters' unfortunate demises have you never forgotten? We build a list of the literary death scenes that still stick with us.
by Tracy Mumford

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The disappearing 'Katherine Carlyle'

The disappearing 'Katherine Carlyle'

Novelist Rupert Thomson has been compared to everyone from Franz Kafka to Oliver Sacks. His newest book centers around a 19-year-old girl who decides to leave her life behind for points unknown.
by MPR News Staff

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