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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.

In life after life, 'Incarnations' spins a sinuous tale of soul mates

In life after life, 'Incarnations' spins a sinuous tale of soul mates

In Susan Barker's novel, a few strange letters bloom into a saga of two souls' reincarnations. Barker says her characters' many lives gave her an instrument to explore China -- both past and present.

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Relevant reads: Three novels about Cuba

Relevant reads: Three novels about Cuba

As relations improve between the U.S. and Cuba, more Americans will be able to travel to the island nation. These three novels will have you reaching for your passport.
by Kerri Miller

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A house that's not a home in 'Bright Lines'

A house that's not a home in 'Bright Lines'

Tanwi Nandini Islam's debut novel is an understated queer coming-of-age tale, set in a vividly-portrayed Brooklyn brownstone whose residents all ache for some kind of home they've never been to.
by Genevieve Valentine

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Music journalist chronicles the "wild obsessive hunt" for rare 78 rpm records

Music journalist chronicles the "wild obsessive hunt" for rare 78 rpm records

In "Do Not Sell At Any Price," Amanda Petrusich details the extreme measures collectors take in pursuit of rare 78s. "You can still find quite a few of them around at junk shops," she says.

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Obama's summer reading list

Obama's summer reading list

The president has six books lined up for his summer vacation -- a mix of fiction and nonfiction.
by Tracy Mumford

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Things left unspoken haunt hard-hitting 'Dragonfish'

Things left unspoken haunt hard-hitting 'Dragonfish'

There are a few confessional speeches in Vu Tran's noirish debut novel, but what people write is more important than what they say: Anguished notes, letters and secret diary all drive the action.
by Tasha Robinson

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Novel highlights the shocks facing first-generation college students

Novel highlights the shocks facing first-generation college students

Jennine Capó Crucet, author of 'Make Your Home Among Strangers,' was inspired by her experiences as the daughter of Cuban immigrants and the first person in her family to attend college.

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'Hominids' is a deeply human collection of speculative fiction

'Hominids' is a deeply human collection of speculative fiction

Nalo Hopkinson's new collection mixes up her Afro-Caribbean influences with classic literature and historical fantasy. Critic Jason Heller says her stories dazzle with a hard-won sense of hope.
by Jason Heller

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'Scream' meets Agatha Christie in 'A Dark, Dark Wood'

'Scream' meets Agatha Christie in 'A Dark, Dark Wood'

Author Ruth Ware's new thriller takes place at a bachelorette party in an isolated English country house. The book blends the creepy voyeurism of a Scream movie with the setting of a Christie novel.

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