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.

Marvel at 75: Still slinging webs and guarding galaxies
The Avengers, the X-Men, the Guardians of the Galaxy, Iron Man, Spider-Man. Like every superhero, Marvel Comics has an origin story.
Jonathan Darman on 'LBJ and Ronald Reagan at the Dawn of a New America'
In his first book, journalist Jonathan Darman focuses on the 1,000 days after John F. Kennedy's assassination.
Jacqueline Woodson on growing up and coming out
Woodson, winner of the National Book Award for young people's literature, discusses growing up in South Carolina.
Ojibwe historian Brenda Child explores labor on the reservation
Child's new book tells the stories of the first generation to grow up on the Red Lake Reservation and their struggle to make a living while preserving their culture.
What decapitation tells us about human nature
Anthropologist Frances Larson delves into the history of decapitated human heads in her new book, 'Severed.'
Perry Wallace on breaking barriers in college basketball
Wallace, who helped break the color-barrier in college basketball's Southeastern Conference, never set out to be a pioneer.
How Washington's odd couple transformed welfare
The new book 'The Professor and the President' looks back at how Democratic Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan pushed the Nixon White House to embrace a relatively liberal plan.
Talking Volumes: Richard Ford on 'Let Me Be Frank With You'
We air Kerri Miller's Dec. 1 conversation with author Richard Ford at the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul.
Elizabeth Samet on being caught between war and peace
West Point English Professor Elizabeth Samet's new book explores what the end of the post 9/11-wars means for soldiers, and for the country.