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The Thread® - Books and Literary News

The Thread® is your source for book recommendations and other literary news.

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. 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.

Book News: Doris Lessing's personal library returns home -- to Zimbabwe

Book News: Doris Lessing's personal library returns home -- to Zimbabwe

More than 3,000 books from British Nobel laureate Doris Lessing's collection have been donated to a library in Zimbabwe. Also: J.K. Rowling promises 12 days of Harry Potter.
by Colin Dwyer

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The 'Purple Rain' story

The 'Purple Rain' story

A low-budget movie with a cast that's never acted before, a first-time director, and a star who refuses to do publicity. That's the story of Prince's iconic 1984 film "Purple Rain."

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Barnes & Noble, Microsoft Part Ways Over The Nook

Barnes & Noble, Microsoft Part Ways Over The Nook

A two-year partnership in the bookseller's troubled e-reader has ended, as Barnes & Noble buys out Microsoft's share.
by Colin Dwyer

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Best audiobooks for holiday travel

The best audiobooks don't just have great stories -- they have great voices to bring them to life.

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P.D. James believed mysteries were made of clues, not coincidences

P.D. James believed mysteries were made of clues, not coincidences

Best-selling mystery author P.D. James died Thursday. She was 94. In 1987, James told Terry Gross that while the "shock of finding the bodies is important" in her novels, she personally doesn't like "messy lives."

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Pope Francis as reformer, evangelizer -- and doctrinal conservative

Pope Francis as reformer, evangelizer -- and doctrinal conservative

Author Austen Ivereigh argues in a new biography, The Great Reformer: Francis and the Making of a Radical Pope, that many misjudge the meaning of the pope's comments on abortion, homosexuality and nonbelievers.

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Backstage with Janis Joplin: Doubts, drugs and compassion

Backstage with Janis Joplin: Doubts, drugs and compassion

John Byrne Cooke was Janis Joplin's road manager from 1967 until her untimely death in 1970. So he saw a lot of rock history up close -- and describes some of the details in a new memoir.

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The banh mi handbook: A guide to a Viet-French sandwich

The banh mi handbook: A guide to a Viet-French sandwich

Andrea Nguyen knew by the time she was 10 she wanted to be a sandwich maker. The sandwich she fell for first and that she still loves the most? Banh mi.
by Karen Grigsby Bates

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