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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.

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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.

Expand your mind through a more diverse reading list
Americans of all political stripes should expand their reading to include viewpoints they may not agree with, argues Ross Douthat in the New York Times.
Book pick: 'The Marseille Caper' by Peter Mayle
Kerri's book pick this week is The Marseille Caper, the second mystery novel by bestselling author Peter Mayle featuring ex-pat American sleuth Sam Levitt.
The 25th annual Minnesota Book Awards take place on April 13, 2013. Here's who's in the running.
Korean-American novelist uses Macalester as backdrop for 'The Collective'
The Korean-American novelist Don Lee's latest book "The Collective" uses Macalester College in St. Paul as a launching point for a tale about the Asian-American experience. Lee said of his four books so far, "The Collective" is his most personal.
'Far from the Tree' explores space between disability, identity
A conversation with author Andrew Solomon about his new book, "Far from the Tree." Solomon amassed hours and hours of interviews with more than 300 families dealing with profound differences in their children, from deafness and dwarfism to prodigies and criminality. He connects their stories of rearing "different" children with his own upbringing as a gay, dyslexic son of a wealthy couple who was constantly bullied and developed serious depression. He realizes how his differences connect him to others who fall outside the mainstream.
2 brief Bradbury works out this fall
Two pieces released this fall were written late in life by the science fiction/fantasy master Ray Bradbury, who died in June at age 91.
Book offers inside look at pets at the White House
Countless anecdotes and more than 200 pictures are featured the new book "Pets at the White House," which gives readers a glimpse of what life is like at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. for pets, and what those pets have meant to their famous owners.
MPR photos of the week
The 2012 campaign trail, the Vikings lose to the Redskins and the Lynx tie the Fever in the WNBA finals, biologists track wolves, farmers harvest the beet fields, and a Minneapolis woman draws strength from her Barbie collection. All that and more in our photos of the week.
Neil Young says 1st book came 'off the top of my head'
Neil Young's fans have come to expect wild swings if they've followed his music career since the 1960s. There's the near-violent guitar solos and throbbing rock of his collaborations with Crazy Horse. Lilting acoustic melodies like "Harvest Moon." Electronic experiments. Moments of genius and ill-advised detours.
New book explores the lives of Ojibwe elders
Duluth's Holy Cow! Press is celebrating its 35th anniversary with the release of its most monumental work to date. The new book, "Spirit of the Ojibwe," is a comprehensive look at the history of a Wisconsin band of Ojibwe Indians.