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The Thread® - Books and Literary News

The Thread from MPR News

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

Ask a Bookseller

Ask a Bookseller is a weekly series where The Thread 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 every Friday at 11 a.m., featuring conversations about books and other literary ideas. Listen to Big Books and Bold Ideas here.

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. Find reviews for new releases, as well as hidden gems you may have missed.

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. 

Tickets are now available for our 26th season. Join award-winning journalist and MPR News host Kerri Miller (and special guest host Catharine Richart) as they talk with authors including Stacey Abrams, Patricia Lockwood, Misty Copeland, John Grisham, and Kate Baer. 

Next stop: The red planet

Next stop: The red planet

Science writer Mary Roach researched what it would take to prepare a settlement on Mars. What she found was that humans would need to rethink nearly everything we take for granted on earth in order to live on the red planet.

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Half-pint gets her own Laurapalooza

Laura Ingalls Wilder fans converge at a conference this week just an hour and a half from Walnut Grove, the setting of her famous "Little House" series. We'll hear from two biographers who reveal how much of her life she incorporated into her classic pioneer stories.

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Best-selling author Sebastian Junger on his new book, 'War'

Best-selling author Sebastian Junger on his new book, 'War'

Journalist and best-selling author Sebastian Junger speaks at the UBS Forum about his new book titled 'War'. The book follows a platoon of soldiers in Eastern Afghanistan and explores the psychological and social effects of combat in one of the most dangerous regions of the country.

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Sebastian Junger explores the reality of combat

Sebastian Junger explores the reality of combat

Journalist Sebastian Junger is fascinated by people living and working in extreme situations. His new book chronicles his experience embedding with the men of a U.S. Army platoon in one of the most dangerous regions of Afghanistan.

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Is book publishing dying?

Is book publishing dying?

In a recent op-ed for the New York Times, Garrison Keillor argues that with the rise of blogs and self-publishing, book publishing as we know it, and its role in the creation of authors, is about to "slide into the sea." Two industry observers say that while publishing is in trouble, the end isn't near.

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Talking Volumes season finale: Monica Ali

Talking Volumes season finale: Monica Ali

Author Monica Ali is considered one of the best young novelists in Britain. Her latest novel, "In the Kitchen," is about the efforts of a chef to succeed in a once grand restaurant, despite huge pressures at home and a murder. Kerri Miller talked with Monica Ali on the stage of the Fitzgerald Theater May 19.
by Jeffrey Thompson

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These storytellers are rockstars

These storytellers are rockstars

Every third Sunday of the month, a group of "Gen Y" yarn spinners regale audiences with edgy tales of woe, wisdom and awkward situations. They call themselves the Rockstar Storytellers.
by Chris Roberts

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Azar Nafisi on Iran and human rights

Azar Nafisi on Iran and human rights

Author and activist Azar Nafisi says the repression in Iran goes beyond the holding of the three American hikers. She talks about how the Iranian regime tries and occasionally fails to stifle creative expression.

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Rin Tin Tin, chickens and Susan Orlean

Rin Tin Tin, chickens and Susan Orlean

Animals interest writer Susan Orlean. Chickens and mules show up in her writing for the New Yorker lately. That fascination extends to Orlean's latest writing on the life of Rin Tin Tin.

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