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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.

A mother's quest to save her son

A mother's quest to save her son

Randi Davenport struggled to find treatment and a new diagnosis for her autistic son after he developed psychotic behavior during his teens. The mental health system she encountered was willing to accommodate his developmental disability or his psychiatric diagnosis, but not both.

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Richard Powers' science-inspired literature

Richard Powers' science-inspired literature

Novelist Richard Powers was among the early few to have his genetic makeup mapped. His latest work of fiction asks if there were a gene for happiness, should we rid ourselves of discontent?

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Minnesota native talks about winning the Pulitzer Prize

Minnesota native talks about winning the Pulitzer Prize

T.J. Stiles, a native of Minnesota and a Carleton College graduate, won a Pulitzer Prize in the biography category for his book "The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt." He spoke with MPR's Cathy Wurzer.
by Cathy Wurzer and Elizabeth Dunbar

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Newsmaker: One hundred years after Twain's death

Newsmaker: One hundred years after Twain's death

A century later critics still consider Mark Twain as one of the greatest American humorist of his age. His classic novel "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" was lauded for its stunning narrative and social criticism, yet is still banned from a number of libraries for its crude use of vernacular.

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Why Neil Gaiman loves libraries

Why Neil Gaiman loves libraries

Award-winning author Neil Gaiman says libraries are more vital than ever. To press his point he's serving as honorary chair for National Library Week.
by Euan Kerr

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Pushed to positivity in book reviews

Pushed to positivity in book reviews

Book reviewers at major newspapers receive hundreds of books to read and analyze a year, and give positive reviews to more and more of them according to some reviewers. The praise inflation doesn't do the critics any good, but it can be hard to avoid. One critic looks back at his modest, and mischievous, proposal to positively write about only those books that he would recommend to friends or family.

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Colum McCann the art of living in different worlds

Colum McCann the art of living in different worlds

Broadcast of Kerri Miller's conversation with author Colum McCann. His critically acclaimed book, "Let the Great World Spin," a vivid series of New Yorkers' perspectives, set against a French high wire artist's astonishing walk between the twin towers of the World Trade Center.

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The lure of Scandinavian crime writing

The lure of Scandinavian crime writing

One word which gets many thriller readers' pulses racing nowadays is "Scandinavia." The area of the world best known for fjords and Vikings is awash in blood, if you are to believe the popular novels being written by Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish crime writers. Now the phenomenon is spreading to U.S. soil.
by Euan Kerr

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The enduring appeal of Sherlock Holmes

The enduring appeal of Sherlock Holmes

Journalist David Grann contemplates the strange death of the world's foremost expert on Sherlock Holmes and a dozen other real-life mysteries in his new book. Grann says the appeal of Holmes is that he restores order to a bewildering universe

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New memoir explores science of the brain

New memoir explores science of the brain

Author Siri Hustvedt investigates the causes of her migraine headaches and episodes of uncontrollable shaking that began shortly after the death of her father.

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