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. 

Joseph Boyden writes about native dichotomy
Joseph Boyden just won Canada's top literary prize for his book "Through Black Spruce." It's the story of a Cree family in Northern Ontario, but it demonstrates how modern native life includes many worlds.
T. C. Boyle on Frank Lloyd Wright's hidden life
Most people know Frank Lloyd Wright from his buildings. But his personal life was a story unto itself. Novelist T.C. Boyle's latest work examines Wright's life and work from the viewpoint of the four principal women in his life.
Local hip hop artist Dessa combines the dry wit of Dorothy Parker with the beat of Mos Def. Dessa speaks and sings of her family ties and the pressures of modern life.
In Minneota, an empty chair for Bill Holm
The funeral service in the southwest Minnesota town of Minneota brought together hundreds of people to say goodbye to author, musician and teacher Bill Holm.
Talking Volumes: Michael Greenberg
Michael Greenberg's teenaged daughter was overcome by a sudden psychosis. Greenberg chronicles her arduous treatment in a critcally-acclaimed memoir. The conversation was recorded before an audience at the UBS Forum on February 24.
Remembering Bill Holm
Essayist and poet Bill Holm, who was nationally known for his distinctly Minnesotan writing, died this week at age 65.
Campaign in verse
Humorist Calvin Trillin's latest book of poems pokes fun at politics.
Between the covers
Two veteran book critics have collaborated to recommend more than 600 books for women who love to read. Their aim was to create a list of books that reflect the different phases in women's lives, and the way that women read. Click on the title for a list of books from the show.