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.

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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. 

A son's addiction, a father's agony
A child's addiction transforms a family. Two new memoirs with different perspectives show how a child's meth habit nearly destroyed a son and almost devastated his father.
Novel mixes horses, riders, and encroaching wealth
When Aryn Kyle began writing about a girl growing up at a Montana riding school, she meant it to be a short story. Yet, when she came back to it a few years later, it became her best-selling novel "The God of Animals."
What to read
Two book lovers talk about what they're reading now, the books that have been praised and overlooked, and how to keep books relevant in a digital age.
Comic novelist combines design with infamous experiments
Graphic designer Chip Kidd is one of the most sought-after book cover designers in the country. He's also a novelist, and his latest book, "The Learners," deals with the infamous Milgram experiments.
Author Manil Suri uses fiction to explore India
Indian-born author Manil Suri burst onto the literary scene in early 2001 with his novel, "The Death of Vishnu." Now he's completed his second work, "The Age of Shiva."
Celebrating and satirizing Anton Chekhov
Actors and musicians in Minneapolis are using the dark heart of winter as the perfect setting for celebrating and satirizing the great Russian playwright Anton Chekhov.
Lynne Cox: swimming the cold seas
She swam the English Channel as a teenager. In 1987, she crossed the Bering Strait between the Soviet Union and Alaska. Her toughest feat: swimming for 25 minutes near Antarctica in water cold enough to kill in much less time. In the rarified world of distance cold water swimming, Lynne Cox is the best known. She's also the author of two books on her adventures.