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The Thread® - Books and Literary 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. 

Bill Holm named McKnight Distinguished Artist

Bill Holm named McKnight Distinguished Artist

Minneseota writer Bill Holm is celebrating a little. Today the McKnight Foundation named him its 2008 Distinguished Artist.
by Euan Kerr

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Reality literature

Reality literature

Look at any bestseller list, and most likely you'll find a few memoirs. Real life stories about tragic childhoods, abuse and recovery, failure and redemption are all the rage right now. Midmorning examines the popularity of the memoir.

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Listening Point cabin added to historic Register

Listening Point cabin added to historic Register

The cabin in wilderness writer Sigurd Olson's "Listening Point" has been named to the National Register of Historic Places.
by Stephanie Hemphill

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Not a sad young literary man

Not a sad young literary man

Keith Gessen is a brave man. He created and edits a caustic literary magazine called "N+1" which has a reputation for its smart and often snarky criticism. Now he's published his own novel and is facing the critics.
by Euan Kerr

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New memoir tells Hmong story

New memoir tells Hmong story

A new book tells the story of one family's life in Minnesota after a harrowing escape from Laos. Hmong author Kao Kalia Yang has written a memoir called "The Latehomecomer."
by Cathy Wurzer

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Enger channels the old west in his new novel

Enger channels the old west in his new novel

Minnesota writer Leif Enger's new novel, "So Brave, Young and Handsome," is a tribute to the Western. An old cowboy seeks forgiveness from his estranged wife as he tries to shake a pursuing Pinkerton detective.

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Erdrich's latest tells a tale of murder, vengeance, and redemption

Erdrich's latest tells a tale of murder, vengeance, and redemption

Minnesota author Louise Erdrich's new novel weaves together the murder of a family, a lynching of men innocent of the crime, and the tangled relationships of Ojibwe and whites living near a small North Dakota town.

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New novel combines development, kung fu and brussels sprouts

New novel combines development, kung fu and brussels sprouts

When author Don Lee began writing his latest novel, "Wrack and Ruin," he wanted to do something light. He wanted to set the story in a small northern California town, and make one of his characters a farmer. He said the choice of crops was narrow, and one stood out: brussels sprouts.
by Euan Kerr

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Author: Life can get in the way of a well-planned death

Author: Life can get in the way of a well-planned death

Geoff Herbach's new novel, "The Miracle Letters of T. Rimberg," tells a story in a very different and potentially controversial way. Most of the story is presented as suicide notes written by one man.
by Euan Kerr

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Mental illness, seen through the eyes of a child

Mental illness, seen through the eyes of a child

Laura Flynn writes of her at times luminous, at times agonizing experiences growing up with a mother going gradually insane. Flynn's mother suffered from schizophrenia at a time when the disease was not as well known.

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