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.

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.

June 28, 2007 3:37 PM

Douglas Wolk - live from Gluek's

Douglas Wolk is the author of "Reading Comics." Mary Lucia chatted with him at The Current's live broadcast from Gluek's about super-heroes and why Harvey Pekar - the subject of American Splendor - is a bad influence.

by Mary Lucia

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June 26, 2007 3:00 AM

Norma Sommerdorf creates a "Red River Girl"

Stampeding bison, drunken oxcart drivers and a teen romance are all part of a new book by a St. Paul author. The book "Red River Girl" is fiction, but the story is rich with historical fact from the mid-1840s.

by Dan Olson

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June 23, 2007 3:00 AM

A poet makes music this weekend in Stillwater

Tony Hoagland writes free verse, without a rhyming scheme or a formal structure, but that doesn't mean his poems are without music. As if to prove the point, he's in Stillwater this weekend to participate in the first-ever White Pine Festival, which explores the relationship between music and poetry.

by Alison Young

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June 22, 2007 2:14 PM

MPR Fakebook with Laurie Lindeen

The Current Fakebook returned with its final show of the series' first season as The Current's Mary Lucia welcomed Minneapolis-based musician and author Laurie Lindeen, along with a cast of rock worthies to help tell Lindeen's story.

by Mary Lucia

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June 21, 2007 8:44 AM

The literary life of Brother Ali

Brother Ali, a recording artist with the Minneapolis-based Rhymesayers record label, talks about why Zora Neale Hurston's "Their Eyes Were Watching God" is one of his favorite books.

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June 18, 2007 2:17 PM

Nancy Pearl's book picks

Here's a list of the books mentioned on Monday's Midmorning with Nancy Pearl, retired librarian and author of "Book Lust."

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June 18, 2007 12:00 AM

From the Hardy boys to Harry Potter

Summer reading lists and the latest Harry Potter may absorb younger readers, but America's favorite librarian has other literary recommendations for kids and teens.

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June 12, 2007 5:53 PM

Laurie Lindeen looks back on a rock and roll Cinderella story

Laurie Lindeen knew she wanted to be in a band -- and particularly an all-girl band -- before she learned to play an instrument. It was the late 1980s and she moved to Minneapolis from Madison to experience the music scene. Now Lindeen is retelling the whole story in her new memoir "Petal Pusher."

by Euan Kerr

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June 8, 2007 4:55 PM

Ron Carlson writes about men and work in "Five Skies."

Ron Carlson is best-known for short story collections such as "At the Jim Bridger." His first novel in a quarter-century, "Five Skies," follows three men sent into the wilds of Idaho for an unusual construction project.

by Euan Kerr

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June 6, 2007 8:49 AM

For the love of fly fishing, family and words

St. Paul's Mayor Chris Coleman said he's a trout angler, but his connection to Norman Maclean's "A River Runs Through It" runs much deeper than his interest in fishing.

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