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 poet's vision for the environment, young artists
The natural world is the canvas and the inspiration for award-winning poet Robert Hass. He talks about his long career, and how he's helping children explore their own creativity and express their thoughts on the environment.
Talking Volumes: A conversation with Michael Ondaatje
Michael Ondaatje talks about his latest book, "Divisadero." It's a novel set in California of the 1970s, about a family torn by a violent act. The conversation with Kerri Miller was recorded at the Fitzgerald Theater on May 27.
Origins unknown
In his new book, linguistics scholar Anatoly Liberman gets to the root of 55 words previously dismissed as being of unknown origin. He joins Midmorning to talk about words united by their etymological obscurity.
Bill Holm named McKnight Distinguished Artist
Minneseota writer Bill Holm is celebrating a little. Today the McKnight Foundation named him its 2008 Distinguished Artist.
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.
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.
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.
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."
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.