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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.

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. 

Four stories for the start of Hanukkah

Four stories for the start of Hanukkah

National Public Radio commissioned four short stories to commemorate the Jewish festival of Hanukkah, which begins Tuesday at sundown.

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Arvonne Fraser recounts her life in politics

Arvonne Fraser recounts her life in politics

Arvonne Fraser has been a force in Minnesota's DFL Party for more than half a century. Fraser, who is married to former U.S. Rep. Don Fraser, disussed her new memoir "She's No Lady" recently with public radio icon Garrison Keillor.

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Best books of the year

Best books of the year

Both the Washington Post and the New York Times recently named the top 10 literary works of 2007. The choices include major prize winners as well as little-known gems, like Per Petterson's "Out Stealing Horses."

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What inspires Jim Klobuchar

Minnesota writer Jim Klobuchar, an award-winning former columnist for the Star Tribune, is out with a new collection of essays about the people on his travels who have inspired him.

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Midmorning Book Club: 'All Quiet on the Western Front'

After World War I, weariness and the deaths of so many young men inspired a classic, published in 1929. The novel, "All Quiet on the Western Front," and the 1930 movie version convinced many people in Germany and around the world that World War I should be the last war.

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'The Florist's Daughter' by Patricia Hampl

'The Florist's Daughter' by Patricia Hampl

"The Florist's Daughter" has earned University of Minnesota professor Patricia Hampl her third Minnesota Book Award. Hampl adapted her latest memoir, which won in the Book Award's memoir/creative nonfiction category, into a performance and reading at the Fitzgerald Theater.

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Nathan Englander writes about 'the dirty war'

Nathan Englander writes about 'the dirty war'

Nathan Englander's new book "The Ministry of Special Cases" is set against Argentina's 'dirty war.' It was the time in the late 1970s when thousands of people disappeared -- kidnapped and murdered by the military junta. Englander says the book grew out of a trip to Jerusalem.
by Euan Kerr

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Author Norman Mailer dead at 84

Author Norman Mailer dead at 84

From his classic debut novel to such masterworks of literary journalism as "The Armies of the Night," the two-time Pulitzer Prize winner always got credit for insight, passion and originality.

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Howard Jacobson spins a world from 'Kalooki Nights'

Howard Jacobson spins a world from 'Kalooki Nights'

Kalooki is central to British novelist Howard Jacobson's new book. It's a card game in which no one really knows the rules. Jacobson says it's a great way to describe the British Jewish community where he grew up, and he uses it in his new comic novel "Kalooki Nights."
by Euan Kerr

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