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. 

Finding enlightenment in daily life
Minnesota author Mary Rose O'Reilly writes about her rebellion against canned spirituality in the wake of national and personal disasters, 9-11 and the death of her mother.
Jackpine Bob dies
A giant figure is gone from Ely. Bob Cary lost his battle with cancer on Saturday. To some, Cary was better known as Jackpine Bob - editor, author, columnist and storyteller.
For the love of books
America's favorite librarian talks with Midmorning about her love of books, and what's on her summer reading list.
Story time at the Walker
F. Scott Fitzgerald fans now have not one, but two, opportunities to enjoy staged versions of "The Great Gatsby" in coming months. The Guthrie Theater will open its new complex with an adaptation of the novel in late June. Then in September, the Walker Art Center will stage "Gatz," a six-hour show which is essentially a reading of the entire book.
A little poetry on your bus ride home
A group of local poets is hoping that some commuters will be moved by more than the Metro Transit bus they are riding on. Eighteen poets will attempt to inspire riders during the third annual Poets on Buses, by performing on buses during the evening rush hour.
The call of the farm
A technical writer turned sheep farmer describes the challenges of starting a new agrarian life, a life that was not completely her choice.
Melissa Bank hits "The Wonder Spot"
Author Melissa Bank blasted onto the literary scene with her book "The Girls Guide to Hunting and Fishing." Yet it took Bank five years to publish her next novel "The Wonder Spot."
Fifty years of "The Singing Wilderness"
There's a piece of paradise in northeastern Minnesota, the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, the BWCA. Admirers credit a book published 50 years as part of the inspiration for creating the wilderness area. And they credit the author, the late Sigurd Olson, for putting into words the reasons humans need wilderness.
The future of the book
Google's plan to scan thousands of books has spurred hope of a universal digital library, and a lawsuit from several publishing companies over copyright issues. Can books as we know them survive the digital age?