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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. 

Biography recalls Mikkelsen's days with the Minneapolis Lakers

Biography recalls Mikkelsen's days with the Minneapolis Lakers

A new biography of Basketball Hall of Famer Vern Mikkelsen recalls his days playing alongside George Mikan and Jim Pollard with the champion Minneapolis Lakers. Read an excerpt.

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"Dear Ghosts," poetry written for the dead

Author Tess Gallagher was inspired by deaths of people who made an impression.

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Nell Freudenberger's Dissident

Nell Freudenberger's Dissident

Nell Freudenberger's new novel "The Dissident" is a book about family, art, and ownership. In the book a famous painter and performance artist arrives in Los Angeles from China. He's come to teach at an exclusive girls school, and to present an exhibition. But who is he really?
by Euan Kerr

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Neil Gaiman's busy year

Neil Gaiman's busy year

Fantasy writer Neil Gaiman burst onto the international scene two decades ago with his Sandman comic. Since then he's written novels, plays, filmscripts, and children's books. Now his new collection of short stories has already cracked the New York Times Bestsellers List.
by Euan Kerr

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Translating David Treuer

Translating David Treuer

Minnesota writer David Treuer's latest novel is about a solitary translator who finds love in an unexpected place. While the novel has won praise from the critics, it's Treuer's book of essays that has really stirred up the literary community.
by Kerri Miller

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Midmorning Book Club: "The Grapes of Wrath"

Midmorning Book Club: "The Grapes of Wrath"

John Steinbeck's classic novel describes the struggle of migrants in their search for work and justice during the Great Depression.

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Tom Drury's "Driftless Area"

Tom Drury's "Driftless Area"

Tom Drury titled his novel "The Driftless Area." It's very hard to place in a specific genre. There are elements of a thriller. There's a robbery. And there's a spine-tingling sense of ghostly predestination. One reviewer recently called the book "a Midwestern paranormal noir."
by Euan Kerr

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Jane Hamilton celebrates families in her own special way

Jane Hamilton celebrates families in her own special way

Early on in Jane Hamilton's new novel "When Madeline was Young," Mac the narrator discovers what he thinks is a family secret.
by Euan Kerr

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Dealing with grief through words

Dealing with grief through words

A special rebroadcast of Talking Volumes from October 2005, with author Joan Didion. She talked with Kerri Miller about her book, "The Year of Magical Thinking," a chronicle of the year Didion's husband died and their only daughter fell dangerously ill.

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Local theater, music and book awards

Local theater, music and book awards

Cathy Wurzer spoke with Minnesota Public Radio arts commentator Dominic Papatola about the Ivey Awards, Minnesota Music Awards and Minnesota Book Awards.

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