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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.

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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Four perspectives on the civil rights movement

An author, an activist, a teacher and a former vice president of the United States gathered recently to discuss the legacy of the civil rights movement at the Children's Theatre Company of Minneapolis.
by Stephen Smith

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Keillor to open his own bookstore

Keillor to open his own bookstore

Garrison Keillor is going from bestselling author to bookstore owner. Keillor, who hosts the "A Prairie Home Companion" public radio program, plans to open a bookstore in St. Paul in November.

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Toni Morrison on race, writing and global citizenship

Toni Morrison on race, writing and global citizenship

Toni Morrison, who has won both the Nobel Prize in Literature and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, spoke about her writing Sept. 5 at Macalester College in St. Paul. Her talk was part of the inaugural lecture series for the college's Institute for Global Citizenship.

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Who was the real Jay Gatsby?

Who was the real Jay Gatsby?

Not much is known about the origin of the character Jay Gatsby, but a St. Paul author is writing a biography about a dashing Minnesotan who may have been F. Scott Fitzgerald's inspiration.

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The State Fair poetry team

The State Fair poetry team

To celebrate the unique nature of the Minnesota State Fair, two local artists are combining their creative talents to write and produce a poem a day from the fair.

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