The Thread® - Books and Literary News

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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.

Hey! Animals are people too!
Scientist Jonathan Balcombe studies animal behavior and believes that if we open our eyes and really look at animals, we can see that they are individuals with a complex array of feelings.
You'll never be as happy as you are now
Imagine how happy you would be if you won $10 million. Now imagine how unhappy you would be if you lost your leg. Guess what? According to Daniel Gilbert, your level of happiness probably wouldn't change that much.
Exploring Hurston's legacy
A broadcast of a special Talking Volumes featuring Kerri Miller's conversation with author Edwidge Danticat about Zora Neale Hurston's "Their Eyes Were Watching God." Recorded at the Fitzgerald Theater on May 16, 2006.
The Great Hinckley Firestorm story retold
Author Daniel James Brown has written a new book that recalls one of America's most devastating fires -- the Great Hinckley Firestorm, which occurred on Sept. 1, 1894.
Spy games
As a Senate committee prepares to grill the next candidate for the CIA directorship, Midmorning talks with a CIA insider about the changes in the spy agency.
A soldier's story
Fighting in the Iraq war changed one soldier's opinion of the wisdom of the war's conduct. Now Paul Rieckhoff speaks out about veterans' problems back home.
Exploring a changing China
An American writer explores the social and economic transformation of 21st century China.
Two poets with Mideast roots cross paths in St. Paul
Some set aside Holocaust Remembrance Day to remember the horrific lessons of the past; others choose to take the time to envision a brighter future. Two poets--one Israeli, the other Lebanese--are reading and discussing their work in an attempt to create greater cultural understanding across international borders.
Duluth picks Sutter as first poet laureate
Barton Sutter is the city of Duluth's first poet Laureate and the first official poet laureate of any Minnesota City. Sutter came to Duluth in 1987 and has won three Minnesota Book Awards for his writing about the city and the north country.
Post-punk poet Richard Hell
Richard Hell, the man credited as being at the forefront of the first wave of East Coast punk rock, is now a poet and novelist. His latest book of poetry titled "Godlike" is set primarily in the East Village of New York, circa 1972.