The Thread® - Books and Literary News

The Thread® is your source for book recommendations and other literary news.

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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.

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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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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.

September 27, 2004 4:49 PM

Drunk, homeless, and profane

Writer Nick Flynn only saw his father once while growing up. But at age 23, his father turned up at a homeless shelter where Nick was working. Flynn's new book tells the story of being drawn back into a relationship with the man who had deserted him, and how it forced him to confront some ugly realities about homelessness and his own life.

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September 27, 2004 1:20 PM

"A Hundred Years of Solipsism"

Given the topic "major trends of the 20th Century" essayist Roger Rosenblatt didn't write a history; he wrote a novel, or at least what he called a novel. Really, it was an hour-long work of fiction, whimsically recounting Rosenblatt's imaginary war with his imaginary neighbor, a man called Laffem. Rosenblatt said Laffem and his giant, space-age house represented the 20th Century, which is why he tried to destroy them both.

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September 24, 2004 1:54 PM

The Hidden Folk

Lise Lunge-Larsen grew up in Norway. Her parents and grandparents filled her life with stories of elves, dwarves, and fairies. Now she shares those stories with children, and the adults who read to them. Her latest picture book is called "The Hidden Folk."

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September 24, 2004 11:32 AM

F. Scott Fitzgerald's home becomes a landmark

On his 108th birthday St. Paul novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald is getting the local respect he didn't get during his lifetime. A group of Minnesota book lovers dedicated his St. Paul birthplace as a National Literary Landmark on Friday

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September 21, 2004 5:08 PM

Finding life, love and commerce in Guatemala through a 19th century poem

Writer Francisco Goldman's new novel "The Divine Husband" is an epic tale of life, love, and commerce in 19th century Guatemala. It didn't start out to be that. Goldman has worked as a journalist in Central and South America. He's written contemporary novels based in his own Guatemalan heritage, including the critically acclaimed "The Ordinary Seaman." But he told Minnesota Public Radio's Euan Kerr a few years ago he needed a break, or as he puts it a way to soothe his soul. He did it by trying to answer a question.

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September 20, 2004 11:20 AM

Stories of families and distance

Author and Minnesotan Valerie Miner writes of the simple joys of travel and transcendence of relationships in her new collection of short stories.

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September 14, 2004 11:20 AM

A conversation with author Joyce Carol Oates

The opening Talking Volumes interview is with best-selling author Joyce Carol Oates. She talks with host Kerri Miller about her most recent novel, which explores a family tragedy. The story is set near Niagara Falls.

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September 8, 2004 7:18 PM

'The Making and Breaking of a Self-Loathing Jew'

Minneapolis writer Neal Karlen describes himself as a shanda—a scandal. He grew up Jewish, in a devout Twin Cities family, but he eventually turned away from rabbinical study and drifted afield of his heritage. In his new book "Shanda" he explains how he tried to make people like him by telling jokes laden with offensive stereotypes, and how a chance friendship brought him back to a more meaningful existence.

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September 8, 2004 11:20 AM

Prescriptions from a country doctor

For almost four decades, Roger MacDonald was a traveling doctor in one of the most remote regions of northern Minnesota. He made his way from fishing villages to Indian reservations, treating the independent and idiosyncratic individuals who relied on him for medical help.

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September 2, 2004 2:40 PM

New book on Duluth lynching of a Finnish dockworker

It's safe to say that, until a new book was released this week, not many Minnesotans knew of a lynching in Duluth's history. "Suomalaiset: People of the Marsh" looks at the death of a Finnish dockworker, whose body was found swinging from a tree in Duluth's Lester Park. Was the death a suicide or murder? It is a question that author Mark Munger tries to answer.

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