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.

August 25, 2004 11:20 AM

As luck would have it

Americans are thought to work hard, but playing games of chance is also a large part of life in the United States. One historian says the two different schools of thought are interdependent.

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August 24, 2004 11:20 AM

A life of travel

It sounds like the ideal job to those of us bound to our desks. Travel editor and writer Catherine Watson looks back on her career in newspaper writing and takes your questions about travel.

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August 11, 2004 3:33 PM

Examining a character through the lens of family history

Bharati Mukherjee's "The Tree Bride" continues the story of Tara Chatterjee—by looking backward at her ancestors' interaction with British colonialists. Mukherjee told Minnesota Public Radio's Euan Kerr she knew she had to write the story when she finished the final scene of her earlier book, "Desireable Daughters."

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August 11, 2004 11:20 AM

Defining the American dream

Much is made in this election year about the American dream, but what has that dream meant to people over the decades?

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August 10, 2004 4:36 PM

China Mieville creates monsters with 'Iron Council'

British fantasy author China Miéville is known both for his books and his political activism. He's written a series of novels where magic and Victorian technology prevail. His latest novel sets a group of renegade railway workers against a corrupt city state.

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August 9, 2004 11:20 AM

For love and money

Relationships and money can be a combustible mix. Personal finance educator Ruth Hayden says there are ways couples can avoid battling over bills.

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August 3, 2004 12:20 PM

Stories from the front lines

Army Ranger Andrew Exum talks about his experiences in Afghanistan and Iraq. He was a platoon leader in combat.

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August 2, 2004 11:20 AM

The golden age of gangsters

Seventy years ago, John Dillinger was gunned down by FBI agents in Chicago. A book based on new research takes another look at the rash of Midwestern bank robberies and murders that gave rise to the modern Federal Bureau of Investigation and J. Edgar Hoover.

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July 29, 2004 5:40 PM

Mosley examines 1960s race relations in sleuth novel 'Little Scarlet'

Writer Walter Mosley's latest novel "Little Scarlet," features street detective Easy Rawlins once more trying to solve a mystery. This time a black woman nicknamed "little Scarlet" has been killed during the Los Angeles riots in 1965. The police think the killer is white, and they enlist Easy to help find her killer.

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July 29, 2004 11:20 AM

Embracing conflict

Conflict is part of life, yet we spend much of our time avoiding clashes. One author and mediator says embracing conflict is the first step to finding peace.

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