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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.

Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale"

It's been 18 years since Margaret Atwood's novel "The Handmaid's Tale" first hit book stands, but its powerful story of a society that trades liberty for security—in part by controlling the rights of women—has lost none of its hold.

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Margaret Atwood

Best-selling author Margaret Atwood is the next Talking Volumes guest. As a preview to the May 8th event, she'll talk about "The Handmaid's Tale" and about her new novel, "Oryx and Crake", another dark look at the future.

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Poets of war and peace

Local poet Deborah Keenan recommends poets to read during wartime.

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Drama of the ordinary

Local poet Deborah Keenan talks with Katherine Lanpher about her new book of poetry Good Heart, an exploration of endings: the passing of friendships, family members, stages in the lives of children and one's own preoccupations.

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The next Talking Volumes author

Diane Glancy talks about her new novel, a re-telling of the story of Sacajawea, the Shoshoni woman who guided Lewis and Clark on their expedition to the West.

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Getting to know your home town

A rural volunteer firefighter re-connects with his hometown in every emergency call. Writer Michael Perry moved back to New Auburn, Wisconsin and found a way to become part of the community and in the process found material for his first book.

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Talking Volumes rebroadcast

Author Robert Alexander, known locally as R.D. Zimmerman, talks with Katherine Lanpher about his new novel. The Kitchen Boy: A Novel of the Last Tsar is based on historical research and suggests what might have happened before and after the assassination of Russia's ruling Romanov family in Siberia in 1918.

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Unsettled at mid-life

Bestselling author Nuala O'Faolain's new memoir looks unflinchingly at middle age - a time that foreshadows the future and solidifies relationships.

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Homage to country life

Midwest-born Verlyn Klinkenborg's new book The Rural Life is a collection of essays on the rural experience.

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The next Talking Volumes author

Author Robert Alexander talks about his new book The Kitchen Boy: A Novel of the Last Tsar. The historical novel depicts what might have happened before and after the murder of Russia's ruling Romanov family in Siberia in 1918.

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