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The Thread® - Books and Literary News

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

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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Talking Volumes features Quincy Troupe

A rebroadcast of the February 12 Talking Volumes event with poet Quincy Troupe. He talks with Katherine Lanpher about his new collection of poems, Transcircularities.

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Louise Erdrich on her latest novel

Acclaimed author Louise Erdrich talks about her latest book, The Master Butchers Singing Club. The novel draws on her German heritage.

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Another perspective on H. L. Mencken

H.L. Mencken has been called one of our greatest writers, and more recently, an anti-Semite and a racist. A new book on his life draws upon the extensive collection of Mencken's public and private writings to explain this complicated giant in early 20th century American thought.

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Quincy Troupe

The next Talking Volumes author Quincy Troupe joins Katherine Lanpher to talk about his new collection of poems Transcircularities and the influence of jazz and basketball on his work.

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Talking Volumes

A rebroadcast of the latest Talking Volumes event with young adult author Christopher Paul Curtis. His bestselling book Bud, not Buddy tells the story of 10 year-old Bud Caldwell who goes on the lam during the Depression to find his bandleader father.

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The meanings of fairy tales

Fairy tales help children through the challenges real life, particularly the adult world, throws at them. Harvard professor and author Maria Tatar talks about favorite fairy tales and how we've used them in our lives.

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Talking Volumes

Best-selling children's author Christopher Paul Curtis talks about his path from auto-worker to published writer. His book, Bud, Not Buddy, is the story of a 10 year-old boy's search for his father during the Depression and is the next Talking Volumes selection.

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