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.

Stories in 'Sidle Creek' offer an insider look at Appalachia
The 22 stories in Sidle Creek charm, surprise, and convey a deep love of the people and place — the Appalachian plateau of western Pennsylvania — that author Jolene McIlwain has long called home.
'Yellowface' takes white privilege to a sinister level
R.F. Kuang's first foray outside fantasy is a well-executed, gripping, fast-paced novel about the nuances of the publishing world when an author is desperate enough to do anything for success.
In J. Ryan Stradal's new book, the Midwest supper club is a character unto itself
“Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club” is a family drama set in and around a supper club in the fictional northern Minnesota town of Bear Jaw. Author J. Ryan Stradal says it’s “the kind of book you can’t take the Minnesota out of in editing.”
Ask a Bookseller: 'Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club'
Amy Erickson of Bluebird Bookshop in Detroit Lakes, Minn., recommended a novel that she called “very much an up-north book.”
How dogs become themselves and other wonders of puppyhood
Animal Month on Big Books and Bold Ideas ends with an encore presentation of host Kerri Miller’s conversation with dog researcher Alexandra Horowitz who literally wrote the book on puppies.