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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.

Inside a Twin Cities couple’s ‘Trans-Glam-Punk-Rock Love Story’

Inside a Twin Cities couple’s ‘Trans-Glam-Punk-Rock Love Story’

Two local artists — author Lynette Reini-Grandell and musician Venus de Mars — share their story of transitioning, resilience, and advocacy, now captured in a new memoir, “Wild Things: A Trans-Glam-Punk-Rock Love Story,” out now from Minnesota Historical Society Press.

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Building a better brain through music, dance and poetry

Building a better brain through music, dance and poetry

Art can make the brain's wiring stronger, more flexible, and ready to learn, say the authors of the new book, “Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us.”
by Jon Hamilton

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Diana Abu-Jaber on family myths and inheritance

Diana Abu-Jaber on family myths and inheritance

For immigrants who have to start life over in a new land, home carries a powerful lure. Diana Abu-Jaber says questions of identity and displacement haunted her Jordanian father, which inspired her latest novel, “Fencing with the King.”
by Kerri Miller and Kelly Gordon

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Jeannette Walls' 'Hang the Moon' transports readers to Prohibition

Jeannette Walls' 'Hang the Moon' transports readers to Prohibition

Walls' excellent construction of her female characters is most satisfying; each represents women from varying walks of life, each fighting for their own place in a male-dominated world.
by Keishel Williams

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From the archives: Diana Abu-Jaber on 'Birds of Paradise'

From the archives: Diana Abu-Jaber on 'Birds of Paradise'

This Friday on Big Books and Bold Ideas, author Diana Abu-Jaber returns to talk about her latest novel, “Fencing with the King,” which was just released in paperback. To get you in the mood, enjoy one of host Kerri Miller’s last conversations with Abu-Jaber — this one from 2011, about her book, "Birds of Paradise."
by Kerri Miller and Kelly Gordon

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