The Thread

The Thread from MPR News

A new twist on book talk

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An 'excruciatingly beautiful' novel from a celebrated poet
Aaron Cance says Ocean Vuong’s novel is simply astounding: “Everything else I read for the rest of this year is going to be measured against this novel.”
'Lager Queen' author was tired of caricatures of Midwestern women
J. Ryan Stradal wasn't seeing the strong, Midwestern women who raised him reflected well in contemporary fiction. So he decided to write those characters himself in “The Lager Queen of Minnesota.”
Talking Volumes 2019 season guide
The 20th season of Talking Volumes will feature interviews with Alice Hoffman, Saeed Jones, Tim O’Brien, Karen Armstrong, Lindy West and Tracy K. Smith.
An imagined future speaks in 'Talking to Robots'
If you want to see what that future might look like, David Ewing Duncan's book is a fun place to start; he envisions various bots based on interviews with scientists and engineers, among others.
34 ways to beat the system in 'Raised in Captivity'
Chuck Klosterman's new collection of "fictional nonfiction" is full of people who subvert expectations and find ways around the systems that rule our lives. Also, there's a puma in an airplane toilet.
Rooted in history, 'The Nickel Boys' is a great American novel
Colson Whitehead's deeply affecting new novel is based on the true story of a segregated reform school in Florida where African American boys were brutalized and possibly murdered.
What has the conflict between Israel and Palestine meant to individuals from each country? MPR News host Kerri Miller asks Palestinian author Yousef Bashir and Israeli author Yossi Klein Halevi.