The Thread® - Books and Literary News

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

Ask a Bookseller

Ask a Bookseller is a weekly series where The Thread 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 every Friday at 11 a.m., featuring conversations about books and other literary ideas. Listen to Big Books and Bold Ideas here.

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Sign up for The Thread newsletter to get reading recommendations from Kerri Miller and other bookworms around the MPR newsroom. Find reviews for new releases, as well as hidden gems you may have missed.

Talking Volumes

Talking Volumes is back for its 25th season. Join us at the Fitzgerald Theater for four special events with renowned authors, celebrating our anniversary with a special $25 ticket price for MPR members and Star Tribune subscribers. Buy tickets here.

July 31, 2021 4:00 AM

Monsters and magic run in the family in these 2 YA novels

“Six Crimson Cranes” and “The River Has Teeth” — two new July YA novels — both focus on monstrous mothers and folkloric family magic. But apart from that, they couldn't be more different.

by Caitlyn Paxson

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July 29, 2021 5:59 PM

'The Council of Animals' holds humanity's fate in its ... paws

In Nick McDonell's new novel, sentient animals control the fate of the few remaining humans — and must decide to do about the fear that humans will regroup and seize supremacy over the Earth again.

by Jason Heller

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July 28, 2021 4:16 PM

Set boundaries and find peace

Host Angela Davis talks to therapist and New York Times best-selling author Nedra Glover Tawwab about her newest book “Set Boundaries, Find Peace.”

by Angela Davis and Maja Beckstrom

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July 28, 2021 10:30 AM

Chronicling Trump’s chaotic last year in office

In their new book, “I Alone Can Fix It,” Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker detail the final days of the Trump White House.

by Kerri Miller and Kelly Gordon

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July 27, 2021 1:34 PM

Think of your COVID-19 vaccine like a very good raincoat, says Dr. Leana Wen

It protects from drizzles and thunderstorms but not a hurricane. In other words, if you are exposed again and again to infected people, there's some risk you could get sick.

by Terry Gross

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July 27, 2021 1:34 PM

One woman takes a 'Wayward' approach to menopause in this smart new novel

Messy and foundering in late midlife, Dana Spiotta's heroine is roiling — along with the rest of the country — amid the 2016 election and the rise of the #MeToo and Black Lives Matter movements.

by Maureen Corrigan

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July 27, 2021 6:30 AM

How Sandra Cisneros found space to be 'barefoot' and 'rude'

On the latest episode of Code Switch, Cisneros talks about why she became obsessed with houses, what it was like to finally buy one, and—spoiler alert—what it felt like to fall out of love with it.

by Natalie Escobar

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July 25, 2021 5:00 AM

New graphic novel 'Celestia' wanders an Earth that's no longer home

Manuele Fior's latest, “Celestia,” is set on a far-future Earth, wracked by climate change — but the terrors of flood and fire stay under the surface of his dreamy, hazy, philosophical story.

by Etelka Lehoczky

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July 25, 2021 4:00 AM

'What Strange Paradise' focuses on the human stories at the heart of a crisis

Omar El-Akkad's new novel is fully aware of the larger forces that lead people to migrate — but it leaves those aside, focusing instead on the smaller human stories at the core of the migrant crisis.

by Gabino Iglesias

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July 24, 2021 8:00 AM

Ask a Bookseller: A novel to spark book club conversation

Megan Wells of The Willow Bookstore in Perham, Minn. recommended “a beautiful, heartbreaking'“ novel, "If Only I Could Tell You" by Hannah Beckerman.

by Emily Bright

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