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.

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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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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.

June 9, 2021 4:00 AM

Still don't want to go out? Here are 3 books for an inner journey

Everyone's talking about getting out and about now that the pandemic has calmed — but what if you don't want to? Here are three books in translation that'll help you dig into your own life and mind.

by Lily Meyer

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June 8, 2021 6:02 AM

4 books to broaden your Pride Month reading list

There are a lot of Pride Month reading lists out there — so we thought we'd get away from the classics everyone knows. We asked author Akwaeke Emezi to recommend some of their favorite reads.

by Noel King

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June 7, 2021 3:33 PM

The Supreme Court Justice who made history by voting no on racial segregation

A new book explores the life of Justice John Marshall Harlan, who wrote the dissenting opinion in the Supreme Court case that upheld the principle of racial segregation.

by Steve Inskeep

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June 7, 2021 4:00 AM

These stories dance deftly between America and Cameroon

In her debut collection “Walking On Cowrie Shells,” Nana Nkweti bends language like a master, delivering keenly observed details and wicked humor no matter which side of the Atlantic she's on.

by Martha Anne Toll

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June 6, 2021 1:11 PM

Ask a Bookseller: 'Bubblegum' offers a 'wonderous slog'

Bookseller Dan Carlisle was intrigued the moment he unpacked the box containing new copies of Adam Levin's novel "Bubblegum." The cover was colored and, more strikingly, scented like bubblegum.

by Emily Bright

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June 6, 2021 6:00 AM

Love rides the Q train in this supernaturally sweet romance

In Casey McQuiston's new “One Last Stop,” cynical August moves to New York, where she meets and falls for Jane, a mysterious punk who seems to have been trapped on the Q train ... since the 1970s.

by Kamrun Nesa

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June 6, 2021 4:00 AM

This retelling of 'Gatsby' has demonic flair to spare

Nghi Vo recasts the classic book with Jordan Baker at the center, a Gatsby who's literally sold his soul and a speakeasy crowd that's partial to a drop of demon's blood in their illicit cocktails.

by Jessica P. Wick

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June 5, 2021 6:00 AM

A wannabe influencer gets sent to digital detox in 'Sunny Song Will Never Be Famous'

Sunny — the protagonist of Suzanne Park's new young adult novel — is mortified when a PG-13 video accidentally goes viral, and even worse, her parents send her to a rural farm to get her off-line.

by Alethea Kontis

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June 5, 2021 4:00 AM

An Argentinean novel spins countless stories from a bicycle wheel

César Aira's “The Divorce,” a 2008 novel now out in English, centers around one charged moment at a Buenos Aires cafe, when water falling from an awning suddenly drenches a passing bicyclist.

by Kamil Ahsan

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June 4, 2021 10:55 AM

Jack Ruby's trial moves from side stage to center in 'Kennedy's Avenger'

Dan Abrams and David Fisher tell a gripping tale that takes readers into the heart of Ruby's trial, picking up the moment he killed Oswald and then methodically unpacking what followed.

by Gabino Iglesias

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