The Thread® - Books and Literary News

The Thread from MPR News

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

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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.

Stephen King’s new story took him 45 years to write
Stephen King is out with a new collection of short stories. As you might expect from the reigning King of Horror, some are terrifying. Some are creepy. Others are laugh-out-loud funny.
‘The Minneapolis Reckoning:’ New book traces the city’s journey to the brink of police reform
Four years ago this week, a movement to defund and abolish the Minneapolis Police Department ignited across the city and the world. In those four years since George Floyd’s murder, everything — and nothing — has changed.
St. Paul libraries introduce summer passport program to get more Minnesotans into the stacks
St. Paul public libraries had more than 1 million visitors in 2023, but they want it to be even more. A new program leaning into exploring all that locations have to offer could increase it.
New book is ‘love letter to Prince and Purple Rain’ ahead of 40th anniversary
Prince’s story is told by Minneapolis-based music journalist Andrea Swensson, host of the Official Prince Podcast and a Minnesota Book Award winner. She calls her new book, “Prince and Purple Rain: 40 Years,” a “love letter” to his legacy.
 Minnesota lawmakers OK school policy changes on cell phones, book bans, literacy
The bill approved Wednesday also requires students be offered mental health instruction. It heads to Gov. Tim Walz’s desk for signing. Some Republicans criticized the measure as unnecessarily burdensome on schools.
Two new novels investigate what makes magic, what is real and imagined
Both of these novels, “Pages of Mourning” and “The Cemetery of Untold Stories,” from an emerging writer and a long-celebrated one, respectively, walk an open road of remembering love, grief and fate.