The Thread® - Books and Literary News

The Thread from MPR 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.

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. 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.

Art and history come together in ‘Fur Trade Nation: an Ojibwe’s Graphic History’
Artist Carl Gawboy has used his thirty years of experience teaching the history of fur trade relations on Turtle Island, also known as North America, to create hundreds of illustrations depicting stories of Ojibwe people and lifeways centered on entrepreneurship and freedom.
‘When I Think of You’ could be a ripped-from-the-headlines Hollywood romance
Myah Ariel’s debut is like a fizzy, angsty mash-up of Bolu Babalola and Kennedy Ryan as the challenges of doing meaningful work in Hollywood threaten two young lovers’ romantic reunion.
The feminists who built America
Many of their names are unknown, but early American feminists fought hard for the freedoms that are cornerstones to democracy. This week on Big Books and Bold Ideas, historian Elizabeth Cobbs and our new series, “Big Books, Bold Americans.”
In ‘Like Happiness,’ a woman struggles to define a past, destructive relationship
Ursula Villarreal-Moura’s debut novel movingly portrays its protagonist coming to terms with an imbalanced, difficult, and sometimes harmful friendship that was also a key part of her life for years.
‘The Familiar’ is a romance, coming-of-age tale, and a story about fighting for more
In her new novel, Leigh Bardugo drags readers into a world of servitude, magic, power struggles, and intrigue — one where there isn’t a single character that doesn’t have a secret agenda.