The Thread® - Books and Literary News

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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.

Civil rights leader Ethel Ray Nance to be honored in Duluth and in new biography
Nance was the first Black woman to work as a stenographer at the state legislature, an executive secretary for W.E.B DuBois and one of the first Black policewomen in Minnesota. Her granddaughter tells her story in a new book.
Minnesota author’s book is being shot for star studded film adaptation ‘Nuremberg’
Minnesota historian Jack El-Hai is seeing a book he published more than ten years ago turned into a Hollywood film and a stage play. His book “The Nazi and the Psychiatrist” tells the story of a young army doctor whose job was to evaluate top-ranking Nazi officials — and decide whether they were fit to stand trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Ask a Bookseller: ‘Art and Fear’
Discover the inspirational power of perseverance in artmaking with “Art and Fear,” a favorite of bookseller and amateur painter Elaine Eckert of Dickson Books.
Can the fabric of a friendship be rewoven?
In her new novel, “Village Weavers,” author Myriam J. A. Chancy draws on her Haitian roots to share a story about friendship, family and what can stitch us back together after we are ripped apart.
Leif Enger’s ‘cheerful refusal’ to accept despair infuses his new dystopian adventure novel
Duluth author Leif Enger’s dystopian novel “I Cheerfully Refuse” is set in and around an alternative Duluth where many of the things Minnesotans take for granted have just stopped working. It’s an adventure story with a bass-playing housepainter at its center, who is forced to take off in a sailboat across Lake Superior after a brush with evil.
Ask a Bookseller: ‘The Three Little Tardigrades: A Slightly Scientific Fairy Tale’
Revati Kilaparti of Old Firehouse Books in Fort Collins, Colo., said this book is a delight to read, with cute, colorful pictures and more information at the end that gives you a chance to learn about these versatile creatures.