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.

March 26, 2020 11:28 AM

'National Emergency Library' lends a hand — and lots of books! — during pandemic

With coronavirus concerns closing libraries around the world, the nonprofit Internet Archive has suspended its waitlists for the digital copies of more than a million books.

by Colin Dwyer

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March 26, 2020 6:00 AM

'Tigers, Not Daughters' is haunting — with or without a ghost

In Samantha Mabry's new novel, three prickly sisters are haunted, maybe literally, by their fourth, who's died in an accident. She has a message for them, but they may be too sunk in grief to hear it.

by Caitlyn Paxson

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March 25, 2020 6:00 AM

New York comes alive — literally — in 'The City We Became'

Three-time Hugo Award winner N.K. Jemisin turns her attention to our world in her new book — or at least, a version of our world in which cities can be born in human form to fight evil.

by Steve Mullis

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March 24, 2020 6:00 AM

In 'The Glass Hotel,' the disasters are smaller but still disruptive

Emily St. John Mandel's powerful new novel follows a troubled brother and sister who get involved with a crooked hotel magnate whose Ponzi scheme destroys the lives of his investors.

by Michael Schaub

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March 23, 2020 12:24 PM

The Thread: Fiction about islands during a time of isolation

In this week’s edition of The Thread, host Kerri Miller kicks off a monthlong series, “Fiction in a time of isolation,” with three novels that celebrate sunny — and solitary — island life.

by Kerri Miller

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March 23, 2020 11:07 AM

'American Poison' aims to show how race is at the root of U.S. problems

Journalist Eduardo Porter has written a book that cuts to the root of racism, tracing it from slavery, Jim Crow, and segregation — and bringing it to today — with unblinking honesty and facts.

by Gabino Iglesias

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March 22, 2020 6:00 AM

Under the quirk, 'Hearts Of Oak' beats with a thoughtful pulse

Eddie Robson's slim but punchy new novel is set in an unnamed city, made mostly of wood. The city has a King. The King talks to a cat. It's a gem of offbeat weirdness — with a deeply thoughtful core.

by Jason Heller

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March 21, 2020 3:04 AM

'They're odd and they're eerie': A story collection not to miss

Even as bookstores close for public browsing, many are still serving up orders — and reading recommendations.

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March 19, 2020 12:28 PM

'The Mountains Sing' a song of many voices

Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai's new novel is a luminous, complex family saga that stretches across decades of Vietnamese history, from the French colonial period, through war and upheaval to the present day.

by Thúy Đinh

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March 19, 2020 8:07 AM

Publisher Macmillan backs off policy restricting e-book sales to libraries

At a time when libraries are closed because of the coronavirus, Macmillan has reversed a policy it adopted last fall limiting the e-books it would sell to each library just after publication.

by Rose Friedman

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