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.

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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.

The book that just keeps selling
Bookseller Francine Tanguay recommends a novel about two women separated by a century, but connected by tragedy. It’s been a best-seller in her shop for almost five years.
Don't like Harry Potter? Come to the 'Dork' side
Our kids' books columnist Juanita Giles has a secret: Her kids don't care about Harry Potter. But they do like Mike Johnston's relatably hapless boy wizard Wick, star of Confessions of a Dork Lord.
Talking Volumes: Lindy West on 'The Witches Are Coming'
If you have only experienced Lindy West’s writing online, you might mistake her sharp cultural commentary for anger. But as Kerri Miller and a Talking Volumes audience found out recently, she displays a surprising sense of optimism.
'Catfishing on CatNet:' On the internet, no one knows you're a cat. Or an AI.
Naomi Kritzer's new novel takes off from her award-winning story about an AI that loves cats. It's a wild, rollicking tale with a gritty truth at its core: You never know who you're talking to online.
'A different way of understanding the story'
Bookseller Jhoanna Belfer recommends a graphic memoir by Mira Jacob, about the realities of growing up in the U.S. as a person of color.
Centuries of debutantes dish about being put on display in 'The Season'
Kristen Richardson traces the history of the practice, with firsthand accounts from diaries and letters, finding political strife, social upheaval and machinations to keep out so-called undesirables.