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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.

Motherless children make their own family in Ann Patchett's 'The Dutch House'

Motherless children make their own family in Ann Patchett's 'The Dutch House'

Patchett's new novel is a story of paradise lost, dusted with fairy tale. It follows two siblings who bond after their mother leaves the family home — an ornate mansion she always hated.
by Heller McAlpin

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A boy and a puppy come to each other's rescue in 'The Dog Who Lost His Bark'

A boy and a puppy come to each other's rescue in 'The Dog Who Lost His Bark'

“The Dog Who Lost His Bark” is a story in two halves, says author Eoin Colfer: "In the first half the boy heals the dog, and in the second half the dog heals the boy."
by Samantha Balaban

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'They Will Have to Die Now' is a bare-knuckles account of the fight against ISIS

'They Will Have to Die Now' is a bare-knuckles account of the fight against ISIS

James Verini's book will stand up with some of the best war reporting, as he takes an unblinking look at the dirtiest kind of battle — urban combat — and the human wreckage it leaves in its wake.
by Tom Bowman

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The wisdom of Anthony Bourdain

Bookseller Hans Weyandt recommends a collection of Anthony Bourdain’s interviews, which show the famous chef as the “charming, belligerent, interesting traveler” he was.
by Tracy Mumford

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'Heaven, My Home' is a complicated place

'Heaven, My Home' is a complicated place

Attica Locke returns to the world of Highway 59 in Heaven, My Home, which finds Texas Ranger Darren Mathews dealing with the disappearance of the young son of an imprisoned white supremacist leader.
by Bethanne Patrick

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'Red at the Bone' cuts close to the bone

'Red at the Bone' cuts close to the bone

Jacqueline Woodson's exquisitely wrought new novel follows two black families of different classes whose lives become intertwined when their only children conceive a child together in their teens.
by Heller McAlpin

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In 'Doxology,' the comedy is never quite in tune

In 'Doxology,' the comedy is never quite in tune

Nell Zink is a very funny writer, but the comedy never quite works in her new novel, which follows two aging punks and their daughter, from the Lower East Side of Manhattan in the '80s to D.C. today.
by Lily Meyer

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