The Thread® - Books and Literary News

The Thread® is your source for book recommendations and other literary news.

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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.

September 2, 2019 6:00 AM

Structural injustice is at the core of 'We, The Survivors'

Tash Aw's beautifully written new novel focuses on class issues in contemporary Malaysia, where his compelling protagonist is struggling to lead a quiet life after a long-ago murder conviction.

by Lily Meyer

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September 1, 2019 1:15 PM

'Just Ask!' says Sonia Sotomayor. She knows what it's like to feel different

We're all different and that's good, says the U.S. Supreme Court justice. Her new children's book about embracing diversity portrays kids of all abilities working together to create a gorgeous garden.

by Samantha Balaban

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September 1, 2019 6:00 AM

In 'The Ventriloquists,' the true story of a fake newspaper

E.R. Ramzipoor's novel tells the story a group of resisters in Belgium during World War II who lampooned the Nazis by putting out a satirical edition of the newspaper Le Soir, then a Nazi mouthpiece.

by Jean Zimmerman

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August 30, 2019 11:00 PM

'Palestine + 100' explores contested territory, past and future

A new anthology invites Palestinian writers to imagine their homeland in 2048 — 100 years after the creation of Israel. The stories are inventive, dextrous, painful, and even sometimes playful.

by Amal El-Mohtar

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August 30, 2019 2:07 PM

If you love Octavia Butler, Colson Whitehead and Toni Morrison

Bookseller Nialle Sylvan says that Rivers Solomon’s novel earns comparisons to some of the biggest names in literature.

by Tracy Mumford

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August 29, 2019 9:00 AM

Coming to terms with loss and grief in the gorgeous 'Everything Inside'

Edwidge Danticat's new story collection explores the ways people deal with death, from a woman whose barely known father is dying to a man facing his last seconds as he falls from a construction site.

by Michael Schaub

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August 29, 2019 6:53 AM

Telepathy and surveillance converge in 'Overthrow'

Caleb Crain's perceptive novel examines the ways we're all under surveillance by corporations and computers, every move and click tracked, and the ways that intersects with how we watch each other.

by Annalisa Quinn

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August 28, 2019 8:58 AM

In 'Midwestern Strange,' a tour of the utterly bizarre and all-too-human

B.J. Hollars' book is both a quirky primer on some of the Midwest's oddest stories — and a fresh perspective on small-town culture.

by Carson Vaughan

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August 25, 2019 9:00 AM

'The Warehouse' is scary because it's plausible

Rob Hart's new dystopian cyberthriller imagines a near-future America in a state of semi-collapse, where the only jobs available are in company towns built by an enormous conglomerate called Cloud.

by Gabino Iglesias

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August 25, 2019 7:46 AM

'My Papi has a Motorcycle' pays loving tribute to a California childhood

Author Isabel Quintero and illustrator Zeke Peña worked together on My Papi Has a Motorcycle, a homage to Quintero's childhood in California's Inland Empire, and to her hard-working father.

by Leila Fadel and Samantha Balaban

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