The Thread® - Books and 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.

March 7, 2019 1:12 PM

Nigerian author Oyinkan Braithwaite on her debut novel, 'My Sister, the Serial Killer'

"My Sister, the Serial Killer" by Nigerian author Oyinkan Braithwaite captures the dynamics of a seemingly perfect family with a dark secret.

by Kerri Miller and Jeffrey Bissoy

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March 6, 2019 12:00 AM

'Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls' is compassionate, without being apologetic

In exposing the bad and ugly of girlhood alongside the good, T Kira Madden has succeeded in creating a mirror of larger concerns, even as her own story is achingly specific and personal.

by Ilana Masad

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March 6, 2019 12:00 AM

'The Wolf and the Watchman' has some serious bite

Niklas Natt och Dag's new novel is both ornate period piece -- set in the grit and grime of late-18th-century Stockholm -- and riveting murder mystery starring a mismatched pair of proto-gumshoes.

by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

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March 6, 2019 12:00 AM

In wildly satirical 'Man-Eaters,' teen girls turn into ferocious panthers

In the world of writer Chelsea Cain and artist Kate Niemczyk, women are seen as dangerous animals. They bring that world to life with pages and pages of ephemera: fake ads, pamphlets, even a magazine.

by Etelka Lehoczky

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March 6, 2019 12:00 AM

'Our History is the Future' puts Standing Rock in broader Native American story

In his new book, Nick Estes points a way forward, with solidarity and without sentimentality, to an idea of Indigenous land alive with ancestry and renewal.

by Nicholas Cannariato

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March 5, 2019 2:00 PM

Nobel Foundation confirms it will award 2 literature prizes in 2019, with changes

A year after the Swedish Academy faced a crisis, the body "no longer includes any members who are subject to conflict of interest or criminal investigations," the Nobel Foundation says.

by Bill Chappell

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March 5, 2019 4:00 AM

Poet Ross Gay finds delight even in difficult times

After writing an essay every day about something that delighted him for a year, Ross Gay discovered things about himself -- and everyone else.

by Euan Kerr

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March 5, 2019 12:00 AM

'A Friend is a Gift' for crime novel fans

William Boyle's new novel follows mob widow Rena, her granddaughter and an ex-porn-star neighbor, on the run from a crazed mafia enforcer in -- what else? -- a 1962 Chevy Impala.

by Gabino Iglesias

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March 5, 2019 12:00 AM

In 'Solitary,' determination and humanity win over injustice

Albert Woodfox's timely account of his wrongful conviction and time in solitary confinement shows that some spirits are unbreakable; it should be required reading in an age of Black Lives Matter.

by Gabino Iglesias

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March 5, 2019 12:00 AM

'Survival Math' is a spellbinding narrative in essays

Author Mitchell S. Jackson trains his formidable linguistic skills on his turbulent youth growing up in a poor black community in Portland, Ore., one of the whitest cities in the country.

by Ericka Taylor

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