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 2, 2018 12:59 PM

Your guide to past, present and future books-to-film adaptations

"A Wrinkle in Time" hits theaters this month. It's one of several books being turned into a movie this year. Three film and literature junkies talk about what it takes to make a good book-to-film adaptation.

by Kerri Miller and Elizabeth Shockman

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March 1, 2018 3:03 PM

Dolly Parton gives the gift of literacy: A library of 100 million books

In 1995, the entertainer and philanthropist started the Imagination Library, inspired by her father, who couldn't read and write. Now, it mails free books to more than a million kids each month.

by Maureen Pao

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March 1, 2018 8:43 AM

More than just nostalgia, 'Time Pieces' is a multilayered memoir of Dublin

Irish writer John Banville's new book is a shimmering, frequently elusive book about a city, but also an inquiry into memory, shifting attention, and above all time as it passes and becomes the past.

by Heller McAlpin

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March 1, 2018 6:41 AM

Sherman Alexie apologizes amid sexual misconduct allegations

"Over the years, I have done things that have harmed other people, including those I love most deeply," the author said in a statement. "To those whom I have hurt, I genuinely apologize. I am so sorry."

by The Associated Press

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February 28, 2018 7:43 AM

The rise of yeast: How civilization was shaped by sugar fungi

Without yeast, bread wouldn't rise and beer wouldn't foam. As Nicholas Money's new book, "The Rise of Yeast," points out, it leaves its mark on other foods, too, including coffee, and even chocolate.

by Menaka Wilhelm

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February 28, 2018 12:00 AM

Two decades in the making, 'Green Sun' is worth the wait

Kent Anderson's new novel is a sequel to 1997's "Night Dogs," and it picks up with antihero Hanson, once an English teacher, now working as a police officer in Oakland -- bad attitude entirely intact.

by Michael Schaub

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February 28, 2018 12:00 AM

Children's publishing house takes food literacy literally

Teaching kids how to eat healthfully and appreciate the cultural diversity of food begins with getting books about these themes into their hands, says Readers to Eaters' founding publisher.

by Lela Nargi

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February 27, 2018 8:25 AM

'Eat the Apple' is a brilliant and barbed memoir of the Iraq war

In his experimental new memoir, Matt Young conveys the chaos of his three deployments in Iraq. Critic Maureen Corrigan calls Young "a frank, funny and mercilessly self-lacerating narrator."

by Maureen Corrigan

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February 25, 2018 3:06 PM

Michelle Obama to release memoir in November

The former first lady tweeted Sunday that the book, to come out a week after the 2018 midterm elections, is called "Becoming."

by Associated Press

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February 24, 2018 4:00 AM

'Black Panther' fans, here's your next read

If you've been gripped by the excitement of T'Challa, Wakanda, and more, bookseller Jeffrey Blair knows what to put on your reading pile.

by Tracy Mumford

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