The Thread® - Books and Literary News

The Thread from MPR News

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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.

'A project in empathy': Poems on the spot for mall shoppers
Brian Sonia-Wallace on Sunday wrapped up his stint as the Mall of America's first ever artist-in-residence. He wrote about a variety of topics, from chickens and family relationships to spirituality and Dippin' Dots.
What if Willy Wonka was your dad? Roald Dahl's magical parenting with food
Food played a big role in 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' and Dahl's other books. His daughter remembers fanciful 'midnight feasts' and says her father used mealtime to test out new characters.
Thread Book Hour: Sheryl Sandberg on post-traumatic growth
Kerri Miller's interview with Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg. Sandberg's husband, Minneapolis native Dave Goldberg, died unexpectedly two years ago. To cope with her grief, Sandberg reached out to her friend, psychologist Adam Grant. Together, they wrote "Option B," a new book about surviving tragedy and building resiliency.
Confronting the possibility of monsters in 'The Essex Serpent'
The clash between science and religious belief lies at the heart of Sarah Perry's new novel, set in a marshy, windswept English town menaced by a serpentine monster that may or may not truly exist.
'So Much Blue' is Percival Everett's best yet
By turns funny, shocking and heartbreaking, Everett's new novel follows a painter who's deeply ambivalent about his apparently idyllic life and digs into the moments in his past that shaped him.