The Thread® - Books and Literary 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.

'Brutes' captures the simultaneous impatience and mercurial swings of girlhood
In plunging us into the collective mind of a group of girls watching the search for a missing girl, author Dizz Tate creates an original, stylistically ambitious take on well-trodden subject matter.
'Black on Black' celebrates Black culture while exploring history and racial tension
Daniel Black's essays call for an overhaul of the U.S. criminal justice system, of the Black church, of the way Black people see themselves, and of the country itself — and do so with authority
Activist Alice Wong reflects on 'The Year of the Tiger' and her hopes for 2023
In the Year of the Tiger: An Activist's Life, Alice Wong shares pieces of her story and experience as a disabled Asian American through a collection of essays, interviews, photos and illustrations.
Anatoly Liberman on the origins of English idioms
Some idioms need no explanation. Sayings like “put it on the back burner” or “don’t rain on my parade” follow common sense. But what about phrases like “drink like a fish” or “by hook or by crook”?
After cancer diagnosis, a neurosurgeon sees life, death and his career in a new way
Dr. Henry Marsh felt comfortable in hospitals — until he was diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer. "I was much less self-assured now that I was a patient myself," he says. His book is And Finally.