The Thread® - Books and Literary News

The Thread from MPR 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.

Big Books and Bold Ideas

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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Sign up for The Thread newsletter to get reading recommendations from Kerri Miller and other bookworms around the MPR newsroom. Find reviews for new releases, as well as hidden gems you may have missed.

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 reporter looks back at his grim past
New York Times reporter David Carr thought his life might make a good book. So he wrote about the time of his life that was filled with drug use, parenting mishaps and close encounters with oblivion. It's a junkie memoir, but one that Carr says was reported, not invented.
A man of science and letters
William Carlos Williams is one of the most celebrated American poets of the 20th century, yet he toiled in obscurity for much of his life. Midmorning examines the life and the work of the man who delivered babies by day, and wrote poetry by night.
Minnesota Public Radio's Marianne Combs reflects on growing up a redhead, as Little House on the Prairie - the musical - begins preview performances tomorrow night at the Guthrie Theater.
'Hamlet' with a northwoods twist
Lin Enger's new novel, "Undiscovered Country," explores the effect of a northern Minnesota man's apparent suicide on his family. The story is a reworking of the themes in "Hamlet."
A Bangladeshi story that resonates around the world
A new film adaptation of Monica Ali's best-selling novel, "Brick Lane," opens in the Twin Cities this weekend. It's the story of two Bangladeshi sisters separated by an arranged marriage.
Film considers the Gonzo legacy
A new movie, "Gonzo: The Life and Times of Dr Hunter S. Thompson," opens across the country today. It examines the rise and fall of one of the great counter-cultural writers of the 60s and 70s.
Midmorning Book Club: 'A Prayer for Owen Meany'
Though critics initially panned John Irving's "A Prayer for Owen Meany," his fans made the novel a bestseller. It remains at the top of many readers' personal favorite lists today. "Owen Meany" was recommended as a Midmorning Book Club pick by some of our listeners.