The Thread® - Books and Literary News

The Thread® is your source for book recommendations and other 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.

December 20, 2005 11:20 AM

Talking Volumes: Jonathan Safran-Foer

In a conversation recorded at the Fitzgerald Theater Dec. 7, Jonathan Safran Foer talks with Kerri Miller about his latest novel, "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close". The novel about a boy's experience of loss after the World Trade Center collapsed follows Safran-Foer's glowing debut novel, "Everything is Illuminated".

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December 15, 2005 11:20 AM

New anthology collects the best of children's literature

Some of our beloved childhood tales now are considered literature, while others are not. The editor of the first Norton Anthology of Children's Literature talks about the high art of the bedtime story.

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December 13, 2005 11:20 AM

Novelist details the tumult of the war years

The author of "The Cape Ann" continues the story of the up and down fortunes of the Erhardt family during World War II.

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December 8, 2005 4:30 PM

The gospel according to Studs

Few people can make falling down the stairs a poetic story the way Studs Terkel can. Terkel joined The Current's Mary Lucia to talk about his new book, "And They All Sang." But since it was Studs Terkel, they talked about a lot more.

by Mary Lucia

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December 7, 2005 4:00 AM

Foer's latest book -- innovative or gimmicky?

Jonathan Safran Foer is just 28, and is already a literary star. His first novel, "Everything is Illuminated," hit the bestseller lists and was made into a movie. Now Foer is out with his second book, "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close," the latest Talking Volumes selection. His new book is earning intense praise, as well as fierce criticism.

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November 29, 2005 1:20 PM

Tragedy shakes a family like an asteroid crashing to Earth

National Book Award laureate T.C. Boyle reads his short story "Chicxulub," which juxtaposes a family tragedy with the giant asteroid that eradicated 70 percent of the life on Earth 65 million years ago.

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November 25, 2005 11:20 AM

A Beirut Heart

An ordinary family tries to maintain a normal life under fire during the war in Lebanon.

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November 24, 2005 12:20 PM

A brisk walk with Jim Klobuchar

Former Star Tribune columnist Jim Klobuchar is out with a new book collecting some of his recent essays. In "Walking Briskly Toward the Sunset," Klobuchar tells stories about Minnesota, Uganda, politics and courtship.

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November 22, 2005 12:06 AM

A Grant obsession

Several years ago, Marie Kelsey became smitten with Ulysses S. Grant. She'll even admit she became obsessed. Now's she's produced a book which historians say is indispensable for Grant scholars.

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November 19, 2005 9:57 AM

Craig Davidson's fiction visits the Canadian underbelly

Craig Davidson writes about unpleasant and unfortunate people in his first short story collection, "Rust and Bone." There's a suburban couple who breed fighting dogs as a hobby, a hardened repo man, a sex addict, a whale trainer bitten by his orca; and a bare-knuckle fighter who knows he's on the way down.

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