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.

November 15, 2005 4:29 PM

Gregory Maguire and his "Son of a Witch"

Ten years ago Gregory Maguire committed heresy in the eyes of some by messing with the Land of Oz. He wrote "Wicked" a novel which tells the Wizard of Oz story from the viewpoint of the Wicked Witch of the West. The book spawned a successful broadway show. Now Maguire has written a sequel called "Son of a Witch."

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November 14, 2005 4:15 PM

Poet Galway Kinnell reflects on mortality

"Mortality makes everything worth more to us," says Galway Kinnell. In his 12 volumes of poetry, Kinnell, 78, has spent a lot of time writing about mortality.

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November 14, 2005 11:20 AM

Truisms about truth

Why does truth matter, especially when politicians can easily sidestep it and intellectuals scorn it as irrelevant? Author Michael Lynch argues that truth is vital, in both our personal and professional lives.

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November 10, 2005 11:20 AM

Revisiting the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

Thirty years ago the Edmund Fitzgerald, loaded with iron ore and fighting a winter storm, sank in Lake Superior. A new book describes the most likely reason for the ship's disappearance.

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November 2, 2005 11:20 AM

In the shadow of Saddam

Zainab Salbi was eleven years old when her father was chosen to serve as Saddam Hussein's personal pilot. The activist and author talks about life as a palace insider and remembers the dangerous world in which she struggled to survive.

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October 31, 2005 5:30 PM

30 days to write your novel

You've probably met someone who declares "I'm going to write a novel one day." For thousands of people around that world, "one day" starts at midnight Oct. 31. It's the beginning of National Novel Writing Month. Two Minnesotans are among the thousands who've signed up.

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October 20, 2005 5:00 AM

Author Joan Didion deals with grief through "magical thinking"

Author, essayist and screenwriter Joan Didion opens the new season of the Talking Volumes community book club with her newest book, "The Year of Magical Thinking." It's a memoir about the death of Didion's husband, author John Gregory Dunne, at the same time that their daughter was seriously ill.

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October 14, 2005 2:00 PM

Poet Elizabeth Alexander inspired by rich variety of experiences

Poet and essayist Elizabeth Alexander takes her inspiration from a wide range of influence -- the history of poetry, the richness of language, and what she calls the "rich infinity" of the African-American experience.

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October 13, 2005 5:00 PM

Commentator Jonathan Odell: How the races don't relate

The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina laid bare the racial tensions that always seem to lie just below the surface. Commentator Jonathan Odell has been thinking about race relations, and just how little the races actually relate. Odell, a native of Mississippi, lives in Minneapolis. He is the author of "The View from Delphi," which explores racial tensions in the South before the civil rights movement.

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October 10, 2005 11:20 AM

Neil Gaiman's fictional take on family life

Comic book author and novelist Neil Gaiman has a new book combining family politics and the supernatural. It picks up some of the characters from his bestselling work, "American Gods".

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