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.

Summertime is when many of us, including doctors, catch up on our reading. You might think their bedside tables are piled with medical journals and books on the latest scientific findings. But that's not necessarily the case.
Seventy-five years ago, Sinclair Lewis became the first American to win the Nobel Prize in literature. He traveled the world and was welcomed in the most distinguished of literary circles.
Twin Cities novelist Chuck Logan's heroes don't get much rest. Logan, who lives in Stillwater, continues the story of retired undercover cop Phil Broker in his new novel, "Homefront." It's the sixth book in his series featuring Broker and his special forces wife Nina Pryce.
The moving portrait of a doomed Marine corporal shows what life is like for the thousands of soldiers in Iraq.
John Hildebrand of Eau Claire has been called "one of the finest essayists in America." His latest book, A Northern Front, is a collection of 17 new and selected essays. Hildebrand says the essay is one of the most personal forms of writing. But, he admits, it's sometimes hard to get people to embrace it. All Things Considered host Tom Crann talked with Hildebrand.
Perhaps the best know date in American history receives a fresh retelling by master historian David McCullough.
An encore presentation of a conversation with longtime PBS NewsHour host Jim Lehrer. He talks about television journalism and his successful career as writer of fiction.
Two top crime writers talk about crafting thrilling books and how they come up with new ways to plot their many novels. (This show was originally broadcast on Midmorning on May 27, 2005)
Many tourists visit presidential birthplaces. Sarah Vowell likes to visit the places where presidents met their death. (This show was first broadcast on Midmorning on April 12, 2005.)
Nicole Krauss called her new novel "The History of Love", but it's much more than that. It's the story of a book that touches the lives of people living on three continents across the span of almost a century.