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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.

Sign Up for The Thread® Newsletter

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.

Author says Iranian youth want reform

Iranians choose a new president Friday, and public opinion polls show former President Hashemi Rafsanjani with a narrow lead. Rafsanjani isn't the favorite of conservative hardliners or liberal reformers, but is presenting himself as the candidate who will mend ties with the U.S. In a speech from the Commonwealth Club of California earlier this year, Iranian-American journalist Azadeh Moaveni said her generation of young Iranians is hungry for democratic reforms.

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Author of 'The Hours' hopes to hit it big again

Michael Cunningham's last novel, "The Hours," won the Pulitzer Prize, and inspired the 2002 film of the same name. The movie garnered nine Academy Award nominations. Cunnningham hopes his new novel, "Specimen Days," is a strong followup.

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"Barns of Minnesota" pays tribute to vanishing rural icons

The old, wooden barns that once anchored family farms across Minnesota are slowly vanishing. The rise of agribusiness has made barns nearly obsolete. The new book "Barns of Minnesota" pays tribute to those rural icons.

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Minnesota poet laureate is not to be

A bill establishing an official poet laureate in Minnesota met a tragic fate. Gov. Tim Pawlenty penned the fatal verse when he vetoed the bill. "We could also see requests for a state mime, interpretive dancer or potter," the governor said in his veto message.

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Lorna Landvik leaves Minnesota in new novel

In her new novel, "Oh My Stars," popular Minnesota author Lorna Landvik writes about a suicidal young woman who finds joy in life while traveling through the Depression-era Midwest, with an unlikely trio of musicians.

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Plotting the next thrill

Two top crime writers talk about crafting thrilling books and how they come up with new ways to plot their many novels.

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Joseph Boyden tells the story of the "Three Day Road"

In his new novel "Three Day Road," Canadian author Joseph Boyden tells the story of two Cree men, Xavier Bird and Elijah Whiskeyjack. The two men become snipers for a Canadian battalion in World War I France. Boyden says he wanted to write about native men, like his own father, who served with distinction.

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Running to the tornado

Tornadoes, feared by most, are chased by others. Writer Mark Svenvold chronicles the American obsession with catastrophic weather.

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One soldier's story

Senator Bob Dole's decades of political service followed a distinguished military career. Dole tells the story of how he survived near-fatal injuries during the final days of World War II.

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