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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.

Another perspective on H. L. Mencken

H.L. Mencken has been called one of our greatest writers, and more recently, an anti-Semite and a racist. A new book on his life draws upon the extensive collection of Mencken's public and private writings to explain this complicated giant in early 20th century American thought.

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Quincy Troupe

The next Talking Volumes author Quincy Troupe joins Katherine Lanpher to talk about his new collection of poems Transcircularities and the influence of jazz and basketball on his work.

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Talking Volumes

A rebroadcast of the latest Talking Volumes event with young adult author Christopher Paul Curtis. His bestselling book Bud, not Buddy tells the story of 10 year-old Bud Caldwell who goes on the lam during the Depression to find his bandleader father.

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The meanings of fairy tales

Fairy tales help children through the challenges real life, particularly the adult world, throws at them. Harvard professor and author Maria Tatar talks about favorite fairy tales and how we've used them in our lives.

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Talking Volumes

Best-selling children's author Christopher Paul Curtis talks about his path from auto-worker to published writer. His book, Bud, Not Buddy, is the story of a 10 year-old boy's search for his father during the Depression and is the next Talking Volumes selection.

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Best books for the holidays

Our book experts talk about their favorite buys for the holiday season. From the newly published to old titles you may have missed, there are ideas for everyone on your list.

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Miss Manners

Judith Martin, aka Miss Manners and author of a nationally syndicated advice column, talks about her new book, Star-Spangled Manners: In Which Miss Manners Defends American Etiquette.

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Talking Volumes

A rebroadcast of Katherine Lanpher's conversation with Kien Nguyen, author of The Tapestries, a novel based on Nguyen's grandfather's life as an embroiderer in the court of the last king of Vietnam.

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Good poems with Garrison Keillor

This fall Garrison Keillor gathered poets and the public together for a night of poetry at the Fitzgerald Theater. The event heralded the publication of his anthology Good Poems, culled from the thousands of poems he has read on the show Writer's Almanac.

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Edmund White

Critic Edmund White comments on culture, gay literature, walking through Paris, and other topics he's written about during his long career. Often hailed as the country's pre-eminent gay writer, he wrote the classic coming-out novel, A Boy's Own Story.

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