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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.

Ling Ma's first novel predicted the pandemic. Her new collection goes one step beyond

Ling Ma's first novel predicted the pandemic. Her new collection goes one step beyond

Nothing is just one thing in “Bliss Montage.” Satire swirls into savagery; a gimmicky premise into poignancy. Ma writes with such authority that readers are simply swept along.
by Maureen Corrigan

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'Meet Me Halfway' explores classmates who find out they have the same Colombian father and begin a mission to find him

Mattie Gomez feels directionless after being uprooted from her beloved Minnesota and forced to move in with her new stepfamily in California. So when she meets a girl at her new middle school who looks exactly like her, she’s not sure what to make of it. That’s how award-winning author Anika Fajardo’s new book begins.
by Cathy Wurzer and Britt Aamodt

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From the archives: Karen Armstrong on ‘The Lost Art of Scripture’

From the archives: Karen Armstrong on ‘The Lost Art of Scripture’

The 2022 season of Talking Volumes launches this week with Karen Armstrong and her new book, “Sacred Nature: Restoring our Ancient Bond with the Natural World.” So we thought it only appropriate to make this week’s dip into the archives the last time Armstrong was on the Talking Volumes stage. It was in 2019, when she joined host Kerri Miller to discuss “The Lost Art of Scripture.”
by Kerri Miller and Kelly Gordon

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'If I Survive You' is a sweeping portrait of a family's fight to make it in America

'If I Survive You' is a sweeping portrait of a family's fight to make it in America

Jonathan Escoffery's If I Survive You is an intensively granular, yet panoramic depiction of what it's like to try to make it — or not — in this kaleidoscopic madhouse of a country.
by Maureen Corrigan

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Science journalist Ed Yong on how animals sense the world

Science journalist Ed Yong on how animals sense the world

Award-winning science journalist Ed Yong is out with a new book about the ways animals perceive their surroundings. In “An Immense World,” he shares fascinating stories that help us understand and appreciate the many creatures who share the planet with us but live in entirely different sensory spheres.
by Kerri Miller and Kelly Gordon

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Gabby Rivera: Writing the story of Marvel's first queer Latina superhero

Gabby Rivera: Writing the story of Marvel's first queer Latina superhero

In Marvel's "America," Gabby Rivera wrote a superhero who's queer, Latina, and punches portals across dimensions. She shares why it's empowering to write characters that mirror her identity.
by James Delahoussaye, Manoush Zomorodi and Rachel Faulkner

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'You sit in your cabin and think of murder': Writer Ellen Hart on a lifetime of mysteries and murder

Ellen Hart began writing her first mystery novel in the summer of 1987. Over thirty years and three dozen novels later, she's become one of the most prolific and respected mystery writers in the business. She reflected on her craft and career with MPR News host Tom Crann ahead of this weekend’s Bouchercon mystery writers' convention where she will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award.
by Tom Crann and Ngoc Bui

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