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.

The end of bias: Is it possible?
Host Angela Davis spoke with Minneapolis author Jessica Nordell about her new book exploring how bias shows up in our schools, workplaces and every part of life. And, if bias is a habit, can we unlearn it?
Host Kerri Miller’s third Talking Volumes event of the season took place on Oct. 13 with Amor Towles, whose latest book is “The Lincoln Highway.”
'Orwell's Roses' centers on the tensions between beauty and labor, joy and suffering
Rebecca Solnit's latest is a deeply political collection of interlinked essays, of which George Orwell is a part but not the whole; one of its joys is its unexpected turns from one topic to the next.
'Gentrifier' crafts a narrative about Detroit in darkly comic vignettes
Culture critic Anne Elizabeth Moore's project is also an investigation of the costs — monetary, psychological, ethical — of the free house she was given for writing, and an ode to her neighbors.
Billy Porter makes peace with himself: 'I set myself free, honey. No more secrets'
Fourteen years after his initial diagnosis, the Pose actor revealed publicly that he is HIV-positive. Porter says being open about his health status felt like a rebirth. His new memoir is “Unprotected.”
This book of poetry says, 'I have fists,' and the world needs to know
Chinese American poet Jane Wong's new collection, “How Not to Be Afraid of Everything,” grapples with fear and anger at her family's silence about what they suffered in China's Great Leap Forward.
Jane Goodall encourages all to act to save Earth in 'The Book of Hope'
The primatologist says it's crucial that young people know how positive action can still shift the frightening trajectories of climate crisis, biodiversity loss and the ongoing global pandemic.
Ask a Bookseller: A unique murder mystery
Leading up to Halloween, Jordyn Stocks of Piragis Northwoods Company in Ely, Minn., recommended the mystery novel “The Seven and a Half Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle” by Stuart Turton.
A refugee at 4, he felt like a lost star. Now his voice shines in a graphic memoir
“When Stars Are Scattered” is the story of Omar Mohamed's years at a refugee camp in Kenya. He cared for his brother and found the courage to dream big. The book was a National Book Awards finalist.