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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.

Dr. Leana Wen reflects on her memoir and the importance of public health

Dr. Leana Wen reflects on her memoir and the importance of public health

Dr. Leana Wen’s memoir is called “Lifelines: A Doctor's Journey in the Fight for Public Health.” She joined host Kerri Miller for a conversation about her memoir and how her personal story has shaped the public health leader she has become.
by Kerri Miller, Kelly Gordon and Sara Meyer

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3 sobering lessons learned since 9/11

3 sobering lessons learned since 9/11

These books provide a detailed accounting of events that have defined the U.S. role in the world in the first part of the 21st century. None makes for cheery reading, but all offer sobering lessons.
by Greg Myre

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In this poetic new novel, an ancient form of dance frees a modern storyteller

In this poetic new novel, an ancient form of dance frees a modern storyteller

Shruti Swamy has won awards for her short fiction; “The Archer,” her debut novel, is a coming-of-age tale inspired by the graceful, precise storytelling of India's ancient Kathak dance form.
by Marcela Davison Avilés

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Writer Maggie Nelson asks what it means to feel free

Writer Maggie Nelson asks what it means to feel free

In “On Freedom's” allusive, blunt, funny essays, the author of “The Argonauts” and “The Art of Cruelty” tries to imagine freedom as it exists in the contemporary contexts of art, sex, drugs, and climate.
by Annalisa Quinn

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Alabama's first Black poet laureate takes a personal approach to 'Reparations'

Alabama's first Black poet laureate takes a personal approach to 'Reparations'

Ashley M. Jones is Alabama's youngest and first Black poet laureate. Her new book “Reparations Now!” discusses America's history of Black oppression, and asks for more than monetary repairs.
by Jeevika Verma

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'Poet Warrior' Joy Harjo wants Native peoples to be seen as human

'Poet Warrior' Joy Harjo wants Native peoples to be seen as human

The nation's first Native American poet laureate has a new memoir in which she tells her own story — as well as the story of her sixth-generation grandfather, who was forced from his ancestral land.
by Terry Gross

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'Into The Forest' tells story of one family's escape from Nazi-created Zhetel ghetto

'Into The Forest' tells story of one family's escape from Nazi-created Zhetel ghetto

While the story of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising is well-documented, pockets of Jewish resistance surfaced in smaller ghettos across Nazi-occupied central-eastern Europe too. Zhetel is one such place.
by J.P. O'Malley

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If monsters were real, this book knows what you'd really do — nothing

If monsters were real, this book knows what you'd really do — nothing

What appears to be a simple, awful police killing turns out to be much worse in Cadwell Turnbull's new “No Gods, No Monsters,” set in a world where monsters and magic are real, and none of it is pretty.
by Jason Sheehan

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