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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.

'White Freedom' examines the tandem development of the concepts of freedom and race

'White Freedom' examines the tandem development of the concepts of freedom and race

Tyler Stovall writes white freedom is "the belief (and practice) that freedom is central to white racial identity, and that only white people can or should be free" — noting nations were built on it.
by Ilana Masad

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In 'Remote Control,' drones fly over the yam fields of a near-future Africa

In 'Remote Control,' drones fly over the yam fields of a near-future Africa

Nnedi Okorafor's multi-faceted new novella follows a young girl in a near-future version of Ghana who becomes the Adopted Daughter of Death — but she can't quite figure out how that happened.
by Jason Heller

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'Doctors Blackwell' tells the story of 2 pioneering sisters who changed medicine

'Doctors Blackwell' tells the story of 2 pioneering sisters who changed medicine

Elizabeth Blackwell was the first woman in America to earn her medical degree. Her sister Emily followed in her footsteps. Janice Nimura tells the story of the "complicated, prickly" trailblazers.
by Dave Davies

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'Aftershocks' is a powerful memoir of a life upended — then pieced back together

'Aftershocks' is a powerful memoir of a life upended — then pieced back together

When Nadia Owusu was 4 years old, her Armenian American mother disappeared from her life. When she was 13, her Ghanaian father died. Owusu reflects the losses and her biracial identity in her memoir.
by Maureen Corrigan

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Ask a bookseller: 'The Magical Language of Others' gives a compassionate look at mother-daughter relationships

Ask a bookseller: 'The Magical Language of Others' gives a compassionate look at mother-daughter relationships

Amanda Toronto of Word Bookstore in Brooklyn, N.Y., says she can’t stop thinking about a memoir she read recently: “The Magical Language of Others” by poet and translator E.J. Koh. 
by Emily Bright

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Trying to survive on the margins in 'At the Edge of the Haight'

Trying to survive on the margins in 'At the Edge of the Haight'

Katherine Seligman's new novel makes alive and visible the lives of people we often walk past. It's the story of a young woman surviving on the streets of San Francisco with a few friends and her dog.
by Scott Simon

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From denial to obstruction: New book charts changing tactics of the fossil fuel lobby

From denial to obstruction: New book charts changing tactics of the fossil fuel lobby

Renowned climate scientist Michael Mann looks at the tactics fossil fuel interests are using to obstruct broad policy shifts that are our surest bet to “take back our planet.”
by Paul Huttner

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