The Thread® - Books and Literary News

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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.

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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.

August 6, 2020 6:00 AM

Whatever you're expecting, 'Harrow the Ninth' is not that kind of book

Whatever you expected from Tamsyn Muir's followup to her lesbian-necromancers-in-space epic “Gideon the Ninth,” this is not that book — it's something wilder, darker and much, much weirder.

by Jason Sheehan

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August 5, 2020 1:46 PM

Legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin explains the 'tragedy' of the Mueller investigation

Toobin's new book, “True Crimes and Misdemeanors,” examines how Trump and his team outmaneuvered special counsel Robert Mueller. Mueller, he says, gave Trump "a free pass" on obstruction of justice.

by Terry Gross

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August 5, 2020 11:00 AM

A year after Toni Morrison's death, her visions of love stay with us

Love is central to the work of Toni Morrison — she brought love to her examinations of Black life, and love itself was her enduring subject. But love isn't always a good or joyous thing in her work.

by marc rivers

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August 5, 2020 10:49 AM

Love triumphs over death in 'The Death Of Vivek Oji'

Akwaeke Emezi's new novel begins with a death; it adopts the form — but not the spirit — of traditional crime fiction, glorying in some of the genre's conventions while slyly subverting them.

by Lily Meyer

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August 5, 2020 8:04 AM

St. Paul teen named one of 5 National Student Poets

Madelyn Dietz and the other winners will each receive a $5,000 cash award. The student poet program was launched in 2011, with winners contributing to community programs and poetry events and performing their work everywhere from Lincoln Center to the White House.

by The Associated Press

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August 4, 2020 3:14 PM

It's more than racism: Isabel Wilkerson explains America's 'caste' system

In “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents,” the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist examines the laws and practices that created a bipolar caste system in the U.S. — and how the Nazis borrowed from it.

by Terry Gross

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August 4, 2020 9:00 AM

'Every Bone' speaks in this painful, beautiful debut novel

Ashley Blooms' novel follows ten-year-old Misty, who can speak to everything around her — even the mice in the walls answer back. But she doesn't have words for what her friend has done to her.

by Fran Wilde

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August 4, 2020 4:00 AM

Author ventures into the Russian wilds to save a magnificent owl

Ornithologist and writer Jonathan Slaght spent several frigid winters camping in the forests of the Russian Far East. He was there to study the biggest owl in the world, which survived by eating fish snatched out of holes in the river ice.

by Euan Kerr

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August 3, 2020 9:55 AM

10 thrillers Thread readers say you must not miss!

For the past several weeks, Kerri Miller has been bringing you Thread must-read thrillers you should not miss. This week, readers share the works that thrill them.

by Kerri Miller

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August 3, 2020 6:00 AM

This 'Wolf' will bite you — and you'll like it

Laura Van Den Berg's new collection is full of uncanny, exquisite, and painful stories about death, about loss and isolation and falling for the wrong person. Her writing will get under your skin.

by Gabino Iglesias

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