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.

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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.

Anyone will be allowed to publish the book, adapt it to a movie, make it into an opera or stage a Broadway musical. No longer will you need to get permission to write a sequel, a prequel, a Jay Gatsby detective novel or a Gatsby narrative populated with zombies.
In true tale 'The Third Rainbow Girl,' townspeople accuse one another of murder
Emma Copley Eisenberg's book offers a deep-dive into rural Appalachia — and digs into questions of how misogyny and bias can take root inside a community — as she tracks a double murder.
In 'Agency,' William Gibson builds a bomb that doesn't boom (and that's OK)
Gibson's new novel is a sequel to 2014's “The Peripheral,” jumping back and forth in time as investigators, military contractors and killers chase down a rogue AI, and tensions flare in the Middle East.
Counter Stories: Sisters in Loss
The Counter Stories team look at the effect of implicit bias and institutional racism on women’s reproductive health.
'Kingdomtide' and 'Dear Edward': 2 new novels take on a singular situation
If the chances of dying in a plane crash are slim, being the sole survivor is even less likely — but that's the premise for two new novels, Ann Napolitano's Dear Edward and Rye Curtis's Kingdomtide.