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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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 dystopian suspense 'Land of Milk and Honey' satisfies all manner of appetites
Set in the near future, C Pam Zhang's atmospheric novel centers on a chef who takes a job at a tech entrepreneur's isolated compound after smog kills most of Earth's plant and animal species.
Ask a Bookseller: 'Saints of the Household'
Mary Taris of Strive Publishing and Bookstore in Minneapolis loved the intimate look at family dynamics in Ari Tison's novel “Saints of the Household.”
Michael Harriot's 'Black AF History' could hardly come at a better time
This engaging, well-researched, and frequently laugh-out-loud funny history places the Black experience at center stage with stories that should have already been part of our collective memory.
There have been attempts to censor more than 1,900 library book titles so far in 2023
Most of the scrutinized books were written by or contained subject matter about people of color or members of the LGBTQ+ community, according to research by the American Library Association.
'Just Breathe' honors stories of health care workers in one hospital's COVID-19 unit
Nurse Lisa Kilgard and her colleagues wrote a book to help people remember what the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic was like for health care providers on the front lines.
'Wellness' is a perfect novel for our age, its profound sadness tempered with humor
Nathan Hill's stunning new novel about the stories we tell about our lives and our loves, and how we sustain relationships throughout time, is both funny and heartbreaking, sometimes on the same page.
'The Care and Keeping of You,' American Girl's guide to puberty, turns 25
“The Care and Keeping of You” from American Girl eased the adolescent anxieties of the millennial and Gen Z girls who read it. Now the book is marking its 25th anniversary.
Ask a Bookseller: 'Bathe the Cat'
This week's book is a “phenomenal read-aloud,” according to Jessica Palacios of Once Upon a Time Bookstore in Montrose, Calif.