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.

Book bans are on the rise. Biden is naming a point person to address that
Book bans in schools can violate federal civil rights laws if they create a hostile environment for students. The Education Department will have a new point person to talk to schools about bans.
'The Late Americans' is not just a campus novel
Brandon Taylor deftly explores the idea of youth's possibilities and the constraints of time, space, class and wealth disparities through the intersecting lives university students and townspeople.
Minnesota is more than home to author William Kent Krueger. It’s a central character in most of his books. Kruger talked about it — and about his primary human character, Cork O’Connor — at a special spring Talking Volumes in Duluth earlier this month.
Picture book makes sense of the pandemic, with help from four Twin Cities creators
COVID-19 may no longer officially be a pandemic, but writers and artists will be working for years to come to create pieces that help us make sense of what we've been through.
From the archives: William Kent Krueger on 'Lightning Strike'
This Friday on Big Books and Bold Ideas, you’ll hear Kerri Miller’s spring Talking Volumes conversation with Minnesota author Kent Krueger. So it’s only fitting that our archive this week is Krueger’s last appearance at Talking Volumes in 2021.