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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.

Getting to know your home town

A rural volunteer firefighter re-connects with his hometown in every emergency call. Writer Michael Perry moved back to New Auburn, Wisconsin and found a way to become part of the community and in the process found material for his first book.

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Talking Volumes rebroadcast

Author Robert Alexander, known locally as R.D. Zimmerman, talks with Katherine Lanpher about his new novel. The Kitchen Boy: A Novel of the Last Tsar is based on historical research and suggests what might have happened before and after the assassination of Russia's ruling Romanov family in Siberia in 1918.

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Unsettled at mid-life

Bestselling author Nuala O'Faolain's new memoir looks unflinchingly at middle age - a time that foreshadows the future and solidifies relationships.

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Homage to country life

Midwest-born Verlyn Klinkenborg's new book The Rural Life is a collection of essays on the rural experience.

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The next Talking Volumes author

Author Robert Alexander talks about his new book The Kitchen Boy: A Novel of the Last Tsar. The historical novel depicts what might have happened before and after the murder of Russia's ruling Romanov family in Siberia in 1918.

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Talking Volumes features Quincy Troupe

A rebroadcast of the February 12 Talking Volumes event with poet Quincy Troupe. He talks with Katherine Lanpher about his new collection of poems, Transcircularities.

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Louise Erdrich on her latest novel

Acclaimed author Louise Erdrich talks about her latest book, The Master Butchers Singing Club. The novel draws on her German heritage.

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Another perspective on H. L. Mencken

H.L. Mencken has been called one of our greatest writers, and more recently, an anti-Semite and a racist. A new book on his life draws upon the extensive collection of Mencken's public and private writings to explain this complicated giant in early 20th century American thought.

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Quincy Troupe

The next Talking Volumes author Quincy Troupe joins Katherine Lanpher to talk about his new collection of poems Transcircularities and the influence of jazz and basketball on his work.

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Talking Volumes

A rebroadcast of the latest Talking Volumes event with young adult author Christopher Paul Curtis. His bestselling book Bud, not Buddy tells the story of 10 year-old Bud Caldwell who goes on the lam during the Depression to find his bandleader father.

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