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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.

The meanings of fairy tales

Fairy tales help children through the challenges real life, particularly the adult world, throws at them. Harvard professor and author Maria Tatar talks about favorite fairy tales and how we've used them in our lives.

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Talking Volumes

Best-selling children's author Christopher Paul Curtis talks about his path from auto-worker to published writer. His book, Bud, Not Buddy, is the story of a 10 year-old boy's search for his father during the Depression and is the next Talking Volumes selection.

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Best books for the holidays

Our book experts talk about their favorite buys for the holiday season. From the newly published to old titles you may have missed, there are ideas for everyone on your list.

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Miss Manners

Judith Martin, aka Miss Manners and author of a nationally syndicated advice column, talks about her new book, Star-Spangled Manners: In Which Miss Manners Defends American Etiquette.

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Talking Volumes

A rebroadcast of Katherine Lanpher's conversation with Kien Nguyen, author of The Tapestries, a novel based on Nguyen's grandfather's life as an embroiderer in the court of the last king of Vietnam.

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Good poems with Garrison Keillor

This fall Garrison Keillor gathered poets and the public together for a night of poetry at the Fitzgerald Theater. The event heralded the publication of his anthology Good Poems, culled from the thousands of poems he has read on the show Writer's Almanac.

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Edmund White

Critic Edmund White comments on culture, gay literature, walking through Paris, and other topics he's written about during his long career. Often hailed as the country's pre-eminent gay writer, he wrote the classic coming-out novel, A Boy's Own Story.

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Jack Miles

Jack Miles is a literary scholar who is considered by some to be a maverick among biblical interpreters. He won a Pulitzer Prize for his first book, God: A Biography. His newest book, Christ: A Crisis in the Life of God, reframes Jesus's life and mission on earth.

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Talking Volumes author Kien Nguyen

Talking Volumes author Kien Nguyen talks about his new novel The Tapestries, a tale based on the life of his grandfather, an embroider in the court of the last king of Vietnam.

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Sarah Vowell

Author and "This American Life" contributor Sarah Vowell tells us how to be a good American without coming off like an overbearing zealot. Her new book The Partly Cloudy Patriot is a collection of essays ranging from why she loves Abraham Lincoln to her thoughts about rampant flag-waving after September 11th.

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