The Thread® - Books and Literary News

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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 an annual event series featuring notable authors in conversation about their new books. Presented by MPR News and The Minnesota Star Tribune.

Tickets are now available for our 26th season. Join award-winning journalist and MPR News host Kerri Miller (and special guest host Catharine Richart) as they talk with authors including Stacey Abrams, Patricia Lockwood, Misty Copeland, John Grisham, and Kate Baer.

November 25, 2005 11:20 AM

A Beirut Heart

An ordinary family tries to maintain a normal life under fire during the war in Lebanon.

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November 24, 2005 12:20 PM

A brisk walk with Jim Klobuchar

Former Star Tribune columnist Jim Klobuchar is out with a new book collecting some of his recent essays. In "Walking Briskly Toward the Sunset," Klobuchar tells stories about Minnesota, Uganda, politics and courtship.

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November 22, 2005 12:06 AM

A Grant obsession

Several years ago, Marie Kelsey became smitten with Ulysses S. Grant. She'll even admit she became obsessed. Now's she's produced a book which historians say is indispensable for Grant scholars.

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November 19, 2005 9:57 AM

Craig Davidson's fiction visits the Canadian underbelly

Craig Davidson writes about unpleasant and unfortunate people in his first short story collection, "Rust and Bone." There's a suburban couple who breed fighting dogs as a hobby, a hardened repo man, a sex addict, a whale trainer bitten by his orca; and a bare-knuckle fighter who knows he's on the way down.

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November 15, 2005 4:29 PM

Gregory Maguire and his "Son of a Witch"

Ten years ago Gregory Maguire committed heresy in the eyes of some by messing with the Land of Oz. He wrote "Wicked" a novel which tells the Wizard of Oz story from the viewpoint of the Wicked Witch of the West. The book spawned a successful broadway show. Now Maguire has written a sequel called "Son of a Witch."

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November 14, 2005 4:15 PM

Poet Galway Kinnell reflects on mortality

"Mortality makes everything worth more to us," says Galway Kinnell. In his 12 volumes of poetry, Kinnell, 78, has spent a lot of time writing about mortality.

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November 14, 2005 11:20 AM

Truisms about truth

Why does truth matter, especially when politicians can easily sidestep it and intellectuals scorn it as irrelevant? Author Michael Lynch argues that truth is vital, in both our personal and professional lives.

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November 10, 2005 11:20 AM

Revisiting the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

Thirty years ago the Edmund Fitzgerald, loaded with iron ore and fighting a winter storm, sank in Lake Superior. A new book describes the most likely reason for the ship's disappearance.

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November 2, 2005 11:20 AM

In the shadow of Saddam

Zainab Salbi was eleven years old when her father was chosen to serve as Saddam Hussein's personal pilot. The activist and author talks about life as a palace insider and remembers the dangerous world in which she struggled to survive.

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October 31, 2005 5:30 PM

30 days to write your novel

You've probably met someone who declares "I'm going to write a novel one day." For thousands of people around that world, "one day" starts at midnight Oct. 31. It's the beginning of National Novel Writing Month. Two Minnesotans are among the thousands who've signed up.

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