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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 Violin Conspiracy' is a musical who-done-it with deep notes

'The Violin Conspiracy' is a musical who-done-it with deep notes

When a Stradivarius is stolen just as the Black violinist who owns it steps into the classical spotlight, Ray McMillian must search both inward and outward to find the source of his talent.
by Kerri Miller and Kelly Gordon

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A damaging love affair with the U.S. ends in heartbreak in 'Black American Refugee'

A damaging love affair with the U.S. ends in heartbreak in 'Black American Refugee'

Tiffanie Drayton tells the story of coming to the U.S. as an immigrant child and discovering that no level of accomplishment would enable her to shake the burden of Blackness in this nation.
by Ericka Taylor

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Why some still believe the flat Earth conspiracy

Why some still believe the flat Earth conspiracy

The global pandemic launched a number of conspiracy theories, like the Bill Gates microchips and the cabal that created the vaccines for world domination. But it also resurrected a belief among some that the Earth is flat. Kerri Miller brings you a story of a flat-earther who tried to prove a flat planet.
by Kerri Miller

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Before COVID, TB was the world's worst pathogen. It's still a 'monster' killer

Before COVID, TB was the world's worst pathogen. It's still a 'monster' killer

It was under control. And then it wasn't. In her new book “Phantom Plague: How Tuberculosis Shaped History,” VIdya Krishnan shows how "we repeat the same disease-spreading mistakes over and over."
by Susan Brink

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Grandma's garden of magical rocks is 'Where Wonder Grows'

Grandma's garden of magical rocks is 'Where Wonder Grows'

A grandmother brings her granddaughters to her special garden, where they learn about their connection to nature and tell stories about magical rocks, seashells, crystals and meteorites.
by Samantha Balaban

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Sarah Manguso considers deprivations and predations in her novel 'Very Cold People'

Sarah Manguso considers deprivations and predations in her novel 'Very Cold People'

Manguso made a name for herself in minutely observed memoirs. Now she uses fiction to write about what it is to feel poor, poorly nurtured, and inadequately loved in a class-conscious town.
by Heller McAlpin

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Ask a Bookseller: 2020 captured in words and images

Ask a Bookseller: 2020 captured in words and images

Donna Garban of Little City Books in Hoboken, N.J., says she knows to order multiple copies every time Jason Reynolds, the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, puts out a new book.
by Emily Bright

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'Open' explores polyamorous relationships through personal experience

'Open' explores polyamorous relationships through personal experience

“Bustle” editor Rachel Krantz's memoir is a sincere and curious reckoning with the cultural messaging we all receive about gendered expectations and power dynamics in romantic and sexual relationships.
by Ilana Masad

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