Big Books & Bold Ideas with Kerri Miller

Marlon James new novel, “ The Disappearers ,” was published just 18 days ago, and already, this deeply personal novel about gay men in Jamaica has been declared “ the novel of the decade, if not the century ” by the New York Times. It has also been longlisted for the 2026 Booker Prize National Book Award. James, a part-time Macalester College professor and full-time literary phenomenon, kicked off the 2026 season of Talking Volumes last week. He joined Kerri Miller on the stage of the O’Shaughnessy Auditorium at St. Catherine University in St. Paul on Sept. 12. James told Miller, many of the themes in the book — violence, survival, shame, perseverance, masculinity — are culled from his own life. Talking Volumes: Marlon James Minneapolis singer-songwriter Annie Mack rounded out this moving and intimate evening. Tickets for the rest of the 2026 season of Talking Volumes are still on sale. Up next: Lucy Foley joins Miller on Sept. 25, to talk about her new novel, “Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel,” the brand-new Miss Marple mystery that brings Agatha Christie’s iconic sleuth to a glamorous, snowbound resort in the Swiss Alps.

In December of 2017, Haitian-American author Edwidge Danticat was a mall in south Florida when a loud gunshot broke through the holiday shopping chatter. Believing that a mass shooting was underway, Danticat ran with her fellow shoppers in utter terror. Eventually, she learned the shooting was a hoax. But the trauma that experience provoked was very real. She works some of that trauma out in her new novel, " Dèy ." Taken from the Creole word for “mourning,” the story follows a young mother, Magnolia, who survives an actual mass shooting. But the story is more about what happens next. How do you carry on when your life is marked by a before and an after? How can trauma be contained when life, inextricably, goes on? “Surviving isn’t the end of the story,” Danticat writes. “It’s where a different one begins.” Click here Danticat returns to Big Books and Bold Ideas this week to talk with Kerri Miller about why she wanted to weave joy into a book about grief and how trauma is processed best with those you love. Guest: Edwidge Danticat is the author of many books, including “Breath, Eyes, Memory” and “Claire of the Sea Light.” Her new novel is “ Dèy .” Subscribe to Big Books and Bold Ideas with Kerri Miller on Apple Podcasts , Google Podcasts , RSS or anywhere you get your podcasts. Subscribe to the Thread newsletter for the latest book and author news and must-read recommendations.

If you remember the first time you left your family to go to summer camp, you probably remember how that time marked you. You leave as a child, but after spending a week or two away from home and all that’s familiar, you return changed. Chang-rae Lee’s new novel, “ A Tender Age ,” follows a young boy, almost 11, as he begins the shift toward adolescence. A few tumultuous events make Jeon-Gi very aware of his new and growing personhood — and then he leaves for summer camp, where he experiments with different wants to be seen and to act in his suddenly widening world. Told through the now-adult Jeon-Gi’s memories, the story asks questions who how we become who we are. Click here “We’re not just formed by the world,” Lee tells Kerri Miller on this week’s Big Books and Bold Ideas. “There’s part of us that’s ready to be forming on its own. So the world doesn’t only form us, it reveals us. There’s an interplay between those things, that sometimes can go in a direction we didn’t expect.” Guest: Chang-rae Lee is the author of many books, including “Native Speaker,” which won the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award for first fiction. His new book is “A Tender Age.” When he’s not writing his own work, Lee teaches writing to students at Stanford University. Subscribe to Big Books and Bold Ideas with Kerri Miller on Apple Podcasts , Google Podcasts , RSS or anywhere you get your podcasts. Subscribe to the Thread newsletter for the latest book and author news and must-read recommendations.

If you’ve been near a boat landing in Minnesota this summer, you’ve probably seen dire warnings about zebra mussels. The Department of Natural Resources says about five percent of Minnesota’s more than 11,000 lakes are infested with the fingernail-sized mollusk, and they are always trying to limit spread. That word — infested — hints at what the DNR thinks of invasive zebra mussel. It’s the language of contamination, infection and ruin. In her new book, “ Undesirable : Invasive Species, Humans, and Where We All Belong ,” science writer Amy Crawford examines how we came to see certain plants and animals as invading and marauding. She writes that, in his age of anxiety, “stories about invasive species tap into widely held feelings about environmental loss.” Click here This week on Big Books and Bold Ideas, Kerri Miller talks with Crawford about invasion biology and the hard questions that surround it: What’s considered native to an ecosystem? What do we do when our own damage of a habitat gives way to new plants, insects and animals? And is it time to reconsider our attempts to control these environments? Guest: Amy Crawford is a Michigan-based freelance journalist. Her new book is, “ Undesirable: Invasive Species, Humans, and Where We All Belong .” Subscribe to Big Books and Bold Ideas with Kerri Miller on Apple Podcasts , Google Podcasts , RSS or anywhere you get your podcasts. Subscribe to the Thread newsletter for the latest book and author news and must-read recommendations.

There’s a before and an after to Paul Yoon’s writing life, and at the center is Oscar — a floppy, gentle, food-loving, 70-pound yellow Lab. Yoon didn’t grow up with dogs, so it was really his wife — fellow writer Laura van den Berg — who insisted on the addition. She might have known what would happen to their buttoned-up writing life when a puppy entered it. Paul didn’t. But he quickly fell in love with this disruptive and magical creature. It gave him a new way of looking at the world. His sixth novel is the result of that transformation. “ Etna ” is about a combat dog searching for home after war ravages his unnamed country — and the whole story is told from the dog’s point of view. It’s something Yoon wouldn’t have attempted outside of Oscar. “Part of it was imagining what Oscar might sound like,” Yoon tells Kerri Miller on this week’s Big Books and Bold Ideas. ”I imagine him to be a dignified and empathetic creature. To me, he’s the best — so it was trying to capture what I thought were his best qualities and bring that onto the page.” Guest: Paul Yoon is a writer and a professor who lives in Hudson, New York, with his wife and their dog, Oscar. His new novel is “ Etna .” Subscribe to Big Books and Bold Ideas with Kerri Miller on Apple Podcasts , Google Podcasts , RSS or anywhere you get your podcasts. Subscribe to the Thread newsletter for the latest book and author news and must-read recommendations.

Minnesotans have long debated the meaning of “Up North.” Is it everything north of Duluth, or north of Mille Lacs? Are pine trees and lakes a prerequisite? What about loons? Or is it more of a perception — a place defined not so much by location but by mindset? Sigurd Olson wrote his beloved book, “The Singing Wilderness,” to describe the beauty and wildness he saw in what came to be known as The Boundary Waters Canoe Area. He wrote: “The singing wilderness has to do with the calling of loons, with northern lights, and the great silences of land lying northwest of Lake Superior. It is concerned with the simple joys, the timelessness and perspective found in a way of life which is close to the past.” Cal Flyn has never been to the Boundary Waters, but she resonates with Olson’s definition. A writer based in the isles off the coast of Scotland, Flyn climbed mountains, plunged into forests and helicoptered to volcanoes for her new book, “ The Savage Landscape .” But more than the nature itself, she’s intrigued by how we recognize and preserve these wild places. “There is no obvious visual marker that announces one’s arrival in a wilderness,” she writes, “and thus, the search never truly ends.” Flyn joins Kerri Miller on this week’s Big Books and Bold Ideas to talk about what we mean when we say wilderness and why that definition matters. Guest: Cal Flyn is a Scottish journalist and writer. Her new book is “ The Savage Landscape: How We Made the Wilderness .” Subscribe to Big Books and Bold Ideas with Kerri Miller on Apple Podcasts , Google Podcasts , RSS or anywhere you get your podcasts. Subscribe to the Thread newsletter for the latest book and author news and must-read recommendations.

Every fall, thousands of bird lovers stand far above Lake Superior, on Duluth’s Hawk Ridge, and watch as thousands of raptors soar overhead on their way south. But for all of their abundance, even majestic osprey, hawks, eagles and falcons are affected by the steep declines in bird populations across the western hemisphere. In his gorgeous new book, naturalist and conservationist Robert Macfarlane asks, “What is lost when birds are lost? Above all, the creatures themselves, in their own splendor and right. And for humans — language, story, beauty, possibility, imagination, lifts of the spirit, ways of being otherwise. Birds are our place-makers, memory-keepers, calendars and clocks. They stitch the world’s parts together: earth to sky, river to woodland, mountain to sea, country to country, hemisphere to hemisphere.” Click here Macfarlane’s new book, “ The Book of Birds ,” finds him collaborating once again with artist Jackie Morris for a beautifully illustrated ode to birds. This week on Big Books and Bold Ideas, Macfarlane joins Kerri Miller to talk about the birds he loves — even though he says he’s not really a birder — and lament the disappearance of so many birds from our planet. His hope is that “The Book of Birds” will reignite a sense of wonder because “we will not save what we do not love.” Guest: Robert Macfarlane is an award-winning writer, who has authored many books about nature and our interconnectedness. His new book, “ The Book of Birds: A Field Guide to Wonder and Loss ” was co-created with artist Jackie Morris. Subscribe to Big Books and Bold Ideas with Kerri Miller on Apple Podcasts , Google Podcasts , RSS or anywhere you get your podcasts. Subscribe to the Thread newsletter for the latest book and author news and must-read recommendations.

When Sarah Kendzior packed up her family for a road trip across America, she made sure her kids kept their eyes wide open. She wanted them to see this country’s wonders and its flaws. Her new memoir, “ The Last American Road Trip ,” recounts the dozens of drives she and her family have taken since 2016. They leave their home in Missouri and crisscross the country, even as earth-shaking events remake it. Want to add this book to your library? Purchase it here and support MPR and a local bookstore of your choosing Get more in your inbox Sign up for the book newsletter from MPR, the Thread Along the way, she disentangles venerated American ideals from the mythology of American exceptionalism. She gapes in wonder at the majesty of the national parks and celebrates the forethought that created them — while acknowledging the threat facing them today. Even the great St. Louis Gateway Arch in her hometown represents both “a triumph and a tragedy,” she writes. It’s “a gateway and a memorial, a monolith with no practical purpose that looks dramatically different depending on where you stand.” Kendzior joined host Kerri Miller in July 2025 to take us all on a road trip across America — which is a fitting conversation to revisit now as we close our 2026 road trip series. Grab your favorite snacks, buckle your seatbelt and come along for the final leg of our travels. Guest: Sarah Kendzior is a journalist and best-selling author. “ The Last American Road Trip ” is her most recent book. Subscribe to Big Books and Bold Ideas with Kerri Miller on Apple Podcasts , Google Podcasts , RSS or anywhere you get your podcasts. Subscribe to the Thread newsletter for the latest book and author news and must-read recommendations.

Lauren Hough has worn many hats. She’s been an Air Force airman, a bartender, a bouncer, a construction laborer, a driver, a barista and a cable guy. But through it all, she’s written. In 2021, a collection of essays that together formed a memoir — “Leaving Isn’t the Hardest Thing” — shot up the New York Times bestseller list. Her new book, “Monster of a Land, ” is a worthy follow-up. Reminiscent of John Steinbeck’s “Travels with Charley,” Hough hits the road in a battered Dodge Ram to see America, her trusty dog Woody Guthrie riding shotgun. Want to add this book to your library? Purchase it here and support MPR and a local bookstore of your choosing Get more in your inbox Sign up for the book newsletter from MPR, the Thread What she finds is more honest, more gritty and less divisive than headlines would have you believe. “Monster of a Land” is part of our July deep dive into the history and culture of America. Come along with Hough and Kerri Miller on this week’s show as they explore who we are right now and why traveling with a dog is the best decision ever. Guest: Lauren Hough is a writer who lives in Austin, Texas with her dog, Woody. Her new road trip memoir is “ Monster of a Land: On the Road in Search of a Modern America .” Subscribe to the Thread newsletter for the latest book and author news and must-read recommendations. Subscribe to Big Books and Bold Ideas with Kerri Miller on Apple Podcasts , Google Podcasts , RSS or anywhere you get your podcasts.

When was the last time you read a book or magazine, or listened to an audiobook? Overall, Americans are reading less. A study last year from the University of Florida and University College London found the portion of people who read daily for pleasure in the U.S. fell from 28 percent in 2004 to 16 percent in 2023. And, according to the National Endowment for the Arts, fewer than half of all adults said they read a book of any kind in 2022 — even fewer said they read a novel. MPR News guest host Kerri Miller talks about what’s behind the decline in reading, and why some people are saying that it points to a fundamental shift that has consequences for how we entertain ourselves, learn and think.

Road trips are often marked by spontaneity. They offer side quests, junk food, hotel pools and a chance to see the country with fresh eyes. But no road trip is quite as spontaneous as the one in “ The Road to Tender Hearts .” This darkly funny novel follows 63-year-old lottery winner PJ Halliday, his estranged daughter, two orphaned kids who have just come into his care and a therapy cat named Pancakes — who happens to be a harbinger of death — on a six-day cross-country road trip to win back PJ’s high school girlfriend. Along the way, the group faces past trauma, the meaning of family and the tender hopes of new beginnings. This week, to kick off Big Books and Bold Ideas virtual summer road trip series, Kerri Miller talks with author Annie Hartnett about “ The Road to Tender Hearts ,” which was just published on paperback. Along the way, they discuss what makes a road trip magical (or not), and how being open to adventure can be a balm for grief, restlessness and a cynical outlook. Guest: Annie Hartnett is the award-winning author of three novels: “Rabbit Cake,” “Unlikely Animals,” and the national bestseller, “ The Road to Tender Hearts .” Subscribe to the Thread newsletter for the latest book and author news and must-read recommendations. Subscribe to Big Books and Bold Ideas with Kerri Miller on Apple Podcasts , Google Podcasts , RSS or anywhere you get your podcasts.

The United States was feeling bleak in 1933. People were still staggering from the economic fallout of the Great Depression. Drought and extreme heat baked much of the country, eventually leading to the Dust Bowl. Breadlines stretched for blocks in the city, and crime — including a notorious spree of bank robberies and kidnappings — was on the rise. In February, president-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt survived an assassination attempt, which killed Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak. Even baseball, “America’s national pastime,” was suffering. Attendance was dropping, owners slashed budgets, and Babe Ruth’s magic seemed to be fading. It was against this backdrop that a sports editor in Chicago proposed the idea of a singular sporting event to anchor the World’s Fair — a baseball game featuring the best players, as decided by the fans. Journalist Randall Sullivan details the whole story in his new book, “ The First All-Star Game .” A few days before the current crop of All Stars gather in Philadelphia to play the game this year, he joins Kerri Miller on Big Books and Bold Ideas to talk about the extraordinary history surrounding the first game and how it galvanized the country during a dark time. Guest: Randall Sullivan was a contributing editor to Rolling Stone for more than 20 years. He is also the author of many books, including his newest, “ The First All-Star Game: Babe Ruth, FDR, and America at the Crossroads .” Subscribe to the Thread newsletter for the latest book and author news and must-read recommendations. Subscribe to Big Books and Bold Ideas with Kerri Miller on Apple Podcasts , Google Podcasts , RSS or anywhere you get your podcasts.

When asked about the Declaration of Independence, most Americans quote memorable phrases from the preamble . “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” But historian Robert Parkinson says even Thomas Jefferson, who penned those words, would be puzzled by our preoccupation with the introduction when the grievances that make up the body of the Declaration were the meat of the document. Parkinson’s new book, “ Tyrants and Rogues ,” is a deep dive into those grievances — and the villains of the Revolutionary period who spurred them. “Americans are throwing a temper tantrum here, because they feel like their father has betrayed them,” he tells Kerri Miller on this week’s Big Books and Bold Ideas. It’s a conversation set in 1776 with implications for 2026 — a launch into a month of books that commemorates America’s 250th anniversary. Guest: Robert Parkinson is a historian and professor at Binghamton University in New York. His new book is “ Tyrants and Rogues: Understanding the Declaration of Independence. ” Subscribe to the Thread newsletter for the latest book and author news and must-read recommendations. Subscribe to Big Books and Bold Ideas with Kerri Miller on Apple Podcasts , Google Podcasts , RSS or anywhere you get your podcasts.

Last month, the Wall Street Journal declared this summer to be the era of the “man band .” Those would be boy bands who’ve grown up — think New Kids on the Block, Boys II Men and the Jonas Brothers — along with their fans, who now have more disposable income to fork out. Exhibit A: The Backstreet Boys residency at the Sphere in Las Vegas last summer grossed more than $55 million. But it’s about more than the money. It’s about the mostly middle-aged women who are no longer afraid of the cringe — and the mostly middle-aged boys-turned-men who are no longer afraid to embrace the passion of their fans. Novelist Emma Straub saw that fandom first hand when she went on a New Kids on the Block cruise several years ago — and was blown away by the intensity and camaraderie of the now adult “Blockheads.” That visit inspired her new novel, “ American Fantasy ,” which is a deep dive into the lucrative world of a fictional ‘90s-era boy band named Boy Talk and the woman who still worship them. Straub joins Kerri Miller on this week’s Big Books and Bold Ideas to talk about boy bands, the pleasure of enjoying them without shame and how aging changes our perceptions of our past — and current — selves. Guest: Emma Straub is is a New York Times-bestselling author and the owner of a Brooklyn-based bookstore, Books Are Magic. Her latest novel is “ American Fantasy .” Subscribe to the Thread newsletter for the latest book and author news and must-read recommendations. Subscribe to Big Books and Bold Ideas with Kerri Miller on Apple Podcasts , Google Podcasts , RSS or anywhere you get your podcasts.

Between death and emigration, Ireland lost almost a quarter of its population in the mid 1800s to the Great Hunger . Entire villages starved to death after potato blight wiped out the island’s primary subsistence crop, and British overseers did little to help. “ Hamnet ” author Maggie O’Farrell’s ancestors lived that history and stayed in Ireland. According to family lore, her great-great-grandfather was a map-maker who helped the British redraw maps of the island after the famine altered the land. Inspired by that story, O’Farrell decided her next novel would be centered on her homeland of Ireland and the tragic era that marked both the place and her people. “I think it’s hard for us,” she tells Kerri Miller on this week’s Big Books and Bold Ideas. “These days, we can look at the statistics [of death and people leaving]. But if you zero down to one or two people’s tiny little lives, you see the enormity of tragedy behind it.” O’Farrell’s new novel, “ Land ,” tells the story of two such people, Tomás and his wife, Phina, who survive the Great Hunger and have four children. It’s a universal story told through the specifics of one family and one piece of land. She talks about it — and her work on the Oscar-winning adaptation of her novel, “Hamnet,” — on this weeks Big Books and Bold Ideas. Guest: Maggie O’Farrell is an author and screenwriter. Her new novel is “ Land. ” Subscribe to the Thread newsletter for the latest book and author news and must-read recommendations. Subscribe to Big Books and Bold Ideas with Kerri Miller on Apple Podcasts , Google Podcasts , RSS or anywhere you get your podcasts.

When novelist Ann Patchett is on Big Books and Bold Ideas, watch out. She and host Kerri Miller trade quips, stories, theories and book recommendations like two longtime friends. And this week, Patchett returns to talk about her latest novel, “ Whistler .” She and Miller discuss the backstory about the novel within the novel. They trade stories about why friendships lost and rediscovered have a special mind of magic. And, of course, they talk about Minnesota author and friend of the show Kate DiCamillo, who has a special knack for editing Patchett’s work — and vice versa. This is a rollicking, warm and delightful conversation — a singular Big Books and Bold Ideas, as only Miller and Patchett can do. Guest: Ann Patchett is a prolific writer. Her latest novel is “ Whistler .” Subscribe to the Thread newsletter for the latest book and author news and must-read recommendations. Subscribe to Big Books and Bold Ideas with Kerri Miller on Apple Podcasts , Google Podcasts , RSS or anywhere you get your podcasts.

Has mythology given Medea a bad rap? Has her story been distorted because it was more appealing to portray her as a lusty, vengeful, violent woman married to a golden-boy hero? The essential conundrum, writes novelist Natalie Haynes, is Medea’s shift from superpowered sorceress to helpless, abandoned wife. Medea is at the center of Haynes’ new novel about Jason’s quest for the Golden Fleece and the tragedy that flows from their love affair. She joins host Kerri Miller on this week’s Big Books and Bold Ideas to talk Medea’s essential juxtapositions and what ancient myths have to say to modern culture. They also talk about how Haynes’ time doing stand-up comedy informs her writing. Guest: Natalie Haynes is a mythologist and the author of many novels, including “Stone Blind” and “A Thousand Ships.” Her new book is “ No Friend to This House .” Subscribe to the Thread newsletter for the latest book and author news and must-read recommendations. Subscribe to Big Books and Bold Ideas with Kerri Miller on Apple Podcasts , Google Podcasts , RSS or anywhere you get your podcasts.

Kate Bowler is officially over being grateful. Not because gratitude doesn’t matter. But because it’s been pushed as the latest iteration in a long series of self-help projects that are more obligation than opportunity. “It’s become a new form of toxic positivity or a despairing hopefulness,” says Bowler on this week’s Big Books and Bold Ideas, “that if you list enough things, you can stack up everything you are grateful for and then determine to be happy.” That’s a sharp contrast to joy, which Bowler says is available even in the midst of the messy muck of every day. “Joy is going to make you say thank you. It is so good to be ,” she says to Kerri Miller. “But it’s not something you can achieve by climbing this grueling ladder called gratitude to the top rung.” Bowler’s candid, funny and refreshing treatise on joy is captured in her new book, “Joyful, Anyway” — and on this week’s Big Books conversation. Guest: Kate Bowler is the author of many books including, “Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I’ve Loved,” host of the podcast “ Everything Happens ” and a professor at Duke University’s Divinity School. Her new book is “ Joyful, Anyway .” Subscribe to the Thread newsletter for the latest book and author news and must-read recommendations.

On the surface, the main characters in Kelly Yang’s new novel, “ The Take ,” have little in common. Ingrid Parker is a rich, white, female movie producer who has paid her dues and scrapped her way to position of power in Hollywood. Maggie Wang is a young, broke, Asian American writer who is desperately looking for approval and a break. But what they share is an an awareness of time: Ingrid doesn’t have enough. Maggie is impatient for it to move faster. When a medical experiment ties the two together, their individual assumptions about ambition and aging and mentorship and power are challenged. How much are they each willing to sacrifice in the quest to succeed? Yang, who is mostly known for her middle-grade books, including the wildly successful “ Front Desk ” series, says she wrote her first adult novel because she needed to process what she experienced firsthand in Hollywood. She talks about that and much more with Kerri Miller on this week’s Big Books and Bold Ideas. Guest: Kelly Yang is a New York Times bestselling author of over 15 books for kids and teens, including the “ Front Desk” series . “The Take” is her debut adult novel. Subscribe to the Thread newsletter for the latest book and author news and must-read recommendations.

Hans Christian Anderson hoped to find a household straight out of a Charles Dickens novel when he visited the Dickens family at their country home in the summer of 1857. Instead, he found a marriage in shambles, a band of miserable and neglected children and a host who was desperately hoping Anderson would leave — the sooner, the better. But Anderson didn’t leave. He lingered, for five awkward and painful weeks, while the Dickens family disintegrated around him. Francine Prose takes this historic moment and fictionalizes it in her new novel, “Five Weeks in the Country.” Told from multiple perspectives, the book details the very public dissolution of the Dickens family and the very modern question of what to do when good art is produced by a terrible person. On this week’s Big Books and Bold Ideas, Prose and host Kerri Miller tackle it all — including why Prose likes reality TV, how she grapples with being a fan of Dickens work without liking Dickens the person, and what it means to write risky, even after you’ve written 23 novels. Guest: Francine Prose author of many books, including “ Household Saints ” and “ Lovers at the Chameleon Club, Paris 1932 .” Her new novel is “ Five Weeks in the Country .” Subscribe to the Thread newsletter for the latest book and author news and must-read recommendations. Subscribe to Big Books and Bold Ideas with Kerri Miller on Apple Podcasts , Google Podcasts , RSS or anywhere you get your podcasts.