Explore the understated yet vital role of the spool in our lives. Learn about its etymology, original purpose, and relevance ...

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Anne Tyler loves the everyday. With her 20th novel (20th!!!!), A Spool of Blue Thread, Tyler continues to sew together stories about the mundane and turn them into something approaching the magical.

A lopsided pottery house sits on a high shelf in Anne Tyler’s writing room. The handicraft belonged to the novelist’s mother, who made it in her retirement home as her mind was starting to fade. Ms.

The characters in "A Spool of Blue Thread" look like the same Baltimore family members we've socialized with for 50 years in Anne Tyler's fiction. In fact, everything about her new novel — from its ...