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Young Jack hits the road with his cranky, elderly teacher Miss Volker (and a couple of cranky, elderly cars) in From Norvelt to Nowhere, the new young adult novel from Jack Gantos. The sequel to 2011's Newbery-winning Dead End in Norvelt is set in 1962, in the shadow of the Cuban missile crisis.

Photographer Christopher Boffoli made his name with his amusing dioramas of tiny, plastic people literally dominated by food. A new book, Big Appetites, assembles more than 200 images of these tiny people and their "complex culture."

Decimated by hunters, insecticides and other human pressures in the 1960s and 1970s, America's emblematic bird is once again flying high. Roughly 10,000 mated pairs now nest in the continental U.S., up from about 500 in the 1970s. But more birds also means fierce competition for territory and mates.

Shahnameh is the Persian Odyssey, with ancient legends and myths put into verse. A new English language version brings the 1,000-year-old text into the modern age, with ornate recompositions of Persian miniature paintings.

The metal legends played two packed nights in China's second city, and other big names are slated to follow suit. Despite high production costs, more international talent is being drawn to China in the wake of a growing fan base and improved venues.

William Masters and Virginia Johnson became famous in the 1960s for their research into the physiology of human sexuality. In Masters of Sex, biographer Thomas Maier explores the duo's research methods, which for years remained shrouded in secrecy.

There's been excitement on Wall Street about a turnaround at Yahoo since Marissa Mayer became head of the company last year. Mayer has completed high profile acquisitions and sought to improve worker morale. Second quarter revenues missed expectations as Yahoo struggled to corral advertising dollars.

A billion people worldwide live in slums, largely invisible to city services and governments — but not to satellites. A global movement is putting mapping technology in the hands of slum dwellers to persuade governments and the residents themselves to see these shadow cities in a whole new light. NPR's Gregory Warner visits one slum in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.

In this installment of our Weekly Innovation series, a bedding set that promises to solve the problem of having to realign or untangle bunched up sheets in the morning. The designers of Smart Bedding say it's a daily timesaver.

More details are emerging about the crash of Asiana flight 214 at San Francisco International Airport on Saturday that killed two people. The Boeing 777 jet nearly stalled on its approach to land, and the flight crew tried to take corrective action just seconds before it hit the ground. There's also word the pilot, while having extensive flying experience, had only 43 hours on the 777.