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Julia Glass, the acclaimed author of Three Junes, talks with Lynn Neary about her new novel, The Whole World Over. Glass says she stopped writing her book when the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks occured. Then she incorporated the event into her story when she felt compelled to start writing again.

When cooking author Julie Powell is looking for a hit of adolescent intensity, she heads for Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. Those books "suck me under and spit me out, feeling as drained and fulfilled as a hormone-crazed bookworm half my age," she says.

Fortune's Bethany McLean wrote about Enron in the book The Smartest Guys in the Room. She tells Steve Inskeep that Ken Lay's perpetual optimism was a liability when it came to the realities of Enron's troubled business.

The combination of writing talent and juicy material on display in Sean Wilsey's memoir Oh the Glory of It All is what has author Curtis Sittenfeld singing its praises to others. The people and places described "come explosively and thrillingly alive," says the author of Prep.

Author Michael Pollan explores the evolutionary reasons behind why we've learned to cook with fire in his book The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. Pollan says that grilling outdoors is one of the highest honors we can bestow on a guest.

Anyone reporting from Iraq has to expect obstacles. In addition to the regular dangers and red tape, reporting from this war zone is always full of surprises, says Philip Reeves in this reporter's notebook.

You can tell a little bit about what part of the country you're in by the sundaes on the menu. From Maine's fruit-salad sundae to New Mexico's green chili variety, there are frozen desserts to suit just about every taste bud.

If David Lipsky had to give an alien one book about American life, it would be David Foster Wallace's Consider the Lobster, a collection of essays that are "experiential postcards." Lipsky is the author of Absolutely American : Four Years at West Point.

Beethoven poured his "scowling genius" into his 32 sonatas — works that helped transform music forever. Three artists discuss their attempts to interpret some of the most challenging pieces ever written for piano.

Cartoonists Brian Fies and Miriam Engelberg use comics to write about cancer. Both say they've found one cartoon drawing can distill meaning, humor and sadness more effectively than a 50-page essay.