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Middle East expert Kenneth Pollack talks about his book The Persian Puzzle, an analysis of the complex relationship between the U.S. and Iran over the decades. Pollack notes that relations between the two countries have often been fractious and filled with misinformation on both sides.

Alan Cheuse reviews Gilead by Marilynne Robinson, a novel narrated by a Christian minister as he nears death. Cheuse calls it a "beautifully ruminative novel."

After a chart-topping and occasionally controversial music career, she s now turning out children s books publishing four in just over a year. The newest is The Adventures of Abdi. The others are The English Roses, Mr. Peabody's Apples and Yakov and the Seven Thieves. Her fifth, Lotsa de Casha, is due out in April 2005.

As part of the first cast of Saturday Night Live, Dan Aykroyd helped bring the Coneheads and the Blues Brothers to life. We talk with Aykroyd about two new projects: the book Elwood's Blues: interviews with the Blues Legends and Stars, and the upcoming movie Christmas with the Kranks.

NPR's Melissa Block talks with Mark Bittman, author of "How to Cook Everything" and The New York Times food column "The Minimalist," about alternatives to the traditional Thanksgiving turkey dinner. His suggestions range from leg of lamb to salmon.

What do Miles Davis, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Bugs Bunny have in common? They're all hip, says John Leland, the author of a new history of that coveted but elusive quality.

In 1996, Courtney Brkic went to Bosnia as part of a forensic team helping to identify bodies of victims of war. She writes about her time in the Balkans and her own Croatian family history in a new book, The Stone Fields.

Thanksgiving approaches, followed by the rest of the holiday season. In a holiday-eating preview, NPR's Susan Stamberg bypasses the turkey — and heads right for dessert. Specifically chocolate. But she does manage to insinuate her favorite holiday recipe into the mix.

Writer Augusten Burroughs has two best-selling, often funny memoirs to his credit. His first, Running With Scissors, portrayed his early years with his mentally ill mother and her equally mentally ill shrink. His second, Dry, was about getting sober. Now Burroughs has a book of stories, Magical Thinking.

Lily Tuck's novel of 19th century Paraguay wins the National Book Award for fiction. Tuck, awarded the prize for her novel The News From Paraguay, was one of five New York women authors nominated for the fiction award. Kevin Boyle won the nonfiction prize for Arc of Justice and Jean Valentine's Door in the Mountain won in the poetry category. Hear NPR's Lynn Neary.