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Daniel Alarcon's new novel is set in an unnamed, war-scarred Latin American country. The protagonist, Nelson, is an aspiring playwright — though he doesn't pursue his dreams with much diligence. Alarcon discusses his own views on working as an artist and his creative process.

Scientists have been working to develop an airy pizza dough without yeast. Researchers in Naples, Italy say they have achieved it using a process like the one used to produce carbonation in soda.

The discovery of the flight data recorder is raising hopes that it might shed light on why the passenger plane nosedived into a remote mountainous area, killing all 132 on board.

Gianna Paniagua, who's had life-long heart problems, talks to her mother, Lourdes Matamoros, about her dream of becoming a doctor. Paniaqua is currently finishing her pre-med program at Columbia.

Christopher Buckley, the author of Washington Schlepped Here: Walking in the Nation's Capital, recently took NPR's Liane Hansen on a walking tour of his adopted home -- a city full of intrigue, history and hidden surprises. Listen to Buckley describe the truth and legend behind "the curse of Lafayette Square," and see photos of the tour.

As the war in Iraq progressed, NPR's Anne Garrels was the only U.S. network reporter to continue broadcasting from the heart of Baghdad. Her reports, delivered on a smuggled satellite phone, took listeners through some terrible times. Now safely back home in Connecticut, Garrels recalls her time covering the war in an interview with NPR's Susan Stamberg. Hear an extended version of the interview.

In 1975, Pulitzer-Prize winning author Alice Walker wrote an essay that helped lift from obscurity Zora Neale Hurston, the most widely published black woman author of the 1930s Harlem Renaissance. For Intersections, a series on artists and their inspirations, Walker tells NPR's Vertamae Grosvenor about the guiding role Hurston's work has played in her own art.

Antonin Careme's designed culinary masterpieces for many of Europe's most rich and powerful: King George IV, Napoleon, the Romanovs. A new book by actor Ian Kelly recreates the life of the 19th century chef. NPR's Melissa Block talks with Kelly.

This month, Angola celebrated its first year of relative peace following 27 years of brutal civil war. The impact of that long-lasting conflict on Angola's children is documented in a new book, Free to Play in Peace. Published by the Christian Children's Fund, the book is a collection of drawings, poems and essays that express the children's memories of war and hopes for a future without it. See a gallery of the drawings online.

The day President Kennedy was assassinated, Bob Schieffer — the future veteran CBS newsman — was still just a young newspaper reporter in Texas. But he got closer to that day's events than he ever would have imagined. In an interview with NPR's Bob Edwards, Schieffer recounts that and other stories in his new book, This Just In. Hear an extended version of the interview.