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Rush stacked the most bars of wet soap and he's the fastest to cover a neighbor in wrapping paper. The hardest feat? Using a samurai sword to slice 62 kiwis thrown at him while balancing on a ball.

Dave King's debut novel, The Ha-Ha, features a man who loses his ability to speak after suffering a head injury in Vietnam. The book takes a look at the world inside Howie. King says thoughts of his late brother, born profoundly autistic, sparked the story.

There has been an explosion of e-mail in offices across the country, and not all of it is spam. Business consultant Marilyn Paul offers ways to rein in e-mail — and make it a tool instead of a burden.

A new sensation is piggy-backing on the phenomenon that is the iPod: podcasting. The personalized audio recordings, which can be heard on any digital music player, have given an outlet to marginalized experts and frustrated DJs alike. And media critic Jeff Jarvis says that's the beauty of podcasting.

In 1932, World War I veterans gathered in Washington, D.C., to demand payment of a bonus. The violence that ensued helped Franklin Roosevelt become president. Paul Dickson is co-author of a book revisiting an overlooked event in U.S. history: the Bonus Army.

At an inner city Bronx school, a young teacher from Finland formed a gospel choir to encourage her disadvantaged students to believe in their potential. Three years after their last performance, students and teacher reunite, as a new book tells their story.

A new photo book chronicles Paul McCartney's recent world tour, through memories and photographs. The singer-songwriter dusted off some Beatles tunes for the concerts, including many that had never been performed on stage. NPR's Michele Norris talks with Sir Paul.

Robert O'Harrow, Jr. is a reporter for The Washington Post and an associate of the Center for Investigative Reporting. His new book is about how the government is creating a national intelligence infrastructure with the help of private companies as part of homeland security. Huge data-mining operations are contracted by the government to gather information on our daily lives. Information technology has enabled retailers, marketers, and financial institutions to gather and store data about us. O'Harrow's new book about this security-industrial complex is No Place to Hide: Behind the Scenes of Our Emerging Surveillance Society.

The Greek myth of the fate of Eurydice, who dies after being saved from Hades by Orpheus, provides the kernel of one of Pulitzer Prize-winner Paula Vogel's favorite scenes. Vogel discusses Sarah Ruhl's vision of Eurydice with NPR's Susan Stamberg.

The controversial, best-selling Egyptian novel The Yacoubian Building describes a country that is corrupt, unfair and thuggish. Now it's being made into a star-studded film.