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Illusionist David Blaine has suspended himself from a crane over London's Thames River, planning to endure starvation in a glass box for 44 days. But many Londoners express boredom with Blaine's latest stunt, deeming it unoriginal. Hear Sally Pook of London's Daily Telegraph.

The fictional White House drama, The West Wing, captures its fourth Emmy for Best Drama Series, beating out the critics' favorite, The Sopranos. And Everybody Loves Raymond wins an Emmy for Best Comedy Series for the first time. Hear NPR's Bob Edwards.

A religious service held in a public school ignites a debate about the separation of church and state.

For the past decade, author James Carroll has produced a string of nonfiction bestsellers. He returns to the novel with Secret Father, a psychological spy thriller set in Berlin during the beginning of the Cold War. Alan Cheuse has a review.

Author Dan Fesperman's new novel, The Small Boat of Great Sorrows, resurfaces the protagonist from his first novel -- a determined officer in the Sarajevo police force named Vlado Petric. Dragged back into a post-war Bosnia, Petric finds himself caught between dangerous war criminals and corrupt investigators intent on using him as bait. NPR's Linda Wertheimer speaks with Fesperman.

The Scottish band Belle and Sebastian had been keeping to the shadows -- but that's about to change with release of the group's sixth album, Dear Catastrophe Waitress. Band founder and singer Stuart Murdoch explains to NPR's Steve Inskeep that the group was young and more than a little freaked out by the attention they first earned. Now that they've got an international following, Murdoch says the band is ready to take center stage.

'This Dog's Life'

In 2000, author Jhumpa Lahiri won a Pulitzer Prize for her very first book, a collection of stories titled Interpreter of Maladies. Lahiri returns to the literary scene with her first novel, The Namesake. NPR's Melissa Block talks with Lahiri about the book, which tells the story of an Indian immigrant family in America.

The Bottom Line -- the Greenwich Village cabaret where Bruce Springsteen got his start, and where musicians from Miles Davis to Dolly Parton and Aaron Copland have performed -- faces financial problems and could be shut down. NPR's Jennifer Ludden speaks with Bottom Line co-founder Allan Pepper.

Sena Jeter Naslund's latest novel, Four Spirits, melds real people and fictional characters to tell the story of the civil rights struggle in Birmingham, Ala. during the early 1960s. The title refers to the four schoolgirls killed Sept. 15, 1963, in the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church. Hear an extended interview with the author.