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The FBI is investigating the circumstances surrounding the coal mine blast in West Virginia that killed 29 miners. Sources say the FBI is looking into potential criminal negligence on the part of Massey Energy, the owner of the Upper Big Branch coal mine. Sources also say the probe involves allegations of bribery involving the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration. A Department of Justice spokeswoman denies the mine safety agency is part of the investigation, however.

African-American philosopher Cornel West's new book laments the decline of "prophetic" black leadership, lifting up examples of people who were willing to risk their lives in the service of the truth.

Paul Tremblay's new novel is, on the surface, a story about a book about a reality show about a real-life event, but reviewer Jason Heller says it becomes an "unsettling conversation about the truth."

There are different kinds of fat people in literature — funny or comforting, sometimes despicable. But Sarai Walker's Dietland gives us a new fat protagonist — complex, compelling and dangerous.

Miranda July's new novel The First Bad Man defies neat summaries; reviewer Annalisa Quinn calls July "a master of the intimate weirdnesses of human thought," who treats dusty mental corners with care.

From a scapegoat for the "sapping" of the "white race," to a symbol of modern engineering, to a target of the counterculture movement: White bread's been a social lightning rod time and again.

Polish author Olga Tokarczuk's new collection is a cabinet of curiosities — surreal, loosely connected stories about the human body, about movement, about two-headed calves and saints' relics.

Mozart's fanciful opera mixes surreal characters with mystical rites and rituals and a liberal dose of Masonic symbols and allegory.

Donizetti had already composed more than 60 operas when he wrote Don Pasquale, a brilliant comedy warmed by the composer's trademark touch of gentle pathos.

Donizetti's Don Pasquale is one of the funniest operas ever composed, but with the composer's tradmark touch of gentle pathos shining through the laughs.

Gounod's Faust is the classic story of a deal with the devil, based on plays by Goethe and Michel Carre.

As consumers cut back their spending in the worsening economy, the effects are being felt even in the wastepaper recycling and exporting industry. Decreased demand for products means a drop in the need for packaging — and the recycled materials that it's made from.

The NPR Board of Directors has announced that Vivian Schiller will be the new president and CEO. Schiller is vice president and general manager of NYT.com.

Amy Dickinson, author of the syndicated advice column "Ask Amy," writes about the strong women in her life in her new memoir, The Mighty Queens of Freeville. The youngest in her family, Dickinson says she's "the plankton at the end of the food chain and the advice flows down."

Ming Tsai, who owns the Blue Ginger restaurant in Wellesley, Mass., took NPR's "How Low Can You Go" family supper challenge and concocted a dish of chicken-and-corn fried rice with lemon spinach. Tsai says fried rice is close to his heart because it's the first meal he ever cooked. And his kids love it.

Another batch of negative economic reports Tuesday: One showed inflation sharply higher; another found consumers in a glum mood; and a third reported housing prices continuing to fall. Nevertheless, the stock market ended the day up.

Many listeners wrote in about Wade Goodwyn's story on UFO sightings in Texas, and one pointed out that we missed a teaching opportunity about superior mirage phenomenon. Robert Siegel talks with Christine Pulliam, a spokeswoman for the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, to find out more.

Embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales steps down after months of controversy surrounding the firing of federal prosecutors.

The grand lady and great dame Kitty Carlisle Hart passed away peacefully after a short illness this past week. The singer-actress had lived 96 fabulous years.

In real life, Elizabeth I and Mary Stuart were political rivals. But in the opera house passion plays better than politics, so in Maria Stuarda, the two monarchs are also in love with the same man. In Mary's case, her passion proves deadly.