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Paul Kingsnorth invented a whole new language for his novel about the Norman invasion of England in 1066. Critic Jason Sheehan says that hard work paid off.

John Darnielle used some tricks of the horror trade to write his latest novel, which is set in 1990s Iowa and involves some cornfields. What's scary about cornfields? Mostly, the unknown.

Edgar Cantero's head-kick of a novel about damaged adults who used to be spunky kid detectives mixes bright, pulpy cartoon nostalgia with some seriously dark trauma-survivor subtext.

A Kremlin official says former Russian President Boris Yeltsin has died. Yeltsin engineered the final collapse of the Soviet Union and pushed Russia to embrace democracy and a market economy. He was 76.

It's the 50th Anniversary of The Blob, one of a series of low-budget horror/sci-fi films that proliferated in the wake of the Cold War. The themes that made The Blob a hit in 1958 are still the ones that keep it in our consciousness today.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has said the U.S. financial system is sound and resilient despite the recent economic downturn. Paulson's remarks came after Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy, Merrill Lynch was sold and AIG battled to stay afloat.

Drew Barrymore's directorial debut Whip It scored big with one demographic over the weekend: roller derby fans. One theater in Maryland was packed with real-life derby girls the Mason-Dixon Vixens.

NPR's Steve Inskeep speaks to Scott Simon about the day the Ayatollah's plane landed in Tehran. Iran's economy is bad and at the same time, oil prices, which is a key part of the economy, are down. As a result of all this, some people are reevaluating where Iran goes next, says Inskeep who is reporting from Iran. The government holds lots of power, but Iranians are not the people they were 30 years ago.

Relying on a wealth of research and documents, Casey Rae deftly maps out how one of America's most controversial literary figures transformed the lives of many notable rock musicians.

Frances de Pontes Peebles' new novel about two women in Brazil — and later Hollywood — who take the music world by storm can sometimes slip into corniness, but it's a genuinely exciting read.