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Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews Jacqueline Winspear's debut novel, Maisie Dobbs.

Some of the world's poorest countries in Africa and Latin America owe billions of dollars to the World Bank and IMF. For some nations, the debt is so large that paying it off seems impossible. Over the past few years, a movement has been growing calling for the large financial institutions to forgive debt to Third World countries. A new CD called Drop the Debt is one such effort. African and Latin American artists, many of whom are stars in their own countries, contributed songs about debt to the CD. NPR's Elizabeth Blair reports.

U.S. military officials seek to settle monetary and property claims with Iraqis who say they have suffered losses at the hands of American forces. Almost 3,000 Iraqi claims of negligence have been filed since major combat operations were declared over in May. NPR's Anne Garrels reports.

NPR's Michele Norris talks with Jamal Qureshi with the Market Intelligence Service for PFC Energy about an oil shortage in Iraq, the country with the world's second-largest reserves. Poor security in Iraq has wreaked havoc on Iraq's oil industry. Managing pipelines in Iraq not only involves keeping an eye on looters, but also involves navigating the heavy damage incurred from months of war.

Brazil and the United States both claim roles in the origins of modern aviation. The United States says it was the Wright brothers who first flew an airplane. NPR's Martin Kaste reports on Brazil's version of the facts.

Our summer reading series profiles Azar Nafisi, author of Lolita in Tehran. She is currently the director of the Dialogue Project at The Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, D.C. She has just finished Diane Ravitch's The Language Police, and lists Address Unknown by Kathrine Taylor as one of her favorite books. Nafisi also regularly revisits Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice and Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God.

More than a dozen rural communities have invested in co-operative groceries and department stores to fill gaps left by the absence of chain outfits. NPR's Howard Berkes examines examples like The Merc in Powell, Wyo., and the Wolf Den market in Arthur, Neb.

Commentator Katie Davis brings us another of her neighborhood stories. Meet Don Victor Zebina, who always has the last word at the community garden in Walter Pierce Community Park. You need a piece of land; you have to go to Victor. You don't go and your plants might get ripped out. Katie Davis maps the intricate boundaries and passions of the community garden in Adams Morgan -- the most diverse neighborhood in Washington, D.C. Recently, there has been a line of people asking for new plots. The tension among gardeners has even led to "garden wars."

Edward Weston's photographs from a year he spent traveling through Death Valley and the West are at the heart of a major exhibition now at the Huntington Library in San Marino, California. NPR's Renee Montagne reports on the exhibit.

The Rare Book School at the University of Virginia is the only one if its kind in the United States. NPR's Jacki Lyden took a tour of the school's collection, and talked with elite scholars attending week-long sessions to learn more about the preservation and art of rare books.