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President Bush will soon send Congress a request for $87 billion to fund reconstruction efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Some Capitol Hill lawmakers pledge to approve Bush's request quickly, calling it essential for troops on the ground. But others say the request prompts new questions about the direction of the U.S. mission in Iraq. Hear NPR's Andrea Seabrook.

Film critic David Edelstein reviews Once Upon A Time In the Midlands, starring Robert Carlyle.

Commentator Andrei Codrescu laments the hard time non-blockbusters have catching browsers' attention on bookstore shelves. He details the thought-process that a potential reader goes through in making a bold determination if he or she should actual buy a lesser-known work. It is this detail that gives us insight into the difficulties of authors. Codrescu's latest book is It was Today: New Poems, available from Coffee House Press.

In Part 10 of our series on the roots of American country music, NPR's Paul Brown tells the story of Bob Wills. The fiddler grew up in a family of fiddlers in the cultural mixing bowl of the American southwest. He went on to lead a band that mixed breakdowns, big band swing, blues and square dance music — a style that came to be called Western swing.

Gen. John Abizaid and Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz discuss the cost of rebuilding Iraq in a closed-door session with members of Congress. An emergency spending request that could run as high as $100 billion is expected in coming days. NPR's David Welna reports.

He's got a new series on CBS called The Handler in which he plays an FBI agent. It will premier on September 26, 2003. He is perhaps best known for his role as Ralph Cifaretto on the HBO series The Sopranos and has also appeared in more than 60 films, including Memento, The Matrix and The Fugitive. His memoir is called Who's Sorry Now: The True Story of a Stand-Up Guy. This interview first aired October 1, 2002.

When George Plimpton and his friends, writers H.L. Humes and Peter Matthiessen, founded The Paris Review in 1953, they were young men whose curiosity exceeded their means. But they were determined to keep the literary journal going, publishing early interviews with E.M. Forster, Ernest Hemingway, Ezra Pound and Italo Calvino. This year, The Paris Review celebrates its 50th anniversary. NPR's Jacki Lyden visits Plimpton at his Manhattan apartment talk about his career and the history of Review. Hear an extended interview.

Legendary jazz bandleader Artie Shaw donates two of his clarinets to the Smithsonian Institution, including the instrument he used in 1938 to record his first big hit, "Begin the Beguine." Shaw received the institution's James Smithson Medal for his lifetime achievements in music. Until he retired in 1954, Shaw's fame rivaled that of Benny Goodman. Hear NPR's Melissa Block and NPR's Robert Siegel.

We conclude our summer reading series this week with Dr. Julie Freischlag, surgeon-in-chief at Johns Hopkins Hospital and chair of the department of surgery at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. She's recently enjoyed The Secret Life of Bees (Penguin Books; ISBN: 0142001740), by Sue Monk Kidd, and two books by Barbara Kingsolver: The Prodigal Summer (Perennial; ISBN: 0060959037) and The Poisonwood Bible (Perennial; ISBN: 0060930535).

A car bomb that tore apart Iraq's holiest Shiite Muslim mosque Friday killed at least 100 people, authorities say. Among them was Ayatollah Mohammed Baqer al-Hakim, a prominent Shiite cleric. Six suspects are being questioned, but their identities and allegiances are unclear. Hear NPR's Scott Simon and NPR's Emily Harris.