NPR News

Stripped down, Swamplandia!, Karen Russell's debut novel, is one more young writer's saga of a dysfunctional family. But Russell is a rare talent.

All of our assumptions about the Arab world have been turned on their heads in the past month, says veteran Middle East correspondent Thanassis Cambanis.

This past November, The Universal Thump's core team of Greta Gertler and Adam D. Gold attracted attention in their Brooklyn hometown by staging a rhapsodically received tribute concert to honor the 40th anniversary of George Harrison's All Things Must Pass, featuring the likes of John Wesley Harding, My Brightest Diamond singer Shara Worden and Amy Allison (daughter of jazz icon Mose Allison).

Blizzard conditions stretching from Texas to Maine have paralyzed travel in major cities across the nation's midsection, closing airports and schools and leaving downtowns looking like snow-covered deserts.

The storm — billed as the worst in decades — unleashed much of its fury on the heartland, bringing Chicago and the rest of the Midwest to a standstill. As it churned into New England, a number of roofs collapsed as a foot or more of snow piled atop the remains of last month's blizzards.

He writes: