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All Things Considered Reviewer Tom Moon offers his picks for the year's best albums. For Mooon 2007 was about nice chord sequences, tunes that modulate into different keys, and honest-to-goodness "bridge" sections where big sunshine comes through the clouds. He says it's been a while since we've had such interesting progressions.

Fans of New York Yankees center fielder Bernie Williams know him as an elegant runner and a smart hitter. Now, he's showing a different side with his new CD, The Journey Within. Trained as a classical guitarist in Puerto Rico, Williams says the album is influenced by the music of his childhood.

Natasha Trethewey won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for poetry for her book Native Guard. Her parents had an interracial marriage while it was still illegal in Mississippi, and Tretheway's poetry often draws on her childhood as a biracial child in the south.

For decades, the steady loss of agricultural and factory jobs has left the Mississippi Delta with a low-skilled workforce struggling to find income. Entrepreneurs trying to revive the region say that first, locals must change their mindset and overcome a history of racism and neglect.

This week Newsweek Magazine retracted a report saying a copy of the Quran had been flushed down a toilet during a prisoner interrogation at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The protests that followed the report were a sign of the power of the communications revolution that has taken place in the Islamic world.

One woman used pumpkin pies to help her get off public assistance and on with her life.

On this day five years ago, the iPod music player from Apple was introduced. It caught the attention of music lovers, both for what it could do -- allow them to fit much of their music in their pocket -- and for the way it looked.

The end of another year means another giant stack of books you missed during the past 12 months. Nancy Pearl, our favorite librarian, stops by to share recommendations that should keep old, young and 'tween readers content.

NBC News airs video and photos sent to the network Monday, apparently by Seung-hui Cho, the 23-year-old man blamed for the mass killings at Virginia Tech. Investigators are evaluating the cryptic, rambling tapes to gain perspective on the onslaught.

David Patel, an Iraq scholar at Stanford University, explains the significance of Wednesday's attack in Iraq as well as its target, the Golden Mosque in Samarra.

Israeli writer Etgar Keret has a new short-story collection out (The Girl on the Fridge) as well as a film collaboration with his wife. The film, Jellyfish, won the Camera D'Or prize at Cannes in 2007. Keret talks about writing and moviemaking.

In the past decade, an increasing number of U.S. companies have been radically cutting costs by sending manufacturing and customer service jobs overseas. NPR's Howard Berkes profiles a firm in Arkansas hoping to reverse that trend, connecting local high-tech workers with global clients.