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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.

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

Book critic Maureen Corrigan responds to Vivian Gornick's comments.

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."

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.

Continuing a week-long series on how people around the world view America and Americans, NPR's Renee Montagne talks to Adetoun Ilumoka of Lagos, Nigeria. For the last 12 years, Ilumoka has worked as a researcher and social activist, coordinating the activities of the Empowerment and Action Research Centre -- a nonprofit social-change organization based in Lagos. Prior to that, she taught law at Nigeria's University of Jos.

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.

NPR's Susan Stamberg continues a series on contemporary ethics in a talk with Walter Pavlo, a former finance manager at MCI, who recently got out of jail. Pavlo served two years for money laundering, mail fraud, and obstruction of justice. He says in the early, heady days of the telecom industry, he felt "bulletproof."

Filmmakers Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini are the team behind American Splendor, which is a hybrid of fiction and documentary. Their previous documentaries are Off the Menu: The Last Days of Chasen's and The Young and the Dead.

His new feature film, The Magdalene Sisters, is based on the real-life laundries run by the Sisters of the Magdalene Order in Ireland near the end of the 19th century. Girls considered wayward or unruly were sent there as punishment for their sins and forced to do labor under sweat-shop conditions. The last of the laundries was shut down in 1996. Mullan's film follows the lives of four young women and takes place from 1964 to 1969. Before writing and directing, Mullan was best known for his acting and starred in The Big Man, Riff-Raff, Shallow Grave and Trainspotting. He won Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival for his role in Ken Loach's film My Name is Joe.