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Cambodian musician Daran Kravanh survived the "killing fields" and genocide under the Khmer Rouge regime, with the help of an unlikely ally: an accordion. Being a musician kept him alive during the brutal antil-Western genocide.

Tim Brookes, who occasionally contributes essays to NPR, is also a passionate and talented guitar player. He has just published Guitar: An American Life, which he describes as part history and part love song. He talks about what he learned in working on the book.

While Harry Potter has grown to become a huge a marketing event, the book series is still, at its heart, a literary event. Critic-at-large John Powers considers kids today lucky to have that experience. He compares it to his experiences purchasing and reading the Hardy Boys mysteries as a child.

Bakari Kitwana is a culture critic who's been tracking American hip hop for years. He's the author of Why White Kids Love Hip Hop: Wangstas, Wiggers, Wannabes, and the New Reality of Race in America.

After soaring to fame with Saturday Night Live, Dan Aykroyd built a solid film career. But he's still capitalizing on his early hit, The Blues Brothers (now available in a 25th-anniversary DVD). He serves on the board of the "House of Blues" restaurant and concert-venue franchise, and last year he published a book as his Blues Brothers alter-ego, Elwood, interviewing blues greats. (This interview was first broadcast on Nov. 22, 2004.)

Schumann's entire being was music, informed by dream and fantasy. He was music's quintessential Romantic, always ardent, always striving for the ideal. Learn about his passionately creative but troubled life, and hear some of his best music.

The guitarist opens up about his music, his legendary journeys on the road with The Rolling Stones and his occasionally contentious relationship with lead singer Mick Jagger in his memoir, Life.

Before he became a star, he endured a hard-knock youth: abandonment by his parents, struggles in school, teen parenthood and drug abuse. Now, he's offering his life lessons for overcoming tragedies and setbacks in a book: The Blueprint: A Plan for Living Above Life's Storms.

If it's Thanksgiving, it must be time for another musical pun from Miles Hoffman. The music commentator joins Renee Montagne for a holiday review of drums, triangles and other percussive instruments.

At an inner city Bronx school, a young teacher from Finland formed a gospel choir to encourage her disadvantaged students to believe in their potential. Three years after their last performance, students and teacher reunite, as a new book tells their story.