Terry Gross

The pianist's new album features some of the most difficult etudes ever written for solo piano by the Hungarian composer Gyorgy Ligeti. "Ligeti took the piano to places it had never been before," he says, "and makes demands of the pianist and the mind that had never been made before."

Have you thought about switching to barefoot running? New York Times exercise columnist Gretchen Reynolds did -- and promptly injured herself. She details what she did wrong -- and how to keep your own feet healthy -- in her new book, The First 20 Minutes.

The stand-up comedian and star of In Living Color was recently nominated for a Tony Award for his portrays of Sporting Life in the opera Porgy and Bess. "I think the character of Sporting Life is a salesman so he has to be flamboyant, the life of the party," he says.