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Underground comic book artist Robert Crumb has drawn comics for more than 40 years. Crumb, creator of Zap Comix, is the artist behind such 1960s and '70s icons as Fritz the Cat and Keep-on-Truckin. The new The R. Crumb Handbook is a visual biography of Crumb's life.

Nils Lofgren, best known as guitarist with Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, also played for Neil Young and Crazy Horse early in that band's career. He's also had a notable solo career — and he founded the mid-1970s band Grin. Critic Milo Miles surveys his work.

Not many countries saw their traditional music gain popularity and vitality in the late 20th century, but Ireland did. Starting in the late 1960s with the Chieftains, and continuing with more rock-oriented groups like Planxty and Horslips, Irish music had a renaissance. Then came punk rock, and with it the Pogues, whose first five albums have just been reissued by Rhino.

Former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl formed Foo Fighters after the death of Nirvana's Kurt Cobain in 1994. Foo Fighters' latest, Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace, includes a song Grohl wrote for two miners who, trapped in an Australia mine collapse, asked rescuers to send down an iPod loaded with Foo Fighters songs.

British rocker Elvis Costello made his debut with the album My Aim is True 30 years ago. He's since performed, recorded or collaborated with artists as diverse as The Brodsky Quartet and Burt Bacharach. An anniversary edition of My Aim is True was released this week.

With both the cost of and demand for oil rising, nations with large energy reserves are redrawing political and military alliances, and oil-rich countries like Russia and Venezuela are enjoying greater influence. Michael Klare, author of Rising Power, Shrinking Planet, calls it the "new international energy order."

In The Oil and the Glory: The Pursuit of Empire and Fortune on the Caspian Sea, veteran foreign correspondent Steve LeVine writes about the high-stakes political gamesmanship over control of the rich oil resources in that region.

In The Secret History of the War on Cancer, environmental-health expert Devra Davis warns that we're ignoring dozens of cancer-causing chemicals, like asbestos, benzene, vinyl chloride, and dioxin. She writes that, like the tobacco companies, the chemical industry has managed to obfuscate the carcinogenic dangers of chemical and other toxic waste.

Writer James Traub discusses his new book, The Best Intentions: Kofi Annan and the UN in the Era of American World Power. Traub recounts the intertwined story of Annan, the United Nations and American foreign policy from 1992 to the present. Traub is a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine. His other books include City on a Hill and The Devil's Playground.

New York Times columnist Frank Rich's new book is The Greatest Story Ever Sold: The Decline and Fall of Truth from 9/11 to Katrina. Rich has been with the Times since 1980, when he was named chief theater critic.