This week on A Prairie Home Companion, an homage to the book (the paper kind) with a show for readers, including Ruth Harrison's encounter with Stephen King, Nick Lowe singing "When I Write the Book," a new version of "The Ugly Duckling," and "The Owl and the Pussycat" set to music. Plus, Maria Jette sings "Juliet's Waltz," The Russian Chamber Chorus of New York, and The Hopeful Gospel Quartet sings the music of Tennyson. Plus the story of an encounter with "Papa" (Ernest Hemingway) at the Algonquin Hotel in New York, and again at a Lutheran Bible Camp in Michigan.

This week on A Prairie Home Companion, a combination of shows we've done from the campus of St. Olaf College in Northfield with The St. Olaf Choir singing "Norge, mitt Norge," the Orchestra playing Shostakovich, Heather Masse singing the "Lutheran Song," and Guy Noir on the trail of a missing student. Plus, Philip Brunelle outlines the history of choir pianists at St. Olaf and the story of Clarence Bunsen and his friend Cliff and how they met at St. Olaf.

This week on A Prairie Home Companion, a baseball memorabilia show with Sam Bush singing a song for the great Ozzie Smith, "Casey at the Bat," Dusty and Lefty drive cows out into right field, and talk of The Curse of the Bambino. Plus, Guy Noir encounters a distraught Red Sox fan, Dave Frishberg with a song called "The Catbird Seat," and Pat Donohue with "Opening Day." And in Lake Wobegon, the day Babe Ruth came to town.

This week on A Prairie Home Companion, a sour mash of shows from Kentucky and Tennessee, with Sam Bush, Patty Loveless, The Memphis Horns, and Alvin Youngblood Hart. Writer Bobbie Ann Mason talks about the importance of radio, Guy Noir gets pulled into a sibling dispute over the production of organic bourbon at the family's distillery, Ruth Harrison resorts to hypnotism in an attempt to subdue the overzealous president of the library board, and in Lake Wobegon there's a new bartender at the Sidetrack Tap.

This week on A Prairie Home Companion, a mix of shows from our fall 2011 run at The Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul. John Lithgow gets thrown in the hoosegow with Dusty and Lefty in an episode of The Lives of the Cowboys, Jearlyn and Jevetta Steele belt out "Do You Love Me" and Gillian Welch sings "Hard Times." Duo Storyhill perform "Avalon," Joe Ely will break your heart with "Tomorrow Is a Long Time," and in Lake Wobegon Pastor Liz faces a dilemma regarding profanity in the sermon.

Coming up this week on A Prairie Home Companion, the first of our summer compilation series, with a program devoted to the family vacation. Or more specifically, the family car trip. Joe Ely sings "The Highway Is My Home," Gillian Welch and David Rawlings appear as hitchhikers, The Wailin' Jennys sing "Going Down the Road," and Studs Terkel picks Dusty and Lefty up roadside in The Lives of the Cowboys. Plus, Al Franken and the cautionary tale of Florian and Myrtle Krebsbach and how important it is not to leave your spouse in a gas station convenience mart. In Lake Wobegon, how a trip to the Grand Canyon can change a young person's outlook on life.

This week on A Prairie Home Companion, we'll wrap up our summer season with a visit to the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, CA. With special guests, veteran of stage and screens large and small, Martin Sheen, purveyor of Southern California bluegrass, Sara Watkins, singing sisters Jearlyn and Jevetta Steele, and soprano Ellie Dehn. Also with us, the Royal Academy of Radio Actors; Tim Russell, Sue Scott, Fred Newman, and Erica Rhodes, a brass-enhanced Guy's All-Star Shoe Band, and the latest News from Lake Wobegon.

Coming to you this week from the renowned Interlochen Center for the Arts, it's a live broadcast of A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor. With special guests, globetrotting vocalist Molly Dean, student musicians; trumpeter Theo van Dyck, soprano Sage DeAgro-Ruopp, and pianist Willey Lee, and the students and faculty of the Interlochen Arts Camp String Octet. Also with us, the Royal Academy of Radio Actors; Tim Russell, Sue Scott, and Fred Newman, The Guy's All-Star Shoe Band, and the latest News from Lake Wobegon.

Coming to you this week from the Koussevitzky Music Shed at Tanglewood in Lenox, Massachusetts, it's a live broadcast performance of A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor. With special guests, veteran troubadour and storyteller Arlo Guthrie, close-harmonizing siblings The DiGiallonardo Sisters, and exquisite vocalist Heather Masse. Plus, the Royal Academy of Radio Actors; Tim Russell, Sue Scott, and Mr. Fred Newman, The Guy's All-Star Shoe Band, and the latest News from Lake Wobegon.

Coming to you this week from the Ravinia Festival in Highland Park, Illinois, it's a live broadcast performance of A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor. With special guests, mischievous country chanteuse Suzy Bogguss, Dean of the Diatonic Harmonica, Howard Levy, and author and storyteller Jack Zimmerman. Also with us, the Royal Academy of Radio Actors; Sue Scott, Tim Russell, and Fred Newman, and Michael B. Nelson, Kenni Holmen, and Steve Strand sitting in with The Guy's All-Star Shoe Band on trombone, saxophone, and trumpet. All that, plus the latest News from Lake Wobegon.