Search results for

Dan Buettner visited some of the happiest populations on Earth to figure out what makes them tick. After five years of study, he argues the real keys to happiness lie not in wealth or beauty, but in fundamental changes to the way we live. Buettner lays out his findings in his book Thrive.

Fourteen-year-old Doug Swieteck has the weight of the world upon him — no friends, an alcoholic father and a brother who has just been injured in Vietnam. But the protagonist of this NPR Backseat Book Club book finds solace in an unlikely place — the pages of Audubon's Birds of America.

Writer and psychoanalyst Adam Phillips explores the paradox of dissatisfaction: Although not getting what we want may cause us pain, Phillips concedes, we should think of frustration as a natural part of existence, and one that can provide us pleasure if we let it.

Restaurateur and food personality Eddie Huang spent time as a lawyer and a stand-up comic before getting into the food business. In his new memoir, Fresh Off The Boat, he talks about food, family, hip-hop and growing up Asian in America.

Rock writer Jonathan Cott met John Lennon in 1968 and formed a working relationship with him, as well as with Yoko Ono, that would span more than two decades. Cott was the last journalist to interview Lennon, just three days before the singer was killed.

In Mohsin Hamid's fictional how-to, a nameless protagonist makes a fortune selling knockoff bottled water in a thirsty Asian metropolis. Hamid joins NPR's Steve Inkeep to discuss the book's conceit and the side effects of rampant development.

As a prisoner of war in the "Hanoi Hilton," Air Force fighter pilot John Borling spent years composing and memorizing poetry that he tapped to fellow prisoners, like the future Sen. John McCain, using a special code.

A new book chronicles the antics of hard-partying literary giants like Jack Kerouac and Dorothy Parker. But underneath the misbehavior there is a quieter — and much more admirable — story of perseverance.

Two couples — two brothers and their wives — meet for a meal in Herman Koch's new novel The Dinner, and it's anything but a convivial family gathering. Both couples have teenage sons, and they're meeting to discuss a ghastly crime the boys have committed.

In Words From the White House, linguist Paul Dickson looks at the ways presidents have used the office to create and shape American language. Presidents, Dickson says, must be eloquent and spontaneous, but they also need to communicate in a way that gives listeners something to latch onto.