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Books

What's making us happy: A guide to your weekend viewing

Lesley Manville stars in Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris. Dávid Lukács/Ada Films/Focus Features hide caption

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Dávid Lukács/Ada Films/Focus Features

What's Making Us Happy: Recommendations From 'Pop Culture Happy Hour'

What's making us happy: A guide to your weekend viewing

Each week, the guests and hosts on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour share what's bringing them joy. This week: Gabrielle Zevin's Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris, and more.

Classic LA noir meets the #MeToo era in the suspense novel 'Everybody Knows'
Mulholland Books

Review

Book Reviews

Classic LA noir meets the #MeToo era in the suspense novel 'Everybody Knows'

Fresh Air

Jordan Harper's hardboiled plot centers on a "black-bag publicist" who works for a prestige crisis management firm, putting out fires and quieting scandals for Hollywood's elite.

Classic LA noir meets the #MeToo era in the suspense novel 'Everybody Knows'

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Pamela Anderson on her new memoir — and why being underestimated is a secret weapon

Anderson says her memoir started out as a poem before she crafted it into a book. Harper Collins hide caption

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Harper Collins

Culture

Pamela Anderson on her new memoir — and why being underestimated is a secret weapon

Pamela Anderson, the Playboy Playmate and TV star who became one of the most famous sex symbols of all time, has written a book about herself. And it was her sons who gave her the idea.

Pamela Anderson on her new memoir — and why being underestimated is a secret weapon

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A TikTok star who was functionally illiterate finds a community on BookTok

Oliver James lives in California with his partner and their two kids. Courtesy of Oliver James hide caption

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Courtesy of Oliver James

A TikTok star who was functionally illiterate finds a community on BookTok

Oliver James is a TikTok star who pledged to read 100 books this year. He has had a lot of difficulty with reading since he was a child and is now teaching himself at age 34.

A TikTok star who was functionally illiterate finds a community on BookTok

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For the Beatles-obsessed, here are 3 never-before-seen photos from 1964

"The crowds chasing us in A Hard Day's Night were based on moments like this," McCartney writes. "Taken out of the back of our car on West Fifty-Eighth, crossing the Avenue of the Americas." Paul McCartney/1964: Eyes of the Storm hide caption

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Paul McCartney/1964: Eyes of the Storm

Music News

For the Beatles-obsessed, here are 3 never-before-seen photos from 1964

When the Beatles embarked on the tour that helped launch the British Invasion in 1964, Paul McCartney had a 35mm camera on hand to help document the history-making mayhem.

30 years after the siege, 'Waco' examines what led to the catastrophe

The Texas and the ATF flags fly at half staff April 23, 1993, over the only structure left standing after a fire destroyed the the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas on April 19. J. David Ake/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

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J. David Ake/AFP via Getty Images

National

30 years after the siege, 'Waco' examines what led to the catastrophe

Fresh Air

Writer Jeff Guinn draws on new interviews with federal agents and surviving Branch Davidians in his account of the confrontation, which left scores of people dead, including more than 20 children.

30 years after the siege, 'Waco' examines what led to the catastrophe

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Ilyon Woo's new book explores the relentless pursuit of freedom

"Master Slave Husband Wife" reconstructs the dramatic escape of a couple from slavery in 1848. Simon & Schuster hide caption

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Simon & Schuster

Author Interviews

Ilyon Woo's new book explores the relentless pursuit of freedom

In "Master Slave Husband Wife," Ilyon Woo describes the story of Ellen and William Craft escaping slavery.

Ilyon Woo's new book explores the relentless pursuit of freedom

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Sold an American Dream, these workers from India wound up living a nightmare

These workers were promised green cards following Hurricane Katrina. Instead they were issued temporary visas that bound them to a single employer. Courtesy of Ted Quant/Workman hide caption

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Courtesy of Ted Quant/Workman

National

Sold an American Dream, these workers from India wound up living a nightmare

Fresh Air

After Hurricane Katrina in 2006, hundreds of workers from India were promised jobs in what labor organizer Saket Soni calls "one of the largest cases of forced labor in modern U.S. history."

Sold an American Dream, these workers from India wound up living a nightmare

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After 30+ years, 'The Stinky Cheese Man' is aging well
Illustrations © Lane Smith

Picture This

After 30+ years, 'The Stinky Cheese Man' is aging well

Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith created The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales in 1992. They remember their work on the classic children's book and how their partnership began.

After 30+ years, 'The Stinky Cheese Man' is aging well

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New graphic novel explores the life of 'Queenie,' Harlem Renaissance mob boss

Elizabeth Colomba and Aurélie Lévy's new graphic novel Queenie: Godmother of Harlem revives the forgotten story of Harlem mob boss Stephanie Saint Clair AKA Queenie in the form of a mafia thriller. Elizabeth Colomba, Aurélie Lévy/Abrams Comicarts - Megascope hide caption

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Elizabeth Colomba, Aurélie Lévy/Abrams Comicarts - Megascope

Author Interviews

New graphic novel explores the life of 'Queenie,' Harlem Renaissance mob boss

Queenie: Godmother of Harlem tells the overlooked story of Stephanie Saint Clair, or "Queenie," a Black female mob boss and fashion icon who lived during the height of the Harlem Renaissance.

Racism tears a Maine fishing community apart in 'This Other Eden'
WW Norton

Review

Book Reviews

Racism tears a Maine fishing community apart in 'This Other Eden'

Fresh Air

In 1912, the 47 residents of Malaga Island were forcibly removed from their small, interracial community. Pulitzer Prize winner Paul Harding fictionalizes the story in a stunning new historical novel.

Racism tears a Maine fishing community apart in 'This Other Eden'

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Is the U.S. government designating too many documents as 'classified'?
CSA-Archive/Getty Images

Author Interviews

Is the U.S. government designating too many documents as 'classified'?

Fresh Air

Historian Matthew Connelly says government records are marked as classified three times every second — and many of them will never be declassified. His new book is The Declassification Engine.

Is the U.S. government designating too many documents as 'classified'?

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Extremist Futures
Marcia Straub/Getty Images

Throughline

Extremist Futures

It's 2074 and a suicide bomber has killed the President of the United States. Months later Marines open fire on protesters killing dozens. The Second American Civil War has just begun and once again the North and South are pitted against each other. This is all according to the dystopian world chronicled in Omar El Akkad's novel, American War. El Akkad's imagined, yet familiar, world is reflective of today's deep political and societal fissures, but it also pushes us to understand the universal language of war and ruin, to what happens after the violence begins and why it's so hard to end.

Extremist Futures

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Meg Medina is the first Latinx ambassador for young people's literature

Meg Medina was named a national youth ambassador by the Library of Congress. Scott Elmquist hide caption

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Scott Elmquist

Meg Medina is the first Latinx ambassador for young people's literature

The Library of Congress has named a Cuban American writer as its new national ambassador for young people's literature. Meg Medina is the first Latinx ambassador in the program's history.

Meg Medina is the first Latinx ambassador for young people's literature

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Jan. 6 report isn't dominating the sales charts like prior government reports

The Jan. 6 report was set to be a major boon for publishers. A week out, sales have been relatively slow compared to other blockbuster government reports. (Story first aired on ATC on Jan. 16, 2023.)

Jan. 6 report isn't dominating the sales charts like prior government reports

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The U.S. faces 'unprecedented uncertainty' regarding abortion law, legal scholar says

Protesters gather outside the U.S. Supreme Court on June 25, 2022 in the wake of the decision overturning Roe v. Wade. Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images hide caption

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Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

Shots - Health News

The U.S. faces 'unprecedented uncertainty' regarding abortion law, legal scholar says

Fresh Air

Roe author Mary Ziegler has chronicled the legal, political and cultural battles around abortion, and says the debate is far from over: "We're at the very beginning of something very confusing."

The U.S. faces 'unprecedented uncertainty' regarding abortion law, legal scholar says

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