Each week, the guests and hosts on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour share what's bringing them joy. This week: Scriptnotes podcast, Elissa Bassist's Hysterical, and more.

His nephew says scientists found high levels of the bacterium that can cause botulism poisoning. He says it proves that his uncle was injected with the poison at a hospital immediately after the coup.

NPR's Leila Fadel speaks with Mark O'Connor about his memoir, Crossing Bridges, on his journey from multi-instrumentalist child prodigy to solo artist composing and performing on world stages.

On Writing and Failure isn't your standard meditation on the art and nobility of writing as a profession; instead, author Stephen Marche argues writers should be prepared to fail — again and again.

Patrick Bringley's story — he jumped off the career ladder, deliberately taking a position divorced from ambition in order to find the space for quiet contemplation — is oddly suited to our times.

Lamya H's memoir is a study guide on Islam and a queer manifesto that follows them from a childhood a move to the U.S. through questions of faith, gender and sexuality.

Romance novel sales are surging, even as overall book sales experience their first decline in years. And no, fans are not embarrassed by their love of the genre.

On a Woman's Madness and Forbidden Notebook have been highly lauded in their original languages for decades but, like the more recent Black Foam, inaccessible to English readers — until now.

Activist Greta Thunberg was just 15 when she called on the world to take action on the climate crisis. Just as impressively, she has now pulled together essays by 100 scholars on what's needed now.

Journalist Mark Whitaker says that much of what's happening in American race relations today traces back to 1966, the year the Black Panthers were formed. His new book is Saying It Loud.

Rushdie submitted the final edits for his 15th novel before he was stabbed onstage in August 2022. It tells the story of a sorceress and poet who dreams a civilization into existence from magic seeds.

Author Thomas Mallon's sweeping new historical novel captures a slice of gay life in mid-to-late 20th century America as it reimagines the life — and violent death — of B-list actor Dick Kallman.

In plunging us into the collective mind of a group of girls watching the search for a missing girl, author Dizz Tate creates an original, stylistically ambitious take on well-trodden subject matter.

Dreamed up by Geoffrey Chaucer in The Canterbury Tales more than 600 years ago, the Wife of Bath was known for her lusty appetites, gossipy asides and fondness for wine.

In the Year of the Tiger: An Activist's Life, Alice Wong shares pieces of her story and experience as a disabled Asian American through a collection of essays, interviews, photos and illustrations.