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A new book by Scott Weems on humor and human nature raises fascinating questions about why we laugh. Commentator Alva Noë cracks up easily and asks for help collecting some more jokes.

Dinaw Mengestu is known for writing about the immigrant experience, but his latest novel takes a slightly different tack: It's about love born out of loneliness and need, and complicated by war.

Tony Dokoupil's father was once busted for distributing enough marijuana "to roll a joint for every college-age person in America." In The Last Pirate, Dokoupil reflects on his dad's time as a dealer.

Siri Hustvedt's latest uses fragmented documents to tell the story of an artist who chooses men to present her work. Reviewer Amal El-Mohtar calls the book complex, harrowing, playful and engrossing.

Fifty years ago today, President Lyndon Johnson declared an "unconditional war on poverty in America." It was something he knew well, says historian Robert Caro. As a boy, Johnson and his family often had little food and were "literally afraid every month that the bank might take away" their house.

Sue Monk Kidd, the author of the best-selling The Secret Life of Bees, takes on both slavery and feminism in her novel The Invention of Wings. It's a story told by two women: Hetty, a slave, seeks her freedom, while Sarah, her reluctant owner, rebels against her family to become an abolitionist.

Nicola Griffith's immersive tale of a seventh-century seer is a rare gift in a genre that often lacks women in leading roles. Critic Amal El-Mohtar has fallen in love with the titular character, praising Griffith's "startlingly beautiful" prose and her thoughtful, meticulously-detailed approach to the world of the Middle Ages.

The presidential panel on NSA has brought renewed attention to the practice of spying this week. Phone tapping, searching records and general intrigue — these have been popular topics in literature and film for well nigh a century. But espionage is not often a glamorous task, as author Julia Keller reminds us.

Saturday is the winter solstice — which means it will be the longest night of the year. For many artists and poets, that thought is far from depressing: instead, night's darkness is invigorating. Filmmaker Phil Cousineau has edited a new collection on the allure of the night, and Jeff Dowd — the inspiration for "The Dude" — wrote the foreword.

Made from prunes, walnuts, honey and shredded coconut, the bite-sized sweets can be served up with dark chocolate. This recipe, which belonged to a Russian Jewish family living in China, has made its way to a cooking group in Sydney, Australia.