If you become a success, happiness will follow. Right? No, you've got it exactly backward, says Ted Leonsis, the owner of one of the NHL's most successful franchises, the Washington Capitals. Some years back, he was hugely successful as a self-made multi-millionaire. But when he came through a brush with death and realized he was profoundly unhappy despite his success, he realized big changes were necessary. Now in his book "The Business of Happiness" Leonsis shows us what he did, and how we can do it.

You need water, you go to the tap, turn it on, and there's all the water you need. That's about as much thought as most Americans, most westerners, put into water and its availability. But elsewhere around the world clean, accessible water is more valuable than oil. Journalist Steven Solomon traces the history of water -- which is, indeed, the history of civilization -- and also presents some cautionary advice to take-it-for-granted westerners, in his book, "Water."

Like culture and leisure? We have theater tickets, concert tickets, and tickets to the entire NFL schedule, including Superbowl Champs Indianapolis Colts, and the Chicago Bears

Two women and their unlikely 19th century friendship are "Remarkable Creatures," as Tracy Chevalier's new novel tells it. But the title also references the prehistoric beings, whose fossilized remains Elizabeth Philpott and Mary Anning find in their walks on the beach. Based on the lives of two actual women, Chevalier's book is also a snapshot of Victorian attitudes on gender, class, and religious values.

An apparently deranged man tries to deface a painting in a Washington, D.C. museum, in Elizabeth Kostova's new novel "The Swan Thieves." The attacker, it turns out, is himself a painter, a renowned artist, in fact. Getting to the root of Robert Oliver's mysterious attack falls to psychiatrist Andrew Marlow, who at first can't even get Oliver to talk to him. But when Oliver shows Marlow a stack of old letters, an obsession takes root.

Coming soon - new interviews with:

Mika Brzezinski  •  Jasper Fforde  •  Josh Sundquist  •  Curtis Roosevelt  •  Stacy Parker Aab  •  Chris Bohjalian  •  Chitra Divakaruni  •  Ellen Fitzpatrick

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