Beauty criticism analyzes the ways we can subvert a society that would have us subsumed by self-loathing. We use the tools we’ve been given. Makeup, then, can be a weapon. And it can be damn fun.

Our top stories of the week, as chosen by the editors at Longreads.

When minimalism goes down-market, where do the tchotchkes go?

Below is a guest reading list from Daniel A. Gross, a journalist and public radio producer who lives in Boston. * * * As a teenager growing up in Southern California, I remember looking up one day and seeing a fine white powder falling from the sky. It was the middle of summer, and for […]

After the binge-watching comes the binge-reading.

The reversible destiny of Madeline Gins.