Below, our favorite stories of the week. Kindle users, you can also get them as a Readlist.
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1. Unfollow

Adrian Chen | The New Yorker | Nov. 16, 2015 | 42 minutes (10,643 words)

How social media changed the beliefs of a devout member of the Westboro Baptist Church, which pickets the funerals of gay men and of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

2. Hidden in a Suitcase

Michele Leavitt | Guernica Magazine | Nov. 16, 2015 | 20 minutes (5,214 words)

In search of the mother who gave her up for adoption, the author instead finds six siblings—and a family ravaged by addiction.

3. “Why Him, Why Me?”

Eli Saslow | ESPN | Nov. 17, 2015 | 20 minutes (5,082 words)

A tragic collision on a football field connects a high school linebacker with a former college running back, who experienced a similar tragedy 26 years prior.

4. Biography of a Face

Steve Fishman | New York Magazine | Nov. 15, 2015 | 20 minutes (5,186 words)

Three months ago, Patrick Hardison’s face belonged to a young Brooklyn bike mechanic. Fishman tells the story of both men, and the most extensive face transplant yet performed.

5. Good-bye Uterus, Good Riddance

A. N. Devers | Lenny | Nov. 19, 2015 | 8 minutes (2,085 words)

“​A couple of weeks ago, I decided to invite a few friends out for cocktails to toast to my last period.” Longreads contributor A.N. Devers on preparing for a hysterectomy after being diagnosed with endometriosis and adenomyosis.