Below, our favorite stories of the week. Kindle users, you can also get them as a Readlist.
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1. A Survivor’s Life

Eli Saslow | Washington Post | Dec. 5, 2015 | 23 minutes (5,980 words)

Cheyeanne Fitzgerald, 16, was the youngest person shot in a classroom at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon. Though the community is moving on, the trauma has continued to affect Cheyeanne and her family.

2. On the Battle Lost: Nobel Lecture by Svetlana Alexievich

Svetlana Alexievich | www.nobelprize.org | Dec. 11, 2015 | 21 minutes (5,309 words)

“I do not stand alone at this podium … There are voices around me, hundreds of voices.” A moving speech by Svetlana Alexievich, 2015 Nobel Prize winner for Literature.

3. The Secret History of ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude’

Paul Elie | Vanity Fair | Dec. 11, 2015 | 21 minutes (5,279 words)

“How is it that this novel could be sexy, entertaining, experimental, politically radical, and wildly popular all at once? Its success was no sure thing, and the story of how it came about is a crucial and little-known chapter in the literary history of the last half-century.” Paul Elie on the life and work of Gabriel García Márquez.

4. The Return of the Politically Engaged Rapper

Bijan Stephen | The New Republic | Dec. 3, 2015 | 10 minutes (2,713 words)

Bijan Stephen profiles Killer Mike, an outspoken Atlanta-based rapper whose activism might just herald the return of politically engaged rap.

5. Being a Girl: A Brief Personal History of Violence

Anne Thériault | The Belle Jar | Dec. 3, 2015 | 6 minutes (1,662 words)

Anne Thériault traces a lifetime of gendered violence, assault, harassment, and threats starting at age six in this brutal but important read.