Ghost Writer: The Story of Patience Worth, the Posthumous Author By Joy Lanzendorfer Feature The most remarkable thing about Patience Worth wasn’t that she was dead. It was that all she wanted to do was write books.
This Month in Books: ‘We Have Nothing to Weigh Our Hearts Against’ By Dana Snitzky Commentary When I look at this month’s Books Newsletter, all I can think about are borders, crossings, the terrible distances between people who have been separated.
Fairy Scapegoats: A History of the Persecution of Changeling Children By Longreads Feature Distraught over a sick or disabled child, parents would torture — sometimes even kill — what they believed to be a malevolent stand-in for a stolen baby.
A Crocodile In Paris: The Queer Classics of Qiu Miaojin By Ankita Chakraborty Feature As the first woman in Chinese literature to come out as openly gay, Qiu Miaojin adopted and humanized the bestial expectations of a cruel public.
A New Yorker, and a Sick Person By Longreads Feature In an excerpt from her memoir, Porochista Khakpour recalls fashioning herself after her artist aunt’s example.
Storytelling the Flood: Elizabeth Rush on Empathy and Climate Change By Bradley Babendir Feature In her new book, Elizabeth Rush gives voice to poor communities and communities of color who are the first victims of the rising sea.
Somewhere Under My Left Ribs: A Nurse’s Story By Longreads Feature The landscape of operating theaters must be terrifying for patients, but it’s becoming normal for me. It’s amazing what you can get used to.
‘I Was a Storm of Confetti’: Michael Pollan On Why It’s a Good Idea To Lose Your Self By Hope Reese Feature Michael Pollan talks about using psychedelic drugs, escaping his own ego, and the therapeutic potential of seeing yourself spread out over the landscape like a coat of paint.
Nell Battle Lewis, Storyteller for Jim Crow By Longreads Feature How an otherwise high-minded social reformer preserved and perpetuated her white supremacist worldview.
Masters of Contradiction By Brittany Allen Feature Two new books offer fresh perspective on “Otherhood,” that condition in which characters do constant, exhausting battle — for the most part — inside their own heads.
The Whole World is Naples Now By Michelle Weber Highlight Sprawling, crumbling, beautiful, rough — Elena Ferrante’s Naples shows us the world’s violent underbelly, with no pretense.
Who Sank El Faro? An Interview With Rachel Slade By Joshunda Sanders Feature Having solved the mystery of the largest maritime disaster in a generation, Rachel Slade can see how what happened on the ocean is an allegory for what’s happening on dry land.
‘Open Casket’ and the Question of Empathy By Longreads Feature Did Dana Schutz’s painting engage with her subject, Emmett Till, ethically and responsibly?
The Tether Between Two Worlds: An Interview with Sergio De La Pava By Tobias Carroll Feature His new novel is about mass incarceration, indoor football, and parallel universes. De La Pava says that when “you dig deep, you start seeing the way everything is connected.”
When the Movies Went West By Longreads Feature Scorned by stage actors and mocked by the theater-going upper classes, filmmakers nevertheless developed a bold new art form — but they needed better weather.
Why Psilocybin and LSD Don’t Deserve Their Bad Rap By Krista Stevens Highlight A survey of recent reads says that psychedelic drugs like psilocybin and LSD are not only enjoying a renaissance — they might actually be helpful to humans.
This Month in Books: ‘How Do We Stay the Right Distance Apart?’ By Dana Snitzky Commentary At first glance, there’s a pretty stark divide in this month’s books newsletter.
The Dying Days of the New West By Tori Telfer Feature Recent books about the American West turn the old frontier myth into a mirage.
The Roaring Girls of Queer London By Longreads Feature Flashy hooligans like Moll Cutpurse and Long Meg sported broad-brimmed hats, wore “ruffianly short locks,” and carried swords. Other women lived quietly in secret same-sex marriages.
Five Early Lessons in Parenting By Aaron Gilbreath Feature Steven Church discovers his own fragility and limitations in these five discussions with his son.
Captive Audience By Longreads Feature When you live alongside anything for a long time — any person, any character, any narrative structure, any screen flicker — you become a part of it and it becomes a part of you.
Walking Through the Past Into New Motherhood By Aaron Gilbreath Feature A new mother struggles to make sense of intergenerational trauma, biological memory and the guilty privilege of passing as white even though she is Jewish.
Is Your Job Lynchian, or Is It More Kafkaesque? By Rachel Paige King Feature David Graeber’s “Bullshit Jobs” and Alison Green’s “Ask a Manager” offer differing views — and some good advice.
The Red Caddy By Aaron Gilbreath Feature The first biography of Edward Abbey in a generation is closer to a memoir about friendship between two crusty desert rats.
Earning Our Place on the Planet: An Interview with adrienne maree brown By Justin Scott Campbell Feature Her planet/self-help guide for activists, “Emergent Strategy,” is going mainstream — maybe even in time to save the world.
Life on the Oil Frontier By Longreads Feature What it was like living in one of America’s most patriarchal societies.
Here is My Heart By Megan Stielstra Feature Long after the shooting at her old high school, Megan Stielstra worries about her father’s heart. Part one of a three-part series on gun violence.
The Ladies Who Were Famous for Wanting to Be Left Alone By Longreads Feature The Ladies of Llangollen fell in love, ran away together, and lived a scholarly life of “delicious seclusion” — secluded, that is, except for all the visitors.
Chasing the Man Who Caught the Storm: An Interview With Brantley Hargrove By Jonny Auping Feature “If you’ve had the luck of actually seeing a tornado, man, that’s like nicotine. It gets under your skin.”
Get With the Modern Age, Sign Up for the Longreads Books Newsletter By Dana Snitzky Commentary Sign up for the Longreads Books Newsletter, and you too could be never not reading a book.
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