In the Age of the Psychonauts By Longreads Feature Three psycho-spiritual “events” of the 1970s — involving Philip K. Dick, Robert Anton Wilson, and Terence and Dennis McKenna — had a strange synchronicity.
‘Nobody in This Book Is Going to Catch a Break’: Téa Obreht on “Inland” By Ryan Chapman Feature ‘The history of the West is a deeply turbulent one… that kept the living population in a constant state of unrest. I thought this constant state of unrest must be true for the dead as well.’
‘Victims Become This Object of Fascination… This Silent Symbol.’ By Jonny Auping Feature Rachel Monroe talks about the pitfalls of the true crime genre. “I had this feeling like I can see the whole thing and nobody else understands… That’s a real trap that we as reporters can fall in.”
Betting the Farm on the Drought By Longreads Feature Farmers like sixth-generation Illinois farmer Ethan Cox can’t wait for policymakers to protect them from climate change. To survive, they have to adapt their operations now, if they can.
‘The Survivor’s Edit’: Bassey Ikpi on Memory, Truth, and Living with Bipolar II By Naomi Elias Feature Bassey Ikpi discusses writing about mental illness. “I could count on the morning. It became the thing that existed without my input… without determining whether or not I was worthy of it.”
Looking for Carolina Maria de Jesus By Tari Ngangura Feature For a brief period in the 1960s, the Afro-Brazilian author of the memoir “Child of the Dark” was one of the most well-known writers in the world.
What Does It Mean To Be Moved? By Jennifer Wilson Feature We can all remember a time when the wind touched us when we needed touching, pushed us along when we were unsure.
Pages You Can Dance To: A Book List By Brittany Allen Feature Either Martin Mull or Frank Zappa or Elvis Costello once said writing about music is as pointless as dancing about architecture. Which doesn’t account for how I’ve danced to all these books.
‘Horror Is a Soothing Genre … It’s Upfront About How Scary It Is To Be a Woman.’ By Laura Barcella Feature Sady Doyle discusses the connection she draws between society’s monstrous treatment of women and woman’s archetypal monstrosity.
This Month in Books: ‘The Minor Figure Yields to the Chorus’ By Dana Snitzky Commentary I’m reading this book right now called “The Manuscript Found in Saragossa.” It’s a recursive story-within-a-story sort of thing, and it’s giving me nightmares.
Toni Morrison, 1931-2019 By Danielle Jackson Reading List An elegy and reading list for Toni Morrison, the Nobel Laureate and Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist who died Monday, August 5, 2019.
Mountains, Transcending By Ailsa Ross Feature “Ever since I was five years old,” wrote opera singer–turned–Buddhist lama Alexandra David-Néel, “I craved to go beyond the garden gate, to follow the road that passed it by, and to set out for the Unknown.”
Nashville contra Jaws, 1975 By Longreads Feature In their time, “Jaws” and “Nashville” were regarded as Watergate films, and both were in production as the Watergate disaster played its final act.
‘We Live in an Atmosphere of General Inexorability’: An Interview with Jia Tolentino By Hope Reese Feature Jia Tolentino talks about what kinds of personalities thrive online, why she is suspicious of her own self-narrative, and the pervading sense that everything’s spiraling out of control.
In the Country of Women By Susan Straight Feature Amid badass women and endless stories, a young California writer comes of age in the orange groves as the Golden State comes into its own.
Shapes of Native Nonfiction: ‘The Basket Isn’t a Metaphor, It’s an Example’ By Colin Dickey Feature The editors of “Shapes of Native Nonfiction” talk about the craft of writing, the politics of metaphor, and resisting the exploitation of trauma.
Memories Dressed Up With Wishes By Grace Linden Feature Siri Hustvedt’s “Memories of the Future” is a fitting book for the #MeToo moment, which is as much about justice and reparations as it is about understanding the logic of memory.
‘My Teachers Said We Weren’t Allowed To Use Them.’ By Tobias Carroll Feature How Cecelia Watson learned to stop worrying and love the semicolon.
The Wind Sometimes Feels in Error By Luke O'Neil Feature Each year the balloon strained and strained against its cords.
On, In, or Near the Sea: A Book List By Alison Fields Reading List Summer’s almost over. Alison Fields curated a list of beach-based books to make you feel like you’re still breathing in that sweet sea air.
‘I Surprise Myself With This Refusal To Let Go’: Kate Zambreno on the ‘Ghostly Correspondence’ By Tobias Carroll Feature “I thought for sure, I’ll never write about Rilke again. I’m done with Rilke! I’m sick of Rilke! Rilke — no more. But then the other day … I just started researching something about Rilke.”
Understanding Craig Stecyk By Joe Donnelly Feature Stecyk defined Southern California’s subversive, skateboard aesthetic and changed art and culture in the process, but that doesn’t mean he wants to talk about it.
A Minor Figure By Longreads Feature While searching for photographs that depict black young women and girls living free in the second and third generations born after slavery, Saidiya Hartman finds a disturbing image.
A Once and Future Beef By Will Meyer Feature Beef is a major culprit of the climate crisis, but if you want to consider beef’s future, then look to its past. The industry’s tactics have not changed as much as you might think.
American Green By Longreads Feature How did the plain green lawn become the central landscaping feature in America, and what is the ecological cost?
This Month In Books: ‘You Talk a Lot Don’t You?’ By Dana Snitzky Commentary This month’s books newsletter is pretty chatty for a topic that’s supposedly the pastime of introverts!
A Woman In Love Is a Woman Alone By Francesca Giacco Feature On the profound loneliness of female desire in Lisa Taddeo’s “Three Women.”
Putin’s Rasputin By Longreads Feature Journalist Amos Barshad meets with “Putin whisperer” Aleksandr Dugin to try to understand how a shadowy advisor exerts influence.
Tom Petty’s Problematic Album Southern Accents By Michael Washburn Feature In 1985, one of rock ‘n’ roll’s most beloved songwriters made a regrettable misstep with a narrow conception of Southern identity.
What Is Elizabeth Rush Reading? : Books on Antarctic Adventure, Ice, Motherhood By Dana Snitzky Commentary “I sometimes wonder if this continent of ice is begging for a different kind of story to be told about it.”
