It has become harder over the last 130 years or so to see Van Gogh plain. It is practically harder in that our approach to his paintings in museums is often blocked by an urgent, excitable crescent of worldwide fans, iPhones aloft for the necessary selfie with Sunflowers. They are to be welcomed: the international reach […]
Nonfiction
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
The History of Weak American Beer
In The Atlantic, Joe Pinsker writes about the historical conditions that shaped the flavor and body of America’s popular commercial brews. Like the cultural melting pot of America itself, various factors, including market forces, thirsty laborers, WWII rationing, religious movements and the idea of temperance all thinned our big brand beers into the light, offensively […]
Posted inNonfiction, Reading List, Top 5
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Below, our favorite stories of the week. Kindle users, you can also get them as a Readlist. Sign up to receive this list free every Friday in your inbox. * * *
Posted inNonfiction, Reading List
A Moment of Zen: Seven Stories Looking Back at Jon Stewart’s Fake-News Legacy
Tonight, Jon Stewart ends his 16-year run as host of “The Daily Show.” Here are seven stories looking back at how Stewart became the most influential fake-news anchor in the history of television.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
Starring in Japanese Reality TV
Nagging questions and doubts remain. Have we somehow prostituted ourselves for the vicarious entertainment of television viewers? Has the private language, the intimate currency of our happy household, been debased by making it public? I had thought it would be ‘fun.’ I was wrong. But somehow it has felt like an education of sorts — […]
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
‘It Seemed a Sheet of Sun’: Reporting from Hiroshima, a Year After the Bomb
Seventy years ago, on August 6, 1945, the United States Air Force dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima.
Posted inFeature, Nonfiction
Fox and Friends
What’s the point of a hunt without a kill? A look inside the (nearly) bloodless world of fox hunting and a thwarted family legacy.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
Joyce Maynard on Taking James Patterson’s Online Course in Writing Bestsellers
Lately, just about every time I turn to Facebook or Twitter, I’m greeted by an ad or sponsored content about the online writing course bestselling thriller author James Patterson offers on the MasterClass site (where Dustin Hoffman, Annie Liebovitz, Usher, Serena Williams and others serve up the tricks to their trades, too). “Set out to […]
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
What is Sista Grrrl’s Riot? Punk Music, Collaboration and Revolution
Tamar-kali Brown, Maya Glick, Simi Stone, and Honeychild Coleman founded Sista Grrrl Riots, an alternative safe space for black women punks to rock out and revolutionize.
