‘I’ve Always Been Either Praised or Accused of Ambition’: An Interview with Barbara Kingsolver By Sarah Boon Feature Barbara Kingsolver takes a rigorous, scientific approach to her novels’ subjects — but, as a woman writer, her authority is often challenged.
Sarah Perry on ‘Melmoth,’ Monsters, and Making Her Readers Feel Responsible for Mass Atrocity By Bridey Heing Feature “It was important to me that the ‘villains’ in the book were ordinary people, because readers are ordinary people, and people who do terrible things are often ordinary people.”
This Month In Books: “Once You Can See the Pattern” By Dana Snitzky Commentary A lot of what you’ll read in this month’s books newsletter is about things not seeming to be what they really are.
Living with Dolly Parton By Jessica Wilkerson Feature Asking difficult questions often comes at a cost.
Querida Angelita By Longreads Feature The Mexican teenager who became one Mexican-American family’s maid taught a young woman that el oltro lado, the other side, is as much about class and good fortune as it is an international border.
A Place to Stay, Untouched by Death By Jane Ratcliffe Feature After her mother’s passing, Jane Ratcliffe considers the role everyday objects play in a good death.
The Power of Shutting Up and Sitting in Silence By Kathryn Smith Feature Kathryn Smith went to an Ashram, and it made her feel better about everything.
Greens By Longreads Feature “’I’m good,’ I told him. I didn’t tell him I was running eleven miles, playing two hours of ball, and eating eight hundred calories a day.”
Why Are We Still Ignoring Lee Krasner? By Matt Giles Commentary Lee Krasner wasn’t just instrumental to the evolution of Jackson Pollock as an artist. Her influence extended across the Abstract-Expressionist movement.
Lady Gaga, Celeb Profiles, and the Third Remake of “A Star is Born” By Danielle Jackson Commentary Rachel Syme profiles Lady Gaga and dives deep into the mystique and mythology of “A Star is Born.”
Remembering G. Dep, the Rapper Who Confessed to a 17-Year Old Cold Case By Matt Giles Commentary Lil Wayne’s reimagining of G. Dep’s “Special Delivery” has thrust the ex-Bad Boy rapper back into the pop culture spotlight.
Did We Learn Nothing From the 2008 Crisis? By Matt Giles Commentary The continuation of the false narrative of what caused the 2008 financial collapse is alarming.
How I Fell In Love With Ranch Dressing By Matt Giles Commentary The complexities of the “American dressing” are subtle.
Eight Days in September, A Decade Later By Matt Giles Commentary Looking back at the weekend that nearly destroyed America’s economy.
Did We Learn From Anita Hill? By Danielle Tcholakian Commentary Or will Democrats sell out Brett Kavanaugh’s accuser, too?
This Month in Books: ‘Everything That We Are and Ever Have Been’ By Dana Snitzky Commentary This month’s books newsletter has a lot to say about identities — mistaken, misunderstood, transformed, false, false, fictional, or as anonymous as the op-ed.
‘As a Grown Woman, I Still Have To Continuously Learn To Say No’ By Wei Tchou Feature Memoirist Tanya Marquardt talks about consent, trauma, and investigating our memories in the age of #MeToo.
Queens of Infamy: The Reign of Catherine de’ Medici By Anne Thériault Feature When your husband and male heirs are too useless or too dead to rule, you have to take matters into your own poison-gloved hands.
Fat Girl Cries Herself to Sleep At Night: An Illustrated Essay By Natalie Lima Feature Living in a body can be hysterically complicated.
A Woman, Tree or Not By Terese Marie Mailhot Feature Terese Marie Mailhot questions the value of Native coming of age ceremonies she missed out on.
A New View of Crime in America By Longreads Feature What does incarceration do for the member of a family that views prison as a rite of passage? A New York Times reporter takes a close look at intergenerational criminality.
To Heil, or Not To Heil, When Traveling in the Third Reich By Longreads Feature One of the first decisions any tourist had to make when crossing the German border in the mid-1930s was whether or not to “Heil Hitler.”
To Tell the Story, These Journalists Became Part of the Story By Martha Pskowski Feature In two recent books about immigrant families seeking asylum in the U.S., the authors’ attempts to help become part of their subjects’ stories.
Charting the Love — and Betrayal — in Our Stars By Cherise Morris Feature Cherise Morris turns to astrology and Beyoncé lyrics to move through a difficult moment in her relationship.
Shelved: Bill Evans’ Loose Blues By Tom Maxwell Feature An album that took five months to record sat in the vault for 20 years before finally getting pressed to vinyl.
The New Feeling By Anna Moschovakis Feature When Eleanor takes a break from reading the news, her laptop goes missing. Full of self-abnegation, she asks Wallace Shawn for advice.
An Inclusive Guide to Lingerie and a New Take on Self-Care By Danielle Jackson Feature Cora Harrington’s first book, In Intimate Detail, is an accessible, inclusive guide to undergarments.
When It’s Time to Say Goodbye to the Old House By Siddhartha Mahanta Feature Siddhartha Mahanta looks back at the small suburban starter house in Texas that helped his immigrant father redefine “home.”
Vladimir Nabokov’s Other Favorite Crime By Sarah Weinman Feature While the Sally Horner case gave ‘Lolita’ its main character, the Edward Grammer case gave the book an almost perfect murder.
Women Are Really, Really Mad Right Now By Hope Reese Feature Rebecca Traister talks about the revolutionary power of women’s anger.
Remembering Pioneering Studio Engineer Geoff Emerick By Tom Maxwell Feature Emerick engineered more than The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. He helped re-engineer the way music got made.
The Return of the Face By Adrian Daub Feature Physiognomy is a discarded 19th-century pseudoscience. Why can’t we stop practicing it?
Banished By Beth Schwartzapfel and Emily Kassie Feature After passing a series of restrictive housing laws, Miami-Dade County faces an odd predicament: bands of nomadic sex offenders and a cat-and-mouse game to move them.
Character Work By Alison Fields Feature Alison Fields remembers the perils of junior high: fitting in, standing out, and trying out.
The Gilded Age of (Unpaid) Internet Writing By Rebecca Schuman Feature How ’90s webzines heralded the best — and worst — of today’s online media landscape.
‘I Didn’t Have the Language to Call It Racism’: An Interview with Nicole Chung By Victoria Namkung Feature Nicole Chung wants white parents of transracial adoptees to grapple more candidly with the reality of racism in America.
‘Just Assimilate Her Into Your Family and Everything Will Be Fine…’ By Nicole Chung Feature In an excerpt from her new memoir, ‘All You Can Ever Know,’ transracial adoptee Nicole Chung recounts how her parents came to adopt her.
A lot of what you’ll read in this month’s books newsletter is about things not seeming to be what they really are.