Edible Complex

Trying pot chocolate on the third date leads Jen Doll and a man she’s just getting to know toward an unexpected trust exercise.

Author: Jen Doll
Source: Longreads
Published: Apr 15, 2019
Length: 18 minutes (4,598 words)

Bracing for the Silence of an Empty Nest

In this personal essay, as her son finishes high school and prepares to leave for college, Michelle Cruz Gonzales looks back on his early years as a pianist, and anticipates a future without the sound of his playing.

Source: Longreads
Published: Apr 12, 2019
Length: 8 minutes (2,199 words)

At the Maacher Bazaar, Fish for Life

A personal essay in which Madhushree Ghosh continues to honor her late parents’ memory…through the simple act of making fish curry.

Source: Longreads
Published: Apr 10, 2019
Length: 18 minutes (4,605 words)

Family Animals

In an excerpt from her new memoir, The Body Papers, Grace Talusan fondly remembers the badly behaved dog that won her skeptical father’s heart.

Source: Longreads
Published: Apr 9, 2019
Length: 16 minutes (4,046 words)

The American Worth Ethic

In other countries, “having piles of money” is not the same thing as “labor,” and “being a human who deserves to have their basic needs met” isn’t synonymous with “holding a job.”

Source: Longreads
Published: Apr 9, 2019
Length: 13 minutes (3,374 words)

MACHO: On Black Holes, and the Fantasies of Men

In this personal essay, Frances Dodds recalls two men who laid bare the fragile lines between desire, pain and manipulation — and questions the framework of her own fantasies.

Source: Longreads
Published: Apr 8, 2019
Length: 22 minutes (5,636 words)

Other Rachel Lyons

Having a fairly common name gives Rachel Lyon occasional glimpses into the lives of her doppelgangers — and the roads she has not taken.

Source: Longreads
Published: Apr 5, 2019
Length: 23 minutes (5,849 words)

How Does a Person Lose Track of Their Diary?

An illustrated personal essay. Stumbling upon someone’s lost journal in a used book store leads Sophie Lucido Johnson down a path she couldn’t have expected.

Source: Longreads
Published: Apr 4, 2019
Length: 8 minutes (2,226 words)

Queens of Infamy: Josephine Bonaparte, from Malmaison to More-Than-Monarch

“When they got home, Josephine refused to move her beloved dog Fortuné off the bed to make room for Napoleon. When his mistress’ new husband tried to push him aside, the pug bit him. Sometimes dogs just know.”

Source: Longreads
Published: Apr 4, 2019
Length: 23 minutes (5,836 words)

Unleashed in Paris

As a semi-professional dog walker in Paris, expat Kate Gavino has found a comfortable way to learn French.

Source: Longreads
Published: Apr 3, 2019
Length: 6 minutes (1,663 words)