Here’s every story that was chosen as No. 1 in our weekly Top 5 email.
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Stalin’s Scheherazade
An opportunistic literary caper became a lifelong con — with no possibility of escape.
This Month In Books: ‘How Thick Was the Cane?’ and Other Questions About Things
This month’s books newsletter is all about things. As in stuff, objects. Because, as Heike Geissler says, “It’s because of all the things that are here… that you’re here in the first place.”
Leadership Academy
Victor Yang considers how his time as an immigrant rights organizer helped him understand his mother, and the guilt and obligation he carries from their relationship.
On, In, or Near the Sea: A Book 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.
Tom Petty’s Problematic Album Southern Accents
In 1985, one of rock ‘n’ roll’s most beloved songwriters made a regrettable misstep with a narrow conception of Southern identity.
Best of 2022: All of our No. 5 Story Picks
All the stories we’ve selected as number five in our weekly Top 5 newsletter.
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
This week, we’re sharing stories from Peter DeMarco, Tiffany Kary and Christopher Cannon, Rebecca Solnit, Will Bostwick, and Rosecrans Baldwin.
Dispatch from Puerto Nowhere
Robert Lopez examines what it means to be an assimilated American from Puerto Rico, and what was gained and lost in the process.
The Ancient Waterways of Phoenix, Arizona
To understand this sprawling desert city, you have to understand its canals, whose routes Indigenous people dug as far back as A.D. 200.

