We asked a few writers and editors to choose some of their favorite stories of the year in various categories. Here, the best in investigative reporting
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The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Our favorite stories of the week featuring, The Atlantic, The New Yorker, Los Angeles Magazine, Jezebel, and The Awl.
Inside Scientology: A Reading List
Stories about Scientology from Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, Los Angeles Magazine, The Hollywood Reporter, JSTOR Daily, and The Daily Beast.
Longreads Best of 2016: Food Writing
We asked a few writers and editors to choose some of their favorite stories of the year in various categories. Here, the best in food writing.
Beyond the Simply Salacious: Five Stories on Adultery
Here are five stories born of adultery. Read about technological advancements for philanderers and their cuckolds, personal perspectives from the cheater and the cheatee, a forbidden lust-fueled crime story, and a piece on how adultery became bedfellows with American popular culture and music—back in 1909. 1. “The Cuckold” (James Harms, Guernica, February 17, 2014) “The cuckold […]
The Sense of an Endling
Scientists closely monitor the last member of a species. Is there space in a creature’s DNA to consider the prospect of no tomorrow?
Michael Joyce’s Second Act
In 1996, David Foster Wallace profiled tennis player Michael Joyce in one of the most celebrated pieces of sports writing ever published. Who has he become since?
Thank You, Jon Gnagy: An Appreciation of a Predecessor to Bob Ross
Ned Stuckey-French reflects on the host of Learn to Draw, the “middlebrow” instructional art show he loved as a kid.
Longreads Best of 2015: Here Are All of Our No. 1 Story Picks from This Year
All through December, we’ll be featuring Longreads’ Best of 2015. To get you ready, here’s a list of every story that was chosen as No. 1 in our weekly Top 5 email.
Between Mom and Stepmom
Sarah Menkedick reflects on the very different—and complementary—ways in which her mother and her stepmother have nurtured her.

