Consider this your reading list for the next few weeks.
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Madness, Melancholy, or Murder: An Ancient English Farm’s 50-Year-Old MysteryÂ
Andrew Chamings returns to his childhood farmland to investigate the mystifying deaths of the Luxton siblings. What really happened down that dark country lane?
How to Stay Out of Your Editor’s ‘Jerks’ File
Rule one of freelance writing: accept rejection with grace.
Don’t Be a Jerk to Your Online Humor Editor
McSweeny’s Internet Tendency editor Chris Monks catalogues some of the rudest responses to his rejections of humor writers’ submissions to the site.
This Week in Books: A B-Movie Storytelling Moment
Give me a Bolaño novel that starts with a guy walking into a bar, and then another guy starts telling him a story, and the rest of that novel is just the second guy telling that story.
Longreads Best of 2019: Science and Nature
We asked writers and editors to choose some of their favorite stories of the year. Here is the best in science and nature.
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
This week, we’re sharing stories from Elizabeth Weil, Leah McSweeney and Jacob Siegel, Paul Kiel and Jesse Eisinger, Sean Patrick Cooper, and Priya Krishna.
Hot for Teacher
When a student in her writing workshop submits a piece suggesting his character could ‘take’ a teacher just like her ‘atop her desk,’ Courtney Zoffness is flooded with memories of men touching her against her will.
Kissed a Girl
Vickie Vértiz maneuvers her way around teenage love, friend envy, and being outed by her Mexican mother.
The Proving Grounds: Charley Crockett and the Story of Deep Ellum
Generations of musicians got their start busking the streets of the Deep Ellum neighborhood of Dallas, Texas. After a decade of ‘hobo-ing’ around cities like New Orleans, Paris, and New York, Charley Crockett discovered it was his turn.

