Let’s be honest: Humans never should have been allowed behind the wheel in the first place. There’s so much that can go wrong, so much room for negligence—it’s incredible to think that we managed human-controlled cars for as long as we did. Here’s a reading list covering the past, present and future of transportation.
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Posted inEditor's Pick
A Family, a Fire and the Aftermath
Grant Cunningham’s violent death ricocheted over 18 years in the final fate of his brother Blair: The air was cool and damp, the temperature hovering above zero but feeling colder, the last bite of winter pushing back against the warm spring sun. By the last Saturday in March, 2013, Blair Cunningham had moved into a […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
A Question of Mercy
In 1998 a district attorney sent a teenager to prison for murder. Years later, he’s questioning the life sentence: According to the law, Cole continued, it did not matter that Randy had not fired the gun or had not wished Heather dead. In Texas, the “law of parties” erases the distinction between killers and accomplices, […]
Posted inBooks, Nonfiction
Escape from Baghdad!: Saad Hossain’s New Satire of the Iraq War
In his debut, Saad Hossain brings a much-needed cynicism to our literature of the Iraq War. An absurdist protest novel in the vein of Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse 5 or Joseph Heller’s Catch-22, Escape from Baghdad! relentlessly focuses the reader’s attention on the folly of war.
Posted inNonfiction
A Meditation on Pain
“Once, when the pain came, I grabbed for a knife, my fist tight around it, contemplating digging out my right eye. I was twenty-one.”
Posted inNonfiction, Reading List
Examining the Religious, Economic, Architectural, and Cultural Facets of Gentrification: A Reading List
Gif via Justin Blinder’s ‘Vacated’ project. 1. “Urban Church Planting Plantations.” (Christena Cleveland, March 2014) White suburban churches invade urban spaces with no regard for the churches already in place. 2. “Gentrification Sparks Surge In Landlord Sabotage.” (Lauren Evans, Gothamist, Feb. 2014) Setting fires, locking tenants out and willfully destroying a building’s infrastructure–evil landlords will go to […]
Posted inNonfiction, Reading List
Examining the Religious, Economic, Architectural, and Cultural Facets of Gentrification: A Reading List
Gif via Justin Blinder’s ‘Vacated’ project. 1. “Urban Church Planting Plantations.” (Christena Cleveland, March 2014) White suburban churches invade urban spaces with no regard for the churches already in place. 2. “Gentrification Sparks Surge In Landlord Sabotage.” (Lauren Evans, Gothamist, Feb. 2014) Setting fires, locking tenants out and willfully destroying a building’s infrastructure–evil landlords will go to […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
Gold in the Mud
The Twisted Saga of Jailhouse Boxer James Scott’s Battle for Redemption: Prison inmate No. 57735, accused of murder and serving a 30-40 year stretch inside Rahway State Prison for armed robbery, introduced himself in a letter to reporter Beth Schenerman at The New York Times on Dec. 17, 1978, writing, in a rare moment of […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
Murder by Craigslist
A killer enlists the help of a high school student to target unemployed, middle-aged men by luring them with a job listing on Craigslist: “Jeff Schockling was sitting in his mother’s living room, watching Jeopardy, when he heard the doorbell. That alone was strange, as he’d later explain on the witness stand, because out there […]
Posted inBooks, Nonfiction, Story
Vagabonds, Crafty Bauds, and the Loyal Huzza: A History of London at Night
In the 16th & 17th centuries, “nightwalking” was a transgressive act in a city still on the brink of total nighttime illumination, but with complex implications depending on your social status.
