This week, we’re sharing stories from Lauren Markham, Ariel Levy, Brooke Jarvis, Audrey Gray, and Chris Dennis.
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Happy Birthday Tom: A Tom Cruise Reading List
Tom Cruise is about to turn 60 — time for a look back at the life of a master maverick.
Curator Spotlight: Vesna Jaksic Lowe on What It Means To Straddle Multiple Cultures
The writer of the Immigrant Strong newsletter wants to diversify your bookshelf.Â
What We Save, What We Destroy: A Reading List on Difficult Heritage
The present we inhabit is shaped by the mixed legacies of the past.
Since I Became Symptomatic
A month after filing for divorce, single mom Leslie Jamison contracted COVID-19. She wrote this meditation on single parenthood, loneliness, longing, and frustration while sheltering in place — and sweating out the virus — with her 2-year-old daughter.
I Had a Friend. He Dreamed of Israel.
After 35 years, a visit to a grave, and to a different country.
Longreads Best of 2021: All of Our No. 1 Story Picks
Here’s every story that was chosen as No. 1 in our weekly Top 5 email.
Hearing Voices
Editor’s note: the essay originally referenced in this post at Threepenny Review was taken down.
What We Remember: A Reading List on Archives
Why do we keep what we keep — and who decides? An archivist digs and collects longreads on how objects and materials shape public memory.

