Surrounded by thousands of people at the Washington Convention Center buying books from the Politics & Prose pavilion, taking pictures with Clifford, moving downstairs to sneak into a panel by Dav Pilkey or Louisa Lim or Cokie Roberts, and waiting in line to meet their literary heroes, I felt like I could levitate. I thought: These are […]
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Posted inReading List
Romance, Relationships and Religion: A Reading List
1. “Breaking Up is Hard to Do – Especially in the Orthodox World.” (Jewcy, Rachel Delia Benaim, July 2014) I recently finished reading Cut Me Loose, Leah Vincent’s memoir of her time in the ultra-Orthodox community, her subsequent shunning and eventual breakout. Benaim, the author of this piece comes from a Modern Orthodox background, but many of the […]
Posted inNonfiction, Story
Love, Identity, and Genderqueer Family Making
An excerpt from Maggie Nelson’s ‘The Argonauts’.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Without You I’m Nothing
Molotkow takes a closer look at the memoirs of rock stars’ ex-lovers—from Cynthia Lennon to Angie Bowie. “‘The truth is that if I’d known as a teenager what falling for John Lennon would lead to,’ read ‘John’’s final lines, ‘I would have turned round right then and walked away.’ Aside from the living death of […]
Posted inReading List
Romance, Relationships and Religion: A Reading List
1. “Breaking Up is Hard to Do – Especially in the Orthodox World.” (Jewcy, Rachel Delia Benaim, July 2014) I recently finished reading Cut Me Loose, Leah Vincent’s memoir of her time in the ultra-Orthodox community, her subsequent shunning and eventual breakout. Benaim, the author of this piece comes from a Modern Orthodox background, but many of the […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Magical Stranger: A Son’s Journey Into His Father’s Life
The first chapter from The Magical Stranger, Stephen Rodrick’s memoir about his father, squadron commander and Navy pilot Peter Rodrick. Our thanks to Rodrick for sharing it with the Longreads community.
Posted inNonfiction, Story
Looking for Raymond Chandler’s Los Angeles
Tracing Raymond Chandler’s early days in L.A.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
'Write What You Want — But Be Prepared for the Consequences'
I’m reasonably certain that John Ashcroft didn’t recognize himself disguised as the evil high school guidance counselor in one of my novels. But like so much else, this thorny matter requires consideration on a case-by-case basis. In Mary McCarthy’s story “The Cicerone,” Peggy Guggenheim, the important collector of modern art, appears as Polly Grabbe, an […]
Posted inBooks, First Chapters, Nonfiction, Story
Sponsored: Free Excerpt from Paul Monette's Classic, 'Becoming a Man: Half a Life Story'
Paul Monette | Open Road Media | 1992 | 4 minutes (797 words) Below is a brief excerpt from Open Road Media’s reissue of Becoming a Man: Half a Life Story, the National Book Award-winning autobiography by Paul Monette. Purchase the book here. *** Everybody else had a childhood, for one thing—where they were coaxed […]
Posted inLongreads News
The Longreads Membership Is Now Twice as Powerful
Since 2009, Longreads has thrived as a service and a community thanks to your direct financial support. Without Longreads Members’ contributions, it’s possible we would have had to shut down after just a couple years. Now, here we are in 2014, with a global community of more than half a million readers. In April, Longreads […]
