Communiqué from an Exurban Satellite Clinic of a Cancer Pavilion Named after a Financier By Longreads Feature Anne Boyer encounters a familiar system — that grand and easy-to-mistake-for-everything system — at the cancer pavilion.
‘To Be Polite By Ignoring the Obvious’: Jess Row on Unpacking Whiteness in Literature By Morgan Jerkins Feature “I was looking for texts that seem to go the extra mile in hiding something — texts that almost seem to be begging to be interpreted in terms of what’s not being said.”
My Love Affair with Chairs By Longreads Feature Chairs the world over have loved me, and I love them all back.
Exilium Vita Est: The Island Home of Victor Hugo By Emma Jacobs Feature Emma Jacobs takes us on an illustrated journey of Hugo’s writing life in exile on Guernsey, where he completed Les Misérables.
The Migrant in the Mirror By Morgan Jerkins Feature In recent novels, Ocean Vuong and Nicole Dennis-Benn tell stories in which young queer characters affected by migration and displacement are worthy of seeing themselves reflected in others.
‘I’m Incredulous That People Do This Repeatedly. The Second Book Thing Is So Real.’ By Zan Romanoff Feature Mary H.K. Choi discusses her latest novel, which examines how “holograms and digital envoys” represent us online, and why it feels like her “second book signals the death of my first.”
How Google Discovered the Value of Surveillance By Longreads Feature In 2002, still reeling from the dot-com crash, Google realized they’d been harvesting a very valuable raw material — your behavior.
In the Age of the Psychonauts By Longreads Feature Three psycho-spiritual “events” of the 1970s — involving Philip K. Dick, Robert Anton Wilson, and Terence and Dennis McKenna — had a strange synchronicity.
‘Nobody in This Book Is Going to Catch a Break’: Téa Obreht on “Inland” By Ryan Chapman Feature ‘The history of the West is a deeply turbulent one… that kept the living population in a constant state of unrest. I thought this constant state of unrest must be true for the dead as well.’
‘Victims Become This Object of Fascination… This Silent Symbol.’ By Jonny Auping Feature Rachel Monroe talks about the pitfalls of the true crime genre. “I had this feeling like I can see the whole thing and nobody else understands… That’s a real trap that we as reporters can fall in.”
‘The Survivor’s Edit’: Bassey Ikpi on Memory, Truth, and Living with Bipolar II By Naomi Elias Feature Bassey Ikpi discusses writing about mental illness. “I could count on the morning. It became the thing that existed without my input… without determining whether or not I was worthy of it.”
The Little Book That Lost Its Author By Amber Caron Feature How will artificial intelligence change literature?
What Does It Mean To Be Moved? By Jennifer Wilson Feature We can all remember a time when the wind touched us when we needed touching, pushed us along when we were unsure.
Pages You Can Dance To: A Book List By Brittany Allen Feature Either Martin Mull or Frank Zappa or Elvis Costello once said writing about music is as pointless as dancing about architecture. Which doesn’t account for how I’ve danced to all these books.
‘Horror Is a Soothing Genre … It’s Upfront About How Scary It Is To Be a Woman.’ By Laura Barcella Feature Sady Doyle discusses the connection she draws between society’s monstrous treatment of women and woman’s archetypal monstrosity.
This Month in Books: ‘The Minor Figure Yields to the Chorus’ By Dana Snitzky Commentary I’m reading this book right now called “The Manuscript Found in Saragossa.” It’s a recursive story-within-a-story sort of thing, and it’s giving me nightmares.
Mountains, Transcending By Ailsa Ross Feature “Ever since I was five years old,” wrote opera singer–turned–Buddhist lama Alexandra David-Néel, “I craved to go beyond the garden gate, to follow the road that passed it by, and to set out for the Unknown.”
Nashville contra Jaws, 1975 By Longreads Feature In their time, “Jaws” and “Nashville” were regarded as Watergate films, and both were in production as the Watergate disaster played its final act.
‘We Live in an Atmosphere of General Inexorability’: An Interview with Jia Tolentino By Hope Reese Feature Jia Tolentino talks about what kinds of personalities thrive online, why she is suspicious of her own self-narrative, and the pervading sense that everything’s spiraling out of control.
Shapes of Native Nonfiction: ‘The Basket Isn’t a Metaphor, It’s an Example’ By Colin Dickey Feature The editors of “Shapes of Native Nonfiction” talk about the craft of writing, the politics of metaphor, and resisting the exploitation of trauma.
Memories Dressed Up With Wishes By Grace Linden Feature Siri Hustvedt’s “Memories of the Future” is a fitting book for the #MeToo moment, which is as much about justice and reparations as it is about understanding the logic of memory.
‘My Teachers Said We Weren’t Allowed To Use Them.’ By Tobias Carroll Feature How Cecelia Watson learned to stop worrying and love the semicolon.
The Wind Sometimes Feels in Error By Luke O'Neil Feature Each year the balloon strained and strained against its cords.
On, In, or Near the Sea: A Book List By Alison Fields Reading List Summer’s almost over. Alison Fields curated a list of beach-based books to make you feel like you’re still breathing in that sweet sea air.
‘I Surprise Myself With This Refusal To Let Go’: Kate Zambreno on the ‘Ghostly Correspondence’ By Tobias Carroll Feature “I thought for sure, I’ll never write about Rilke again. I’m done with Rilke! I’m sick of Rilke! Rilke — no more. But then the other day … I just started researching something about Rilke.”
A Minor Figure By Longreads Feature While searching for photographs that depict black young women and girls living free in the second and third generations born after slavery, Saidiya Hartman finds a disturbing image.
A Once and Future Beef By Will Meyer Feature Beef is a major culprit of the climate crisis, but if you want to consider beef’s future, then look to its past. The industry’s tactics have not changed as much as you might think.
This Month In Books: ‘You Talk a Lot Don’t You?’ By Dana Snitzky Commentary This month’s books newsletter is pretty chatty for a topic that’s supposedly the pastime of introverts!
A Woman In Love Is a Woman Alone By Francesca Giacco Feature On the profound loneliness of female desire in Lisa Taddeo’s “Three Women.”
Putin’s Rasputin By Longreads Feature Journalist Amos Barshad meets with “Putin whisperer” Aleksandr Dugin to try to understand how a shadowy advisor exerts influence.
