Photo: Longreads’ Best of WordPress, Vol. 8
This edition of our favorite stories from across all of WordPress includes stories from Hannah Richell, Time Magazine, Wired, Shenandoah, and more.
We’re back with a new collection of our favorite stories from across all of WordPress.
1. Books for the Broken-Hearted
Hannah Richell
Hannah Richell’s husband Matt was killed in a surfing accident in July. In a recent post, Richell writes about finding comfort in reading words written by people who have also experienced the shock of losing a loved one — people like Joan Didion, C.S. Lewis, and Cheryl Strayed.
2. The Shame of Poor Teeth in a Rich World
Sarah Smarsh, Aeon
An essay about growing up poor in America, and the role of teeth as a class signifier.
3. Giving Up the Ghost
Lynn Cunningham, The Walrus
Lynn Cunningham smoked cigarettes for fifty years before making a decision to quit and get help by visiting the Mayo Clinic’s Nicotine Dependence Center in Minnesota.
4. The Laborers Who Keep Dick Pics and Beheadings Out of Your Facebook Feed
Adrian Chen, Wired
Adrian Chen travels to the Philippines, where he meets the employees who work for content moderation companies that scrub objectionable content from social media sites.
5. ‘Before I Write a Word, I Need to Know Clearly What I Want to Say’
Ed Odeven Reporting
An interview with Baltimore-based author and sportswriter John Eisenberg.
6. Talking Shit about Hemingway and Thoreau with ‘The Toast’ Founder and ‘Texts From Jane Eyre’ Author Mallory Ortberg
Elisabeth Donnelly, Flavorwire
The beautiful thing about Texts From Jane Eyre, based on Ortberg’s original column for The Hairpin, is that it offers exactly what it says on the cover: the Western canon is parodied and spoofed through the silly modern invention of texting. Ortberg’s comedy is shot through with love and deep literary knowledge, highlighting the silly and outrageous subtext bubbling under classics from Lord Byron to Nancy Drew. It’s hilarious, wickedly smart work that also serves as a fantastic reading list.
7. Pot Kids
Kate Pickert, Time Magazine
Inside the quasi-legal science-free world of medical marijuana for kids.
8. On Modesty
Anna Vodicka, Shenandoah
An essay about modesty that recalls the author’s girlhood in a conservative community and challenges the mixed messages of women as both “Eve” and “Jezebel.”
9. One of Us
Jennifer J. Roberts, Boston Magazine
Memories of being a Southie kid and black in a mostly white neighborhood in Boston.
10. An American Dream Deferred
Eli Saslow, Washington Post
Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Eli Saslow profiles Javier Flores, an undocumented immigrant who was hoping that an executive action by President Obama would prevent him from being deported to Mexico and forced to leave his wife and U.S.-born children behind in Ohio. Flores is now in La Mixtequita, Mexico, with few options to reunite with his family.
As always, you can find our past collections here. You can follow Longreads on WordPress.com for more daily reading recommendations, or subscribe to our free weekly email.
Publishers, writers: You can share links to your favorite essays and interviews (over 1,500 words) on Twitter (#longreads) and on WordPress.com by tagging your posts longreads.
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Some great articles. I really enjoy long reads. I particularly like the article about having poor teeth in rich world
The Science geek
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I understand completely about your grief Hannah as my husband and soul-mate of forty-two years recently passed over. He was an avid surfer both here in New Zealand, Hawaii and California.
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This is where I find some of my favorite reading.
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With all the seriousness, turmoil, and violence in the world, why can’t you put a little humor into your collections? People need to read something funny. Keep it light, people.
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