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Our Picks

What We Eat When We’re Eating at Christmastime: A Reading List
For many of us who celebrate Christmas, foods are as closely bound to the experience as gift-giving. And making fun of fruitcake has become a time-honored tradition — though thanks to the success of this dedicated fruitcake besmirchment campaign, I suspect many of us have never actually tasted, let alone received or re-gifted, a traditional fruitcake. This reading list celebrates oft-maligned holiday foods like fruitcake and mincemeat pie, along with unlikely new candidates like White Castle and KFC.
Source: Longreads
Published: Dec. 21, 2016
Longreads Best of 2016: Under-Recognized Stories
We asked a few writers and editors to choose some of their favorite stories of the year in various categories. Here, the best in under-recognized stories.
Author: Editors
Source: Longreads
Published: Dec. 21, 2016
Longreads Best of 2016: Business & Tech Reporting
We asked a few writers and editors to choose some of their favorite stories of the year in various categories. Here, the best in business and tech reporting.
Author: Editors
Source: Longreads
Published: Dec. 21, 2016
The Man Who Cleans Up After Plane Crashes
A look at the work of Robert Jensen, who has built an unusual (and successful) career cleaning up after mass fatalities, from identifying bodies to returning personal belongings to families of the dead.
Source: GQ
Published: Dec. 20, 2016
Length: 18 minutes (4683 words)
My Favorite Animal Longreads of 2016
"Not all my favorite animal reads this year are about dogs, or even directly about animals, they’re more about the complex ways humans interact with and react to animals. Some of these are a reach, but they’re all excellent reads with animals (in one case, a Triassic period aquatic crustacean, no really) as the instigator."
Author: Pam Mandel
Source: Longreads
Published: Dec. 20, 2016
Length: 4 minutes (1138 words)
How Sarma Melngailis, Queen of Vegan Cuisine, Became a Runaway Fugitive

Did coercive control at the hands of a husband with a con-artist history lead to the downfall of Pure Food & Wine owner and vegan relative celebrity Sarma Melngailis? Allen Salkin investigates.

Author: Allen Salkin
Source: Vanity Fair
Published: Dec. 20, 2016
Length: 16 minutes (4239 words)
Longreads Best of 2016: Investigative Reporting
We asked a few writers and editors to choose some of their favorite stories of the year in various categories. Here, the best in investigative reporting.
Author: Editors
Source: Longreads
Published: Dec. 20, 2016
Off-Time: Becoming a Widow at Age 36.
Christina Frangou writes on becoming a widow at age 36, after her husband Spencer died of kidney cancer, 42 days after diagnosis.
Published: Dec. 20, 2016
Length: 32 minutes (8122 words)
Doing Her Quiet Thing
Concerned that she’s a “bad victim,” a writer is silent about being raped—until she isn’t.
Source: Longreads
Published: Dec. 20, 2016
Length: 13 minutes (3257 words)
Longreads Best of 2016: Science Writing
We asked a few writers and editors to choose some of their favorite stories of the year in various categories. Here, the best in science writing.
Author: Editors
Source: Longreads
Published: Dec. 20, 2016
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