This week’s top 5 long reads

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A year of grief for a mother. An angry afternoon. Take a peek into the life of a celebrity ghostwriter. Witness to the emigration of the monarch. The friendship behind the arrival of sushi in the U.S. This week’s favorite read (plus a little pickled ginger after dinner). Selected from the editor’s selections.

1. Amor Eterno

Skip Hollandsworth | Texas Monthly | May 8, 2023 | 7,580 words

Years from now, when I think about this story, it will be because it’s so good. I would ask, no. feel The heartbeat of the legs. Skip Hollandsworth’s profile of Kimberly Mata-Rubio begins with the subject jogging through Uvalde, Texas, and stopping at a mural of his daughter Lexi. The scene depicts Mata-Rubio running barefoot on the asphalt through traffic, shortly after learning of the shooting at Robb Elementary School, toward the building where her daughter was a fourth-grader. It recreates the moment when he started running. We learn that Lexi is dead. “Kim felt her leg throbbing,” Hollandsworth wrote. “They were so bloody and bruised that she could barely walk.” A year after the massacre, trotting past Lexi’s mural is one of several rituals Mata-Rubio has adopted. It is one of the actions. She also visits her daughter’s grave once, sometimes twice a day, never leaves Lexi alone for more than 24 hours, and regularly visits the state Capitol to lobby for gun control. Go by car. Murals, tombs, Austin: Mata-Rubio comes and goes like the tide. So do other Uvalde parents. Their pattern, like that of many who have lost loved ones to mass shootings, is reminiscent of a Robert Frost poem. Endless repetition. ” How many more parents, children, spouses, and friends will join this army of heartbreak in a form of love that is painful beyond words? Will you be one of them? Would you like to do that? —SD

2. I’m excited, are you going to kill me?

ariel isaac | n+1 | May 9, 2023 | 3,059 words

Last week, a special kind of ugliness rose to the surface of our society when Jordan Neely was murdered on a New York City subway car. I’m not saying this after columnists and commentators used Daniel Penny’s fatal chokehold as some kind of ideological litmus test. In other words, it’s murder itself. At the time, it was difficult for me to explain what exactly that ugliness was, but Ariel Isaac clearly had no such difficulty. n+1, which documents an all-night demonstration on a subway platform, doesn’t hide her anger and hurt, which is all the better for it. Isaac succeeds in expressing her events and emotions with equal clarity, even as she pushes her sentences through the afternoon headlong into the afternoon. “A man in a faded Saints hat and glasses staring out at a huge lake of water laments the 450,000 vacant apartments in New York City! The figure arches over the commotion, and we “I landed at the center of the anger of the world,” she writes of one moment. “We heard that number many times all afternoon. It focused everything into dizzying clarity and we were both grateful and furious about it.” This is not an argument; It’s a testimony. Even if there is no salvation or justice, it is catharsis. Above all, it’s a reminder that agitation, the very thing that allegedly threatened Jordan Neely, is sometimes the only human reaction possible. —PR

3. Notes from Prince Harry’s ghostwriter

JR Mehringer | The New Yorker | May 8, 2023 | 6,850 words

In mid-January, you may have noticed the following little memoir: spare Hit the shelf. (If you were a frequent reader of Spanish bookstores, you might have noticed this earlier.) Because of the hype that accompanied it, even if you hadn’t read the book, Prince Harry and his younger brother’s quarrel This meant that there was no escaping the story. Even the frostbitten penis that escaped behind the pub. But while the story may have been his, the words were clearly collaborative. And in this fascinating essay, ghostwriter JR Mehringer reveals what it’s like to write for someone else. Yes, he talks about Harry, but he also mentions his own career as a writer and struggles with the anonymity of ghostwriting (at one point, he says to the B&B TV, “Say my name… Please say it!” he shouted. I enjoyed Mehringer’s honesty, self-awareness, and thoughtful analysis of the specific psychology required for this type of writing. I also enjoyed the bits of gossip about people that this type of writing requires. hell work together. Mehringer was blessed with Harry. They had the right chemistry and were successful. spare We brought the art of ghostwriting out of the shadows. (If you want to read Prince Harry’s blink-and-you’ll-miss-it look at Charles’s III coronation last weekend, and a fun explanation about hats, check out Helen Lewis’s wonderfully entertaining book, “King Charles’s Great Taste” I recommend “Coronation”. atlantic.) —C.W.

4. Save the Monarch Butterfly Migration

Romina Cenicio | Atmos | May 8, 2023 | 3,526 words

I once visited the butterfly garden at my local zoo. It was a magical experience to witness these colorful and delicate creatures in person. The peace and tranquility of the space was palpable and I wanted to bottle it up and release it if I wanted.Ms. Romina Cenizio atmos This article about monarch butterfly migration is a vital reminder of the unique joy that butterflies bring us, and of our role as humans in ensuring their well-being for generations to come. “As I lay on the ground with her eyes closed, a sound reminiscent of light rain enveloped me, calming me,” she wrote. “But unlike the steady drum of rain, the sounds seem to move around in unison or in a chaotic manner, from left to right and top to bottom. As the sounds approach, they sometimes become ticklish and ASMR-like. A sensation hits me, but no raindrops fall on me. When I open my eyes, I am brought out of this peaceful trance and reminded that it is not raining. Instead, there are millions of monarch butterflies overhead. It’s sparkling.” —KS

5. How two friends ignited LA’s sushi craze and changed the way America eats.

Daniel Miller | Los Angeles Times | May 3, 2023 | 3,855 words

In 1965, Noritoshi Kanai and Harry Wolfe Jr. were traveling to Japan, looking for interesting foods to import into the United States, but instead one of their dinners in Tokyo gave them another idea: sushi. Brought. Daniel Miller tells the story of how two men brought Japanese cuisine to Los Angeles at a time when the city felt ready for something new. Who was the first restaurateur or chef to add sushi to their menu? When were sushi bars and California rolls invented? With lovely illustrations by Yuko Shimizu, this is a fun piece of the region’s food history and ultimately explores whether food can truly unite different peoples and cultures. —CLR

audience award

This week is the time for the most loved articles by our readers. Oversized trophies will be presented to: