With The New Yorker recently opening their exhaustive archives for the summer, I thought it pertinent to create a list of my favourite The New Yorker pieces from The New Yorker the better to aid your enjoyment of The New Yorker.
ALL FALL DOWN by Susan Orlean
Inside the dark, drug-fuelled world of Competitive Jenga.
FROG-MATE by Malcolm Gladwell
What tadpoles can teach us about chess.
THE STRANGE UNDULATING SPECTRUM OF TREE-PATTERNS OBSERVED FROM A HIGHWAY by Haruki Murakami
A man makes a bowl of soup.
HIDDEN IN DARKNESS by David Remnick
Jerome Weldmann was a beloved middle-school teacher, father and churchgoer. He was also a murderer. Also he played bridge. And wrote some poetry. But probably focus on the murder part.
MORE FUCKING BIRDS by Jonathan Franzen
There are more than 80 species of true wrens in the world. That’s just fucking wrens. Jesus.
AS A BOARD by Lizzie Widdicombe
The dark and dangerous world of Pakistan’s cadaver-skiers.
THE TARGET by Sarah Stillman
The FBI informant who became a serial killer, only to solve his own murders.
FRAGMENT by Lena Dunham
A long summer of finding a font but losing yourself.
CHANGE-UPS by Oliver Sacks
What if you could change architecture just by using your brain? What if food was made by your memories? What if sharks had wings? Who cares any more? Can I sit down now?
YOU NEED TO KNOW THAT HUGO IS BILL’S UNCLE AND THEY’RE BOTH HITMEN by Jonathan Lethem
At first appearing like a rambling, context-free section of an upcoming book excerpted here to promote sales, it probably isn’t.
IN THE POCKET by Adobe Caslon
The anecdote-free history of cargo shorts.
MAPPING THE DARKNESS by Adam Gopnik
Fourteen Texas murders seemed unconnected until unconventional investigator Jeb Styles—and his obsession with pushpins and string—came to town.
CALGARY by Alice Munro
A woman gets onto, off, or is already on a train.
GRASS-FED by Bill Buford
How one chef is changing Detroit’s culinary landscape from the inside of a lawnmower.
I DON’T CARE WHAT YOU PUT HERE JUST BRING ME SOME TUMS by Atul Gawande
What eating a whole bunch of cheesecakes in a row can teach us about decision-making.
BEHIND THE MASK by Ryan Lizza
Christopher Hitchens: writer, polemicist, secret Juggalo.
Tags: christopher currie, humor, longreads, the new yorker, writing
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“WOOP WOOP!” – Hitchens
“Human decency is not derived from religion. It is from being down with the clown till I’m dead in the ground”.
BUT WAIT. It was revealed that ICP’s Dark Carnival is actually a giant heaven/hell allegory and that they were super Christian, despite their obsession with murder and putting their nuts in people’s soup bowls! What does it all mean.
You’re right! It must be a miracle. Fuckin’ magnets, and all.
ATHENA IN BROOKLYN by Janet Malcolm–Janet Malcolm is a scary witchgoddess who sees into people’s souls, again.
Man, I would be 100% fine with never seeing another “what x can teach us about y” article.
Then you will LOVE the Malcolm Gladwell Book Generator.
Ahahahaha “Why no one gives a shit about great mysteries”
Stretch: What George Takei, a Toaster Oven, and the Boston Celtics Have in Common
“Clarissa: How One Woman Explained it All, by the author of The Tipping Point.”
Up til ”Hidden in Darkness’ I was wondering if these were real
Fun fact: I went to a book party at David Remnick’s apartment
I’d click on every single one about serial killers.
YEP.
I skimmed before I realized the nature of the list, and thought “OOOO I’ve never heard of THAT murderer!” And then was distressingly disappointed.
God bless Oliver Sacks though, and his little excitable self. When I read books or articles by him, I hear them in his voice and it’s just darling.
DROLL by Ian Frazier/Calvin Trillin/Paul Rudnick
It says “Shouts and Murmurs” at the top but this isn’t funny at all.
No Longer The ’70’s, Yet I Still Get Paid For This Shit: the Woody Allen version of Shouts and Murmurs.
I AM A CONGRESSMAN BUT ALSO I TWERK by Andy Borowitz
Andy delightfully combines a political trope with a thing you’re sure your college-aged daughter has done, and Andy’s sure there’s a joke in here somewhere if you just stick with him and haven’t spoiled it by reading Twitter in the past week.
Oh god, thank you. I laughed all through this and got to the end and died or started crying or something to indicate I laughed EVEN HARDER.
secret. juggalo.
Oh god, thank you. I laughed all through this and got to the end and died or started crying or something to indicate I laughed EVEN HARDER.
secret. juggalo.
I read the first three and was like “blah i already read those!”
…oops.
FRAGMENT by Lena Dunham
A long summer of finding a font but losing yourself.
This is definitely my favorite. I can only hope that “losing yourself” is a reference to becoming a secret juggalo.
I read all the way to the Franzen before I realized this was satire, so that should tell you something.
I was going to say “can’t you link to them?!?!??”.
Off topic but it’s rare that the Juggalos appear in The Toast…do any of you watch Workaholics? If so, have you seen the Dark Carnival episode? A work of art, plain and simple.
Everything?
The Sacks and Munro ones are so damn good
CALGARY by Alice Munro
A woman gets onto, off, or is already on a train.
Alice Munro is one of the few fiction writers whose fiction I will read in the New Yorker, but I still sporfled at this.
I read the whole thing and moved on to the next post before I realized it was satire and came back.
A+++
Adobe Caslon is my second favorite author ever, after Bodoni (MT) Bold Italic, whose bestseller “Shade: The Illuminated History of Floorlamps” changed so many lives.
“There are more than 80 species of true wrens in the world. That’s just fucking wrens. Jesus.”
u have unmoored me
I’m so sad these aren’t real, especially the Jenga one. I’m imagining that Scrabble documentary combined with the spelling bee documentary combined with Searching for Bobby Fischer. But everybody’s an adult stoner instead of a precocious child.