Below, our favorite stories of the week. Kindle users, you can also get them as a Readlist.


* * *

1. The Tamir Rice Story: How to Make a Police Shooting Disappear

Sean Flynn | GQ | July 14, 2016 | 30 minutes (7,483 words)

How the grand jury process, and decisions by prosecutor Timothy J. McGinty, allowed government officials to ensure there would be no indictment against police officers in the shooting death of 12-year-old Tamir Rice.

2. The Mysterious Metamorphosis of Chuck Close

Wil S. Hylton | New York Times Magazine | July 17, 2016 | 30 minutes (7,512 words)

Not just a fascinating profile of the legendary artist—undergoing major life changes at 76—but also a lovely tribute to late-stage creativity and a glimpse of how Hilton navigated what he should and shouldn’t disclose about Close’s illnesses and relationships.

3. The FBI, My Husband, and Me

Shirley Streshinsky | The American Scholar | July 2016 | 25 minutes (6,351 words)

Journalist Shirley Streshinsky recounts how J. Edgar Hoover targeted her husband, photojournalist Ted Streshinsky, in attempts to label him a Soviet spy.

4. Allergic to Life: The Arizona Residents ‘Sensitive to the Whole World’

Kathleen Hale, Mae Ryan | The Guardian | July 11, 2016 | 15 minutes (3,773 words)

High in the Arizona desert, a community of people suffering from a clinically unproven condition called “environmental illness” have gathered to seek a pure life unpolluted by modernity’s poisons, from wi-fi to plastics, car exhaust to cologne. When two journalists went to report the story, they became part of it.

5. The ISIS Correspondent

Isaac Chotiner | Slate | July 12, 2016 | 23 minutes (5,984 words)

A fascinating discussion with Rukmini Callimachi, The New York Times reporter on the al Qaeda and ISIS beat. The interview reveals the very human aspects of a reporter who is dedicated to revealing the very human aspects of terrorists.