Can you hear the sound of millions of lawn mowers firing up in the northern hemisphere as spring gets into full swing and the grass starts to grow? We spend an inordinate amount of time tending our lawns, squandering precious water and spreading chemicals to achieve turfgrass perfection. @maggie_slepian learned that it doesn't have to be that way.
Check out this short sample of her new feature, "Failure to Lawn," and be sure to click on the link our bio to read the full piece.
"That night, with no one to talk to about the moral and environmental failings of turfgrass, I typed I hate my lawn into my phone and was funneled straight to r/NoLawns on Reddit. Turns out, a lot of people also hate their lawns.
In the cobwebs of my mind, I must have known native landscaping and regenerative yard meadows existed, but I’d been so overwhelmed by my solo landscaping failures that I didn’t consider alternatives. I scrolled photos of pebble-lined xeriscaping, natural water features, glistening berry bushes, and before-and-afters of ragged grass transformed into a riot of flowers sagging with pollen-covered bee butts. Photos were accompanied by trails of comments and replies praising the grass removal and offering advice and commentary on the range of plants and explosion of life.
Oh, I thought, gazing into the hypnotic glow of my phone. I can just kill my lawn. On purpose."
If you aren't a member of the sandwich generation—someone who cares for children in addition to aging relatives, friends, and neighbors—you likely know someone who is. In this new reading list, Courtney E. Martin brings us five stories on the overwhelming and rewarding work of caring for human beings across the age spectrum.
Be sure to click on the link in our bio, and scroll down to "Reading Lists" to read the full piece.
"Sixty-three million Americans are family caregivers, but many of us don’t identify this way. Perhaps it’s because the role creeps up on us. Perhaps it’s because we feel we’re not worthy of the label; caregivers should be saints, or at the very least, people with well-organized spreadsheets. Perhaps it’s because caring for someone, officially, requires them to acknowledge that they need care—a tricky prospect for the strongest and most stubborn among us."
Are you ready for the weekend? We've got some great reading for you.
In our Weekly Top 5:
* Happy birthday, Sir David @ringer
* The search for her son @bostonglobemag
* A keyboard fantasy @nybooks
* A membership to midlife @taste
* The kids will slay @newyorkermag
Tap "Weekly Top 5" in our bio to read our latest edition and learn why our editors recommend these stories.
The new @atavistmag story is about an undercover agent who posed as a taxidermist to bust Colorado's worst poachers.
"As the Colorado Division of Wildlife saw it, by the mid-1980s the San Luis Valley had become a lawless backcountry where hunters traded poached wildlife for goods and services, to pay off gambling debts, or to obtain cocaine and marijuana."
Tap the link in our bio and go to our Atavist Excerpts showcase to read the excerpt, "Open Season."
✍️: Nick Davidson
🎨: @jon_mccormack
"Adults, when we come into contact with something we don’t understand, tend to push it away. Difficult art can make us feel stupid. Literature can be a challenge to our dearly prized sense of mastery, the stability intrinsic to the very concept of being a grown-up. 'Grown,' past participle: We have grown up. We are finished growing. But kids are proudly unfinished."
Longreads is thrilled to publish an excerpt from "Make Believe," a new book from Mac Barnett, now available. Barnett is the US National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature and author of a bunch of beloved books, including the Shapes Trilogy, "The First Cat in Space Ate Pizza," and many more. Don't miss this one; tap the link in our bio and go to the Book Excerpts section to read "The Secret Door."
📸 : Chris Black
"Even sans Ozempic, I have never been a big block-of-meat eater. I think of Passover pot-roasts with some horror, find hot poultry uninteresting, believe that pork chops are odious, and have written off lamb legs as habitually gamey. But still, I developed the fantasy of going to Fogo de Chão myself. My desire was memetic. I had seen so many of these videos that I wanted to participate in one, wanted to see if I could experience the hypothetical pleasure of beating the buffet." Head to "New Longreads Stories" at the link in our bio to sink your teeth into @AdamDalva 's sensational essay on feeling "Ozempic full," YouTube mukbang rabbit holes, and optimizing the buffet experience, copublished with the good folks @Cake_Zine .
Welcome to the weekend! In this week's edition of our Top 5:
—Death traps | @believermag
—Derring-do detectives | @nybooks
—Drivel inspection | @thedrift_mag
—Deforestation? Not in my back yard! | @inthesetimesmag
—Dissonance appreciation | @newyorkermag
Head to link in bio and tap "Weekly Top 5" to read our latest edition and learn why our editors recommend these stories. Happy reading!
What's on Vauhini Vara's desk?
"A bowl made by my aforementioned friend Sanam—Sanam Emami—containing my and my son’s International Shotokan Karate Federation cards, the punch cards that give me a free day pass to the climbing gym for every 10 times I bike there, and the business card of a man I once met at a reading whose life story I promised myself I’d write but never did. Three half-alive succulents. A tealight candle holder in which I keep pens. Post-it notes that my son uses as scratch paper when he’s in my office using my computer for the algebra practice site he likes."
Vara's SEARCHES: SELFHOOD IN THE DIGITAL AGE is now available in paperback from @ireadvintage@penguinrandomhouse 📚. Head to the Questionnaires showcase at the link in our bio to read more from her—including her favorite guilty pleasure and the five things she'd put in a time capsule.
📸: Brigid McAuliffe
In his new @longreads story, "The Wayfinders," @jordanphickey traces the formation of the Marshall Islands’ first national soccer team in Springdale, Arkansas.
"As the players sprinted across the field, judging the physical distance between themselves and their teammates, they were reading the space, reading one another, developing their own sort of wayfinding," he writes.
This story is about sport, yes—but it's also about migration, home, belonging, and what it looks like to find home.
Visit "New Longreads Stories" at the link in our bio to read "The Wayfinders."
We asked best-selling author and antiracism scholar @ibramxk : What’s the last rabbit hole you disappeared into?
"I disappeared into a rabbit hole trying to answer: Why are more and more people around the world submitting to their own domination? When I came out of the rabbit hole years later, I had a book in my hands, my newest, CHAIN OF IDEAS."
Read more from Dr. Kendi in this week's @longreads questionnaire—visit the Questionnaires showcase at the link in our bio. (@penguinrandomhouse )
📷: Bethanie Hines
Happy weekend! In this week's #longreads Top 5:
• A father's grief | @climbingmagazine
• A commuter's concern | @macleansmag
• A decision's consequences | @guardian
• A teen's hobby | @nytimes
• A sports fan's hidden haven | @ringer
Head to link in bio and tap "Weekly Top 5" to read our latest edition and learn why our editors recommend these stories. Stay gold.
📷: Getty Images (imaginima/fergregory/FOTOKITA)
