Many of the below stories have narrated versions, if you prefer to listen to them; just click the link and scroll to the audio player below the headline.
There’s no denying that something shifted this year. It wasn’t just the implosion of Twitter or the rapid increase of celebrity-backed products that left us scratching our heads at the end of 2022, asking how, exactly, did it come to this. What really affected us was the realization that our attention spans had rapidly diminished. In our conversations with friends, we noticed that compared to the early days of lockdown, 2022 was rather difficult for many of us when it came to sitting down and fully devouring a good book, followed by another one and another one. But if you, too, have recently had a hard time getting back on track, several Cut editors are here to present the book (or two) that pulled us out of our reading slumps and got us back into the swing of things. Some were published this year and introduced us to new voices and perspective.
Your Reading List
By David Brooks
What a new life stage can teach the rest of us about how to find meaning and purpose—before it’s too late.
By Charlie Warzel
Longtime fans have turned against the product-recommendation website. An evolving internet may be to blame.
By Jennifer Senior
I thought my mother was an only child. I was wrong.
By Peter Sagal
The next generation isn’t buying it.
By Angela Chen
As brothers and sisters grow up, what they do can determine whether they stay stuck in their childhood roles—or break free of them.
By Jake Meador
The defining problem driving people out is ... just how American life works in the 21st century.
By Katherine J. Wu
Some researchers say Americans should eat double or triple the protein recommended by government guidelines.
I also asked the lead writers of this newsletter, Tom Nichols and Lora Kelley, to choose one story from recent months that has stuck with them.
Peter Wehner’s essay from May about why good people support a bad man was both uncompromising and compassionate. It made me think—and still does—about the danger of turning people with whom we disagree into caricatures.
— Tom
“Annie Lowrey’s June article “Is Crypto Dead?” examines with genuine curiosity how crypto’s promises to revolutionize money fell short. “Crypto is a casino, for the most part, and one without the free drinks,” she writes.
— Lora
You can now also save our stories on both TheAtlantic.com and our mobile app, creating a library of stories for whenever you’re ready to read.
Culture Break
?
Shane Brown / FX
Read. Check out a series of short(er) stories on the theme of desire from Kiese Laymon, Tess Gunty, Diane Williams, and others.
Or try one of these six books that will make you feel less alone.
Watch. Bottoms, in theaters, is a bawdy film that marries the boisterousness and misanthropy of its predecessors.
And on TV, the final season of FX’s Reservation Dogs is a resonant coming-of-age-story for its teenaged and adult characters alike.
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Many of the below stories have narrated versions, if you prefer to listen to them; just click the link and scroll to the audio player below the headline.
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