11 of Our Best Weekend Reads
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https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/10/briefing/best-weekend-reads.html Version 0 of 1. Welcome to the weekend. Though the pandemic has put so much on hold, we can still salvage something from plans gone awry. If you were supposed to be getting down on the dance floor at a wedding this summer, why not blast these D.J.s’ classics and dance around your home instead? And as we face months without blockbuster movie releases, watch some of our critics’ favorites from summers gone by. Whatever you end up doing, make time for some amazing journalism. She grew up thinking she was American. When she realized that she wasn’t, her quest to fix the problem put her at risk of deportation. _____ Four first-generation college students in Newark, N.J., tell the story of the pandemic, their uprooted plans — and what they found out. [Also read: “What It’s Like to Enter the Work Force From Your Childhood Bedroom”] _____ The Opinion columnist Farhad Manjoo wonders: Why do American cities waste so much space on cars? _____ His vast output included atmospheric music for spaghetti westerns in his native Italy and scores for some 500 movies by a Who’s Who of directors. [Also read: “Ennio Morricone in Eight Moments” and “Ennio Morricone Was More Than Just a Great Film Composer”] _____ Inspired by “The Decameron,” a collection of stories written as the plague ravaged Florence in the 14th century, The New York Times Magazine asked 29 authors to write new short stories inspired by the Covid-19 pandemic. Contributions include fiction by Margaret Atwood, Colm Toibin, Leila Slimani, Rachel Kushner, David Mitchell and Esi Edugyan. [Also read: “An Introduction to ‘The Decameron’” and “An All-Fiction Magazine Issue, Inspired by 14th-Century Stories”] _____ Some conservationists say the recent die-off in Botswana could be natural, but others expressed more concern. _____ Italians have put up valuables as collateral for loans for centuries, through plagues and sieges. Today they do it as part of the formal banking system. And business is booming. _____ Patrick Cashin spent two decades as the official M.T.A. photographer. From the bridges to the tunnels, he showed us some of his most stunning images. _____ Kenya has halted imports of secondhand clothes to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. The move limits fashion selection, but opens doors for the country’s designers and manufacturers. Above, Catherine Muringo with some of the bales of mitumba, or secondhand clothes, that she buys and sells. _____ Chris Larsen knows that a crypto mogul spending his own money for a city’s camera surveillance system might sound creepy. He’s here to explain why it’s not. _____ The trio formerly known as the Dixie Chicks is returning with its first album in 14 years, at peace with an industry that’s never made nice. _____ For more great reads, follow me, @annaschav, on Twitter. |