The Thread's Must-Read
"Beyond the High Blue Air"by Lu Spinney
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Many families that face a life-altering tragedy talk about the "before" and "after" of it. But rarely is there such poignant photographic evidence of that split second transformation.
In the moments before Lu Spinney’s son Miles stepped onto his snowboard and hurtled down a mountain ski jump, a friend snapped a picture. “...He doesn’t know it,” she writes, “but he is as handsome as he might ever wish to be...”
We know without being told that Lu has retrieved this photograph many times and studied it closely, celebrating and mourning, in equal parts, her son’s youth and beauty and recklessness. (She worried every time he went to the mountains for a snowboarding weekend.)
The next time she saw Miles, he was breathing through a ventilator, his face swollen and bruised, a part of his skull removed to allow his brain to swell. The ICU nurses nicknamed him “The Athlete,” but that refers to the "before." The "after" is coma, brain damage, constant battles against infections.
I don’t think Spinney ever intended to write a book, which makes this memoir — among the thousands that are published each year — all the more surprising. The language is restrained yet expressive as she brings us inside her family’s harrowing cycle of despair and hope, fury and acceptance.
“How can Miles bear this,” she asks herself. “There is no protective lens for him. He is living it from the inside every moment.”
-Kerri Miller
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George Saunders wins the Man Booker prize “Lincoln in the Bardo" by George Saunders
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It's the second year in a row that an American writer has taken home the prestigious literary award.
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Amnesty for little book lovers: New York City libraries erase kids' late fees The city's public library systems are forgiving fines on overdue materials checked out by readers age 17 and under, reopening library doors to young readers once blocked by unpaid fees.
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A mortician travels the world to "find the good death" “From Here to Eternity" by Caitlin Doughty
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Caitlin Doughty, whose Los Angeles funeral home specializes in alternative ceremonies, traveled the world to collect stories about how different peoples send loved ones off to the great beyond.
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Sleep scientist warns against walking through "in an underslept state" “Why We Sleep" by Matthew Walker
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"Human beings are the only species that deliberately deprive themselves of sleep for no apparent gain," says sleep scientist Matthew Walker.
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What does it mean to live a good life, the Ojibwe way? "Onigamiising" by Linda LeGarde Grover
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The spur for Linda LeGarde Grover's new essay collection was the birth of her seventh grandchild. She wanted to write about the important Ojibwe connection between the generations, and with the land.
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Cherchez la femme fatale "Lady Killers" by Tori Telfer
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An FBI investigator once famously said, "There are no female serial killers," but Tori Telfer sets out to prove him wrong with this gruesome new account of multiply-murderous women throughout history.
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"To Kill a Mockingbird" taken off Mississippi school's reading list School board vice president Kenny Holloway says the district received complaints that some of the book's language "makes people uncomfortable."
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Strange occurrences in a rainy Irish valley are just the beginning “The Good People" by Hannah Kent
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"The Good People" jumps off from an old account of strange happenings in "this peculiar valley, a very claustrophobic place."
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Minnesota's Gretchen Carlson on how to confront, report and end sexual harassment “Be Fierce" by Gretchen Carlson
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Anoka native Gretchen Carlson found fame as Miss America 1989. Her name filled headlines again last summer when she sued Fox for sexual harassment. Her new book, offers practical advice for women dealing with workplace harassment.
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Custom-printed cocktails on the moon? "Soonish" shows us how “Soonish" by Kelly and Zach Weinersmith
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Zach and Kelly Weinersmith's accessible, occasionally goofy new book lays out futuristic fantasies (like matter-printed cocktails) and connects them to projects scientists are working on right now.
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John Green, the king of YA lit, opens up about living with OCD “Turtles All the Way Down" by John Green
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"It starts out with one little thought, and then slowly that becomes the only thought that you're able to have," Green says. His new novel is about a teenage girl with OCD.
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Revisiting 5 days when London was choked by poisonous smog "Death in the Air" by Kate Winkler Dawson
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Kate Winkler Dawson's new book chronicles The Great Smog of 1952, when moist air from the Gulf Stream stalled for days over London, mixing with poisonous gases and causing more than 12,000 deaths.
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"Quackery" chronicles our love of miracle cures — and how it leads us astray “Quackery: A Brief History Of The Worst Ways To Cure Everything" by Lydia Kang
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Tobacco enemas? Mercury pills? Ice pick lobotomies? A new book explains how throughout history, miracle "cures" often didn't just fail to improve people's health, they maimed and killed.
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Where are the happiest places in the world? “The Blue Zones of Happiness" by Dan Buettner
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Pleasure, purpose and pride: Those are three paths to a happy life, according to Dan Buettner. In his latest book, he examines the places where people live the happiest lives — Denmark, Singapore and Costa Rica — and what sets them apart.
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