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Readings

Excerpts from the best and most bizarre new books, testimonies, government documents, journals, news reports, speeches, and letters.

The Revolution Began

From We Crossed a Bridge and It Trembled, a collection of interviews with Syrian refugees that were conducted and edited by Wendy Pearlman between 2012 and 2016. The book was…

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Nothing Has Taken Me

By Abu al-Hasan ‘Ali bin Hisn (eleventh century). The poem was translated from the Arabic by Peter Cole and appears in Hymns & Qualms, a selection of his poems and…

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Agent Provocateur

From an FBI manual suggesting conversational techniques to recruit informants. The document was published by The Intercept in January.

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Lord of the Files

By Alexander Zinoviev, from Homo Sovieticus, a novel that was originally published in 1985 and is included in Boredom, an anthology that was published in January by M.I.T. Press and…

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Confirmation B.S.

From a quiz drafted by the police department of Long Beach, California, and used as part of a training presentation. The quiz was cited in a report by the A.C.L.U.…

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Bushwhackers

From a meeting of Irish Parliament that took place in February. Michael Healy-Rae is a representative for Kerry South. Michael Ring is the minister of state for regional economic development.

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Out With a Bang

From the website of Holy Smoke, a memorial-services company based in Alabama.

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The General

By Emma Reyes (1919?2003), a painter, from a letter written in 1969 to Germán Arciniegas, a historian and journalist. The Book of Emma Reyes, a memoir, will be published in…

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The Missing

From advertisements taken out in African-American newspapers by former slaves searching for relatives. The earliest ads appeared in 1863. Villanova University and Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, in Philadelphia,…

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My Name is Mud

From names that parents around the world have attempted to bestow on their children. They are cited in a lawsuit that was filed in a Georgia superior court in March.…

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An Encounter in the Bronx

By Fleur Jaeggy, from I Am the Brother of XX, a collection of short stories that will be published next month by New Directions. Jaeggy is the author of several…

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Amour Fou

By Hervé Guibert (1955?91), from Crazy for Vincent, which was published in April by Semiotext(e). Guibert was a photographer, filmmaker, and the author of more than twenty-five books. Translated from…

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Machine Yearning

From questions raised by Oliver Bendel, a machine ethicist, in a paper that was published this month on Springer. Bendel presented the paper last year at the Love and Sex…

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The New Climate

By Bruno Latour, from The Great Regression, a collection of essays edited by Heinrich Geiselberger that will be published next month by Polity. Latour is a philosopher and the author, most…

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¯\_(”/)_/¯

From a test given to applicants for the position of emoji translator at Today Translations, a language company based in London. The job description, which was posted in December, asks…

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Queer Theory

From a CIA memorandum entitled “Homosexual Investigations” that was written in 1980 for the purpose of investigating colleagues. The document was published in March by Muckrock.

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One Day

From a transcript of radio transmissions and cockpit conversations that took place during a drone strike in Afghanistan in 2010. The strike killed twenty-three civilians. At Nevada headquarters, Pilot is…

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Baby Boomers

From a transcript of radio transmissions and cockpit conversations that took place during a drone strike in Afghanistan in 2010. The strike killed twenty-three civilians. At Nevada headquarters, Pilot is…

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A Dream Preferred

By Anaïs Nin (1903–77), from diary entries written in March 1947 in New York City. Trapeze, an unexpurgated section of Nin’s diaries spanning from 1947 to 1955, was published this…

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It Ain’t Me, Babe

From actions committed by women that were cited as constituting “mental cruelty” against their husbands in divorce cases in India since 2014. Mental cruelty is grounds for divorce under the…

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Into the Woods

From descriptions of trees that Henry David Thoreau noted in his journals. The journal entries are included in Thoreau and the Language of Trees, by Richard Higgins, which was published…

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July 2017

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