Whether you’re in the mood to read outdoors or curl up on a couch this summer, The Atlantic’s writers and editors have reading recommendations to match. In today’s newsletter, you’ll find a selection of books filled with excitement, wherever you find yourself. (You can browse the Culture team’s full summer reading list here.)
Every Friday in the Books Briefing, we thread together Atlantic stories on books that share similar ideas.
Democrats’ so-called “two-track” plan on infrastructure faces a critical moment.
The greatest threat to American democracy today is not a repeat of January 6, but the possibility of a stolen presidential election. Contemporary democracies that die meet their end at the ballot box, through measures that are nominally constitutional. The looming danger is not that the mob will return; it’s that mainstream Republicans will “legally” overturn an election.
Nicole Lawson spent the beginning of the pandemic incredibly worried about her daughter, who has asthma. Five-year-old Scarlett’s asthma attacks were already landing her in the ER or urgent care every few months. Now a scary new virus was spreading. Respiratory viruses are known triggers of asthma attacks, and doctors also feared at the time that asthma itself could lead to more severe coronavirus infections.
Parenting advice on sex toys, fat shaming, and roller coasters.
Lebanon is days away from a “social explosion,” according to the country’s prime minister, amid what the World Bank has described as one of the worst economic depressions in modern history. The country’s currency has lost more than 90% of its value, unemployment has skyrocketed, and fuel prices have soared. Most homes and businesses, and even hospitals, only have power for a few hours each day, and pharmacies are running low on medicine. The U.N.
The government of the southern African nation of Eswatini, which was known as Swaziland up until 2018, is brutally cracking down on the largest anti-government protests in the country since it became independent from Britain 53 years ago. Eswatini, bordered by Mozambique and South Africa, is currently facing an economic crisis with a shortage of gas, food and other resources.
As President Joe Biden met with civil rights groups this week to discuss how to fight voter suppression efforts, Texas lawmakers followed other battleground states controlled by Republicans with a new push to overhaul the state’s election laws. New restrictions would include a ban on drive-thru voting and 24-hour or late-night voting options, and election officials could be penalized for sending out unsolicited absentee applications.
Opinion on the lab leak scenario, once seen as a fringe theory, has shifted dramatically.
Chicago, Baltimore, Los Angeles, Miami—who hasn’t been promised a tunnel?
She’s always broke a few days into the month.
Critics say the company drives out grocery stores and exacerbates the problem of food deserts.
He’s only 3 years old.
The toll is three times the number of people killed in traffic accidents around the globe every year.
After falling short of its July 4th goal, the White House is now turning to a hyper-local strategy. But progress is slow.
This isn’t what was supposed to happen.
Americans are hitting the road as strong economic growth pushes up oil prices, and Republicans are trying to pin pump prices on Biden’s energy policies.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell said the central bank still expects rising inflation to subside in the coming months but underscored that he will be watching the data to see if that’s wrong.
A continued inflation spike could make it a lot harder for the president to push through trillions of dollars in additional federal spending.
After months of controversy, acclaimed journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones has announced that she will join the faculty at Howard University, one of the country’s most prestigious historically Black universities, instead of joining the faculty at her alma mater, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she went to graduate school.
In the news Thursday: The Republican insistence on bowing to the altar of Trump may cost them any hope of retaking the Senate in 2022. The martyrdom of Ashli Babbitt has taken the right by storm. Tennessee Republicans are calling Ruby Bridges’ life critical race theory because they don’t want her story taught in schools.
Happy (slightly belated) half-New Year!
(Get it? We’re “halfway there”? [Whoa-OH, LIVIN’ ON A PRAYER])
We just crossed the halfway point of this year that at least isn’t 2020 but is still definitely bringing the strife.
James Ring, president of the Lakeland GOP, said he hadn’t taken the time to get vaccinated yet.
The private contractor managing the Fort Bliss prison camp near El Paso, Texas, is a fire and water damage repair company with absolutely zero experience in child welfare, two federal workers who volunteered there have revealed in a shocking whistleblower report. The document, released by a whistleblower advocacy organization, comes just weeks after nearly 20 children revealed disturbing conditions at the unlicensed camp.
The Secret Service paid more than $10,000 at his Bedminster resort in New Jersey for 18 days in May, reveals The Washington Post.
Earlier in the week, video appeared of Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas reportedly meeting with constituents (and Rick Santorum) to discuss how sowing the seeds of chaos and legislative obstruction is the best GOP policy going into the 2022 midterm election cycle.
First, former President Donald Trump downplayed the coronavirus pandemic while 881 active Secret Service employees were infected with the virus. Then this May, he charged the agency tasked with protecting his life rent of almost $10,200 for one month of guest rooms at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, according to records The Washington Post obtained.
“I don’t think there’s anything that can move the needle more in the U.S.,” said Eric Topol, a professor of molecular medicine at Scripps Research, about the unvaccinated who are eligible to get the shot.
I don’t know how I did this before.
Knoxville Police Officer Tanner Holt was off duty at a wedding reception when he was knocked unconscious after the alleged remarks.