An Avian Journey: Dinosaurs to Downtown
October 17, 2017
More by The Common Reader staff
TCR’s Annual “Top Fives”
With two “Notable Essays” selected for inclusion in this year’s Best American Essays anthology, plus landings in top Internet aggregators such as Longreads, 2023 was a banner year for The Common Reader. Here our staff goes one field further, naming five personal favorites published by the journal this year, along with five favorite cultural moments from the wider world of books, film, documentary works, podcasts, and food.
Ten Noteworthy Items About August
Facts, events, and otherwise little-known bits of information that garland the eighth month.
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The Dark Side of Gold
I have begun what the Swedes call death cleaning. Well in advance, one hopes. But we have a big old house chock full of stuff, and I feel the need to lighten; besides, it is fun now, and will be less so if I wait until death is closer at…
Thin-Skinned
“Ach! Don’t do that!” The dog dropped his paw, dismayed by my sharp tone. For years he has swiped my arm to get my attention, wangle a treat, stop me from overwork. Now—seemingly overnight, right after my sixty-fifth birthday—my skin has thinned to tissue paper, and his toenails cause blotches…
Remembering the Publisher of “The Riverfront Times” and “St. Louis Magazine”
Anybody who knew Ray knew that Ray liked to do most of the talking. I could never get very far into any of these stories before the conversation turned to something that Ray was more interested in than his influence on me (which, indeed, there was no reason why he should care about this stuff nearly as much as I do). Ray may not have been the best listener, but he always had a lot to say, and what he said made an enormously positive difference in St. Louis.
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The Speculative Value of a Stolen Literary Bust
By the time it was gone, the change was subtle but unmistakable: one corner left without its figure, one pedestal left bare. But to understand why that absence matters, it helps to understand who Kate Chopin was and the stories she wrote.
Recipes for Rascals
The ginger nut (and by association other cookies of its type, such as those made with black peppercorns) has an aggressive presence but offers scant sustenance. It is meant to aid digestion of other things, to have a warming effect in winter, to relieve boredom, and perhaps to remind us we are alive in the sometimes dry, husky business of life.
Standing at the Edge of Two Worlds
Having lived in the United States for a few years, I have either struggled to understand democracy in practice or struggled to keep up with it.