Grace Buono

This is an edition of The Wonder Reader, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a set of stories to spark your curiosity and fill you with delight. Sign up here to get it every Saturday morning.
How do you measure a year? In cups of coffee, yes, but also in the rushed early-morning breakfasts, the many trips to the grocery store, the slow dinners spent with friends. Each tells a story of how we filled our days.
Some of this year’s food preferences reflect how Americans’ lives have changed.

The approach of a new year is an opportunity to reflect on time spent with friends, family, and partners who have played a role in your life—and how you can improve these relationships.
For parents, 2025 might have been a year that felt fraught with questions about what it means to raise a child today.

In a year that brought both deeply polarizing moments and events of global camaraderie, these Atlantic writers, contributors, and experts tackled the quandaries and questions we encounter in our everyday lives.
Their advice, grounded in experience and expertise, offers new ways to think about topics such as parenting, cooking, and building relationships. Their words of wisdom provide guidance on when to give children a phone, why we should reconsider plus-ones at weddings, and more.