Shan Wang

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.
Consider the egg. What does it look like? What does it taste like? Where does it come from? Maybe you’re thinking tautologically: An egg is egg-shaped, tastes eggy, and comes from egg-laying hens. They make for great breakfasts and cost more than they used to at the grocery store.

This is an edition of Time-Travel Thursdays, a journey through The Atlantic’s archives to contextualize the present, surface delightful treasures, and examine the American idea.
Trolls are not just pranksters on the margins. They are in replies, DMs, comments, and email inboxes, sharpening their knives for humiliation, baiting those with whom they disagree, and blurring the line between a joke and a threat.
The Atlantic has examined trolling as an internet behavior for decades.

This is an edition of Time-Travel Thursdays, a journey through The Atlantic’s archives to contextualize the present, surface delightful treasures, and examine the American idea.
This year’s presidential election is the 60th in the history of the United States. The Atlantic has for 42 of those election cycles published stories examining the fitness of candidates to serve, the inclinations of the voting public to vote, and the sturdiness of our democratic institutions to carry on.

This is an edition of Time-Travel Thursdays, a journey through The Atlantic’s archives to contextualize the present and surface delightful treasures. Sign up here.
“Do you like to know whom a book’s by?” E. M. Forster asks in a 1925 essay on the question of anonymity in literature and journalism. The practice is fine in fiction, he argues, but not in news writing.

Below is a list of ideas, arguments, and practical tips from Atlantic stories to help you navigate this heat.
What if we called it heat season, not just summer?
There’s no single too-hot-to-be-outside temperature. Trying to set one might mislead more than it would help.
Heat is becoming the 21st century’s defining human-rights issue.
The denser the city, the less greenery? Not necessarily.
Beware the “wet bulb” temperature.
Consider a white roof.

Today we’re offering a brief history lesson (and a brief themed diversion). But first, here are three new stories from The Atlantic:
Tom Nichols: Reclaiming real American patriotism
The indispensable bureaucrat looking out for Ukraine
The hypocrisy of mandatory diversity statements
What Should the Fourth of July Be?With the Fourth of July comes all the complexities of collective observance—patriotism, fireworks, picnics, apathy, resistance.

Don’t write off popular Korean-language TV series as sappy melodrama. These shows will expand your conception of what storytelling can be. Read on for recommendations for your weekend.But first, here are three new stories from The Atlantic:
Trump gets a taste of his own medicine.
The Oscars’ incredible knack for being wrong
Live closer to your friends.
To describe the plot of Crash Landing on You to the uninitiated is to invite mockery.

Editor’s note: This week’s newsletter spotlights some of our favorite Books Briefing reading lists from the past few months. We’ll be back with a fresh newsletter next week.
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What We’re Reading(HERITAGE IMAGES / GETTY)
Your socially distanced summer-reading list (May 15, 2020)
“Books to bring on an airplane. Books to enjoy at the beach.