The Paradox of Modern Medicine
Testing has become so advanced that doctors now miss important elements of diagnosis.
What To Read
What Does Lena Dunham Want to Tell Us?
Her new memoir captures the cost of being an impossibly popular target.
The Eighth Deadly Sin
Humankind has devised a new form of debasement.
Byzantine Room
A poem
The Seinfeld Theory of Fiction
Annoying characters let us admit that we might be annoying too.
Fortunes
A short story
The Honor of the Layward Brothers
A short story
We Are Not One
A short story
Seven Books That Will Change How You Watch the Olympics
These titles will allow you to view the competition with a new appreciation.
Eight Books That Will Inspire You to Move Your Body
Athleticism, exercise, and sports all lend themselves to heightened narrative stakes, and writers know this well.
Seven Bedside-Table Books for When You Can’t Sleep
These titles can offer another voice in the darkness, ready to soothe a restless mind.
Eight Books That Will Change Your Perspective
One of the joys of reading is encountering someone else’s awakening on the page.
Five Books for People Who Really Love Books
These five titles focus on the many connections we can form with what we read.
What to Read to Understand How People Get Tricked
Each of these titles will stick with you and, perhaps, make you more likely to realize when you’re not seeing the truth.
Eight Books to Read If You’re in a Creative Slump
These books dispense practical advice on managing one’s ambitions—or describe the dread of writer’s block with precision and humor.
What to Read When You Have Only Half an Hour
A short story has velocity and verve, and the best ones create an immediate, instinctual bond between the reader and the characters.
Nine Books About Aging, Growing, and Changing
Moments of great physical upheaval can be accompanied by great revelations.
25 Books to Get Lost in This Summer
The Atlantic’s writers and editors have chosen fiction and nonfiction to match all sorts of moods.