In late 2022, as the fentanyl drug overdose epidemic raged across America, police officers making street busts of the synthetic opioid began experiencing what they believed were “life-threatening” reactions. In Florida, an officer lost consciousness after touching a powder she thought was fentanyl. She felt “light-headed … I was choking. I couldn’t breathe,” the officer … Read more
It’s an unlikely thing to wait in line for. Head down a side street, in through an anonymous door, and you’ll join a long line people waiting to go upstairs. Open a spiked metal gate at the top, and there you have it: the university jail. I’m in Heidelberg, visiting a series of small rooms … Read more
The ticks got an early start this year, and they’ve been busy. In April, 105 of every 100,000 emergency-room visits nationwide involved a tick bite, up 52% from the year before. In May, that number reached 112. The CDC has been tracking these visits since 2017, and this spring brought the highest early-season numbers it’s … Read more
Attorney Thomas Kenniff, 51 — who along with his law partner Steven Raiser succcessfully defended subway Samaritan Daniel Penny in a sensational trial that captivated the nation in late 2024 — is adding another chapter to his career: author. His debut novel “Tuxedo Park” (Post Hill Press) was released this past Tuesday. The legal thriller, … Read more
One morning in October 2024, the writer Julie Summers received a call at her home in Oxford conveying astonishing news. A boot containing the remains of a human foot had been found on the north flank of Mount Everest. A woolen sock tucked into the boot bore a white name tape, with red letters spelling … Read more
In 2001, writer Jeff Miller walked into a Massachusetts DMV to transfer his driver’s license and walked out as a convicted felon. At least according to the government. Miller had never been arrested. But as journalist Annie Lowrey explains in her new book, “The Time Tax: How the Government Wastes Our Time — and How … Read more
It was the Sunday before Christmas, 1975, and Vienna was covered by a foot of snow. Just before 11:30a.m., six strangers stepped off a red tram outside the headquarters of OPEC, the world’s most powerful oil cartel, “their long coats and heavy bags casting dark shadows against the snow,” writes Joby Warrick in his new … Read more
In 1985, when South Africa was still under apartheid, a car drove into the black township of Soweto with an unusual passenger — one of the world’s most famous singer/songwriters — concealed in the back seat. Paul Simon had been invited to Soweto by Sipho “Hotstix” Mabuse, a black South African pop star at the … Read more
The Hutton Company Brick Works literally built New York brick by brick. For over a century, thousands of brickmakers mixed, molded, dried and baked the city’s most essential building blocks on a 100-acre site along the banks of the Hudson River, in the city of Kingston. Look inside the walls of the Empire State Building, … Read more
It’s a trad, trad world. Tradwives abound not just on social media — baking up their own sourdough and homeschooling half a dozen children — but also at the bookstore, where titles about women Instagramming their supposedly traditional lives are filling up shelves. Caro Claire Burke’s novel “Yesteryear,” about a modern tradwife who wakes up … Read more
America: the land of the free (and the home of the brave). The land of opportunity. A nation of immigrants. A country built on life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. A country built on slavery. Democratic. Republican. Once great. Still great. Great again. Never great. United. Divided. Under threat. Stronger than ever. An ideal. A … Read more
In 2016, DJ DiDonna was, by all accounts, riding high. The fintech company he co-founded, EFL Global, was growing at a fast clip. He had given a speech at the United Nations about how to empower entrepreneurs through access to finance, and the startup had landed a feature in The New York Times. Then came … Read more
All among the living and undead know Count Dracula. But vampires have a long and more established pedigree than readers of Bram Stoker may recognize. These bloodsuckers have even made their ways to American shores. In his new book, “Exhumed: Unearthing the History of the American Vampire” (Running Press), Aaron Mahnke starts with the “vampire … Read more
A 1992 guide to building sheds and barns has become an unlikely hit. Thanks to a handful of BookTokers — influencers who review and recommend titles on the platform — Monte Burch’s “How to Build Small Barns & Outbuildings” is having a moment. Sales of the book, published by Hachette Book Group’s Storey Publishing imprint, … Read more
“My fiancé died a month before our wedding, and now I’m going on our honeymoon alone to see if life is worth living.” That’s how Laura Murphy introduced herself in a TikTok post that went viral. The video — posted Aug. 25, 2024 — swiftly surpassed 1 million views and now boasts more than 4 … Read more
Paul Skalnik had a strange gift for being in jail when accused murderers suddenly felt the urge to spill their secrets. Skalnik was a petty con artist with a grimly reliable routine, writes Pamela Colloff in her riveting new book, “Catch the Devil: A True Story of Murder, Deception, and Injustice on the Gulf Coast.” … Read more
On July 9, 2015, a dead raccoon appeared on a Toronto sidewalk and, for reasons no one fully understood, four men from a nearby office decided to hold a funeral. They bought a cellophane-wrapped rose, signed a card, and placed it on the corpse, whom they named Conrad. In “Our Wild Familiars” (Crown, out Tuesday), … Read more
Two adorable little girls dressed in frilly white — the elder wearing a blue sash, the younger sporting a pink one — are captured by the painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir in a moment of innocence nearly 150 years ago. In the 1881 Impressionist masterpiece “Pink and Blue,” familiar from innumerable postcards, jigsaw puzzles, and art prints, … Read more
Your neighbors might be paying less for the same groceries you buy every week. In the age of “surveillance pricing,” the cost of an item is being determined by your personal information. Companies are using your personal data to figure out how much they believe you are willing to pay. Now everyone from lawmakers to … Read more
Jacqueline Harpman has been dead for 14 years, but she’s living every author’s dream. She has a new short story collection — “We Were Forbidden” (out now) — a novel that’s become a bestselling phenom thanks to social media and three more books in the pipeline. Harpman, a Belgian-Jewish writer and trained psychoanalyst, died of … Read more