The best(est) piece from each issue of The New Yorker magazine (IMHO)
The New Yorkerest project is here to help you get a head start on your New Year’s resolution to eliminate that bedside stack of New Yorker magazines. Think of all the things you could do with the extra space on your bedside table.
It’s no easy task to narrow an already-crowded roster of amazing New Yorker articles from this year. Alas, a top-47 list would prove unwieldy, so without further ado here are my ten favorite pieces from 2009 (in publication order) Continue reading →
December 21 & 28, 2009
Annals of Innovation
Hearth Surgery
A stove to transform the developing world.
by Burkhard Bilger
December 14, 2009
Testing, Testing
The complex battle to cut health-care costs.
by Atul Gawande
This was a wonderful issue overall and if you have the time, I also recommend reading The Celebrity Defense: Sex, justice, and Roman Polanski. by Jeffrey Toobin, The Most Failed State: Somalia’s new President. by Jon Lee Anderson, and “All That” by David Foster Wallace.
December 7, 2009
Portraits of Power
Leaders of the world.
by Platon
November 30, 2009
The Politics of Death
From Karen Ann Quinlan to death panels.
by Jill Lepore
November 23. 2009
Annals of Science
The Taste Makers
Inside the labs that flavor your food.
by Raffi Khatchadourian
If you have some extra time, Pilgrim’s Progress: The challenges of Thanksgiving abroad. by Jane Kramer and Reading into recipes. by Adam Gopnik are both wonderful pieces.
November 16. 2009
Letter from Cairo
The Pharaoh
The man who controls Egyptology.
by Ian Parker
November 9, 2009
“Premium Harmony”
by Stephen King
November 2, 2009
The Good Cook
A starving patriot in North Korea.
by Barbara Demick
If you want a second piece to read, While the Women are Sleeping by Javier Marías is beautifully haunting (and hauntingly beautiful).
October 26, 2009
Man of Extremes
James Cameron and “Avatar.”
by Dana Goodyear
This is a great issue overall and, if you have the time, I recommend also reading Chinese Barbizon: A factory town’s “art village.” by Peter Hessler and the simply fantastic “Procedure in Plain Air” by Jonathan Lethem.
