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Scribner
One Young Man, Two Worlds
I’m reading “The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace,” a book by Jeff Hobbs. I was inspired by the reviews in The Times. (See here and here.) It is a heartbreaking story of a brilliant kid who ended up at Yale, despite the deck being pretty heavily stacked against him. It has a larger point: How people like Robert can live in two worlds, but suffer from that kind of shape-shifting. Mainly it is just one heck of a well-written story.— Dean Baquet
The New Republic
The Body: A Love Story
I don’t go to movies that I know will scare me and yet I could not stop reading “It’s Time to Take Back Our Aging, Smelly Bodies” by Martha Nussbaum recently. The piece might also be called “Against Anesthesia,” arguing as it does that to be put to sleep during operations is not only a kind of small death, but also an abdication of our responsibility to inhabit our own skin. Ms. Nussbaum remained fully awake during a colonoscopy and had the pleasure of seeing her “pink and tiny” appendix on screen. Gee. My own life has been thoroughly medicalized, but I would not emulate her choice if it ended world hunger. None for her? Lots for me. Wake me when it’s over. I think she’s crazy, but it doesn’t mean she is wrong. — David Carr
Bloomberg Businessweek
Millionaires, Moguls, Mansions And Rancor in California
Southern California’s San Gabriel Valley has been continually transformed by Chinese immigrants over the last generation. This story takes a deep look at how Chinese moguls are now reshaping Arcadia by fueling a local real estate boom. While the city may be happy to have its coffers overflowing with real estate money, there are all sorts of tensions about mysterious absentee owners and ever-escalating prices of homes that are rarely listed — and are often torn down to be replaced. — Jennifer Medina
Salon
Paul McCartney: An Update
Paul McCartney answered questions on Twitter on Monday. Among the revelations: He feels star-struck around Bob Dylan. He has twerked with Katy Perry. He sings in the shower. He often forgets lyrics. And he knows the identity of the walrus. — Patrick LaForge
Nautilus
The Super Brain Is Coming
What happens when scientists are able to genetically engineer human intelligence? The day isn’t so far off, the physicist Stephen Hsu believes — meaning we should start thinking now about the complex ethical and economic issues that the breakthrough will raise. — Stacy Cowley
Narratively
Pioneer Portraits: The Legacy of Solomon D. Butcher
Solomon D. Butcher’s photos documenting America’s pioneer period are some of the only ones that exist from that time. But few know his name. This article tells the story of his life, a tumultuous one full of half-baked schemes and minor disasters. And front and center are his photographs, severe yet beautiful, bringing to life scenes from “Little House on the Prairie” and “O Pioneers!” — Samantha Storey
An earlier version of the post on The New Republic piece misstated the operation that the author, Martha Nussbaum, underwent while she was fully awake. It was a colonoscopy, not the removal of her appendix.