HELLO and welcome to the 344th installment of Things I Read That I Love, wherein I share with you some of the longer-form journalism/essays I’ve read recently so that you can know more about motels! This “column” is less queer focused than the rest of the site because when something is queer focused, I put it on the rest of the site. Here is where the other things are.
The title of this feature is inspired by the title of Emily Gould’s tumblr, Things I Ate That I Love.
Feature image by H. Armstrong Roberts/ClassicStock/Getty Images.
The Olivia Nuzzi and RFK Jr. Affair Is Messier Than We Ever Could Have Imagined
brian phillips // the ringer // november 2025
I did read Ryan Lizza’s first Substack post and I did see that Vanity Fair article (I did not read it) but it was clear to me from the first paragraph of this Ringer article that actually this piece is in fact the ideal way to process all the relevant information in this saga.
100 Years of the Motel
megan mccrea // new york times // october 2025
This reminded me of one of my favorite museum exhibits of all time, conveniently located in the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, “Driving America,” which I incorrectly remembered being exclusively about travel but I guess it’s about more than just travel, which is fine. This article is about the motel! You and Henry Ford both know that I love travel history!
When Does a Divorce Begin?
anahid nersessian // the yale review // december 2025
“As long as we are talking about what things cost, I will say this: the basic ethical good of divorce—the right to terminate for any reason a relationship that does not suit you—comes with a high outlay, both literally, because getting a divorce is often expensive, and figuratively, because the pain of being open to the world once more is exorbitant. I would pay it a million times over.”
Circle Jerks
pioneer works broadcast // december 2025
ok, miranda july and elif batuman on the perimenopausal novel we didn’t know we needed! like!
Teenage Enema Nurses in Bondage
rachel kushner // the paris review // april 2025
“What stayed with me from Less than Zero was Clay’s loneliness. He is eighteen and home on winter break from his first semester of college, and there’s this sense of returning to a realm he has vacated, as if he is forced to see his own life from a new remove, like a person visiting the world after dying. People keep telling him he’s pale, and they mean it literally—he’s been back east, in New Hampshire—but his complexion has another valence as well, that he’s a ghost, which is what allows him to see what the others cannot, to be affected by what leaves them so numb.”
shit season
zoe scaman // december 2025
My wife sent this to me. Later I said to her, “that was good but sad.” She said “oh I meant it to be validating. Like, look, it’s ok, we’re all drowning out here.”
Everyone Is Cheating Their Way Through College
james d walsh // may 2025
I eventually kinda read everything in New York Magazine, and it’s hard to choose which pieces to share here, ’cause I don’t wanna just be Things I Read In New York Magazine That I Loved. So every week I get to pick one (1) to share. (Sometimes I share two!) This piece, which I read seven months ago, I believe, introduced me to a phenomenon I was honestly totally unaware of — just the ubiquity of Chat GPT usage in college. I don’t get it though! Why aren’t people afraid their essays are going to sound like everyone else’s if they’re all using the same program to write it? Have I mentioned this before.
There Are Two Types of Dishwasher People
ellen cushing // the atlantic // april 2025
For around six weeks on-and-off starting this fall/winter, my son too sick to go to childcare, and also our dishwasher was broken, which of course are unrelated problems but contributed to an overall sensation of things being unmanageable, of an overabundance of liquids requiring sanitation. Our landlord was really determined not to replace this dishwasher, sending a series of plumbers, all successful or unsuccessful to different degrees, it, this process went on for what felt like forever, he really did not want to replace this dishwasher! Then finally he did, and it really improved our quality of life. Anyhow, this piece isn’t about that.
There’s a Reason Women Aren’t Swooning Over AI Like Men Are
kate jagielnicka // the noösphere // december 2025
“Perhaps the reason women so often do more of the worrying and the damage-anticipating is that we’re more attuned to the fact that our society, and the people running it, can’t be bothered to think past the next quarterly report, let alone consider the perspectives, needs, and concerns of ‘only’ half the human population.”
We Bought a 450-Pound Mystery Pallet Packed With Returned Goods From Amazon and Beyond. Here’s What We Found Inside.
annemarie conte // wirecutter // november 2025
That book mug! Awful.
Also just a reminder that if you enjoy reading, you may enjoy our print magazine! There’s TRULY never been a better time to support a queer and trans-owned company, if u know what I mean!!!
Comments
I love this list as ever! I’m from the UK so not many of these articles would reach me otherwise, so nice to have an evening of curated reading. I knew literally nothing about the JFK affair so that was one wild read
i’m glad you enjoyed it rose!
I love these collections of great pieces that Riese read and loved. Please keep them coming! BTW, the link to When Does a Divorce Begin? leads to the Elif Batuman & Miranda July interview instead of the divorce article.
yay so glad you like! and oop i have fixed the link!
I’m so glad this series is back, I learn lots about random things I’d never have found otherwise. Keep the theme park content coming Rise!
It also prompted a quest to find an android alternative for apple news (Riese really sold it so well that autostraddle should get commissions) so I could actually read the articles and I discovered that my library gives me a free subscription to press reader, which has an incredible range of titles that would cost £100s a month to subscribe to. Took moments to sign up and now I have unlimited quality reading to help beat my social media addiction.
I’m in the UK but worth checking in case other countries have similar agreements.
i will ALWAYS keep the theme park content coming!
that press reader sounds incredible! i use libby in the U.S. to read e-books — it like connects to my local library — and they also offer free access to tons of magazines too.
i’ve also been trying to beat the instinct to open instagram by trying to open stuff i can read and engage my mind with too. it’s hard but it’s working!