The Review: Our most-read stories this year so far

Plus, summer reading recommendations from Chronicle staffers. ADVERTISEMENT [The Review Logo]( Did someone forward you this newsletter? [Sign up free]( to receive your own copy. You can now read The Chronicle on [Apple News]( [Flipboard]( and [Google News](. I’m on vacation, so I’ve outsourced the newsletter this week to my colleagues, whom I’ve asked for summer reading recommendations. And scroll down to catch up on some of the most popular Review stories this year so far. I’ll be back next week. Fernanda Zamudio-Suarez, newsletter editor: My favorite genre is translated literature that takes place in one room or neighborhood, and Trick by Domenico Starnone nails it. A grandfather goes back to the home where he raised his children to take care of his four-year-old grandson for a few days. It’s a story about jealousy and the fear of aging. Emma Pettit, senior reporter: I just finished David Grann’s new nonfiction book, The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder, and boy it sure is a tale of shipwreck, mutiny, and murder. Every time you think, “Oh my god, things can’t possibly get worse for these guys,” there’s another scurvy outbreak, then a huge storm, then lots of people drown, and then that all happens like five more times. But Grann’s writing is extremely cinematic and also funny enough to get you through the human horror of it all. Ronald Barba, senior editor: I’m reading Thoreau’s Axe: Distraction and Discipline in American Culture from Caleb Smith, which digs into the genealogy of distraction. It presents an insightful argument that the current ethos around discipline and self-improvement is less a defining trait of this century than a revival of sorts. Kate Hidalgo Bellows, staff reporter: Just finished Drunk by Edward Slingerland, which makes the case that the consumption of alcohol was foundational to the development of civilizations — and encourages readers to let loose, in moderation. David Jesse, senior reporter: I’ve been spending a lot of time at baseball fields as my sons play ball this spring. I just finished Ryan McGee’s Welcome to the Circus of Baseball, an inside look at minor league baseball in the 1990s. Very funny and a perfect ballpark or beach or campground read. David Wescott, senior editor: I’m thoroughly enjoying The Word of the Speechless, a collection of short stories by the Peruvian writer Julio Ramón Ribeyro. The early stories — written in the 1950s — are dark, sinister, gripping, and never without a sense of humor. Claudia Trapp, human resources: I am three-quarters of the way through Making Numbers Count: The Art and Science of Communicating Numbers, by Chip Heath and Karla Starr. How do you communicate numbers so folks actually understand? Stephanie Lee, senior reporter: I tore through Hua Hsu’s memoir Stay True, now a Pulitzer Prize winner, in what felt like hours. In lyrical prose and unsparing detail, Hsu — a staff writer for The New Yorker and a Bard College professor — recounts his time as a lonely Taiwanese American student at the University of Califonia at Berkeley, trying to make meaning out of mixtapes and zines; a transformative friendship; and a loss that upends everything. It’s a coming-of-age story that’s both heartbreaking and very funny. SPONSOR CONTENT | London Metropolitan University [Partnering for Success at London Met]( NEWSLETTER [Sign Up for the Teaching Newsletter]( Find insights to improve teaching and learning across your campus. Delivered on Thursdays. To read this newsletter as soon as it sends, [sign up]( to receive it in your email inbox. Readers’ Favorites From the Review Catch up on our most-read essays this year. Mary Gaitskill, “[The Trials of the Young]( Owen Kichizo Terry, “[I’m a Student. You Have No Idea How Much We’re Using ChatGPT.]( Deborah Chasman, “[My #MeToo Moment]( Amna Khalid and Jeffrey Aaron Snyder, “[Yes, DEI Can Erode Academic Freedom]( Alicia Andrzejewski, “[The Sad Humiliations of Academic Ghosting.]( Gayle Greene, “[The Terrible Tedium of ‘Learning Outcomes’]( Joshua Doležal, “[Younger Faculty Are Leaning Out]( Elise Archias and Blake Stimson, “[The Labor of Teaching and Administrative Hysteria]( Evan Mandery, “[Where Rich Students Are Told: ‘You Deserve This’]( Jeff Denning et al., “[The Grade Inflation Conversation We’re Not Having]( ADVERTISEMENT UPCOMING PROGRAM [The Chronicle's Strategic-Leadership Program for Department Chairs] [Join us in June]( for a virtual professional development program which will provide the space, time, and tools to help department chairs take on the challenges and opportunities of the role. Through workshops, high-level seminars, and individual development plans, chairs will think strategically about their departmental and institutional impact. [Register today!]( The Latest THE REVIEW | OPINION [Against Higher Ed’s Happy Talk]( By Joshua Doležal [STORY IMAGE]( We need realism, not bombast and bromides. ADVERTISEMENT THE REVIEW | ESSAY [The False Promise of Colorblind Admissions]( By Richard Thompson Ford [STORY IMAGE]( You can’t stop racial discrimination without considering race. THE REVIEW | OPINION [Statehouses, Not Student Activists, Are the Real Threat to Free Speech]( By Eduardo Peñalver [STORY IMAGE]( Fixating on drama at Stanford Law leads us astray. Recommended - “A crowd instinct, he explained, is the pull that individuals feel to abandon themselves and blend in with the mass, while the personality instinct is the pull that individuals feel when it comes to retaining a notion of self.” In The Nation, Farah Abdessamad [writes about Elias Canetti](. - “The culture-maddened far right believes that Americans will lose their native birthright forever unless drastic protective measures are intensified. Meanwhile, the left-liberal side has never shown a more arrogant pride in its own good intentions and its demonstrated capacity to silence those who disagree.” In The New Statesman, David Bromwich on [the return of Trump](. - “The specter of a truly anti-liberal order on either the left or the right makes us fearful, for good reason. Even if we dispute the picture of man and reason that lies at the heart of the liberal order, and even as we can recognize the ways that liberalism undermines itself, we shudder at the proposed alternatives.” In The Hedgehog Review, Jennifer A. Frey [writes about liberalism and anti-liberalism]( by way of Émile Perreau-Saussine’s biography of Alasdair McIntyre. Write to me at len.gutkin@chronicle.com. Yours, Len Gutkin FROM THE CHRONICLE STORE [Restructuring a University - The Chronicle Store]( [Restructuring a University]( In 2022, Henderson State University declared financial exigency after realizing it could no longer avoid hard choices. This case study of the university’s path to near-ruin highlights lessons for any college leader contemplating a restructuring to keep an institution viable. [Order your copy]( to learn about key factors to consider in a restructuring process. 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