What the best beach books have in common

Also: However imperfect, affirmative action made us better [Donate ❤️]( [View in Browser](  July 2, 2023 Dear Cog reader, I’m writing this note early Friday morning. My desk is a holy disaster, a three-foot pile of laundry teeters behind me and my to-do list is a page-long eclectic list of things like, “put dog food in bucket,” “hold mail” and “Beyonce writer.” But it's all for good reason: I'm preparing to go out on vacation. For the fifth year running, my family is traveling to northern Minnesota where we’ll spend a week in a house on a lake with three other families (eight adults, nine kids). It's pure chaos, and pure fun. There will be fishing and a pontoon boat and lots of s’mores; many late nights, mosquito bites and an epic Lego project or two. I look forward to this week all year long. My birthday also happens to be this week, so I’m in a characteristically existential mood: Was this year what I wanted it to be? What do I hope for in the year to come? I can’t deny that the last 12 months for me have been dominated by change, in my personal life and in the world. Big disruptions at work, three little kids whose lives are getting more complicated, a new puppy. It’s the stuff of a good, busy, middle-aged life. In the world, a new conservative majority on the Supreme Court has vanquished some of the defining norms of my lifetime: a constitutional right to abortion and [affirmative action]( among them. Crises that once felt distant are now knocking on the door: [climate change]( school shootings (and ever-loosening restrictions on guns), threats to democracy, the opioid epidemic, a twice-indicted former president leading all others in a nomination contest for the White House. Meanwhile, AI is ascendant, getting vaccinated is somehow “woke” and [National Geographic]( laid off all its staff writers. I hardly recognize this place sometimes. As an editor at WBUR, I try to keep my personal feelings under wraps. But navigating so many uncharted waters on so many topics is unsettling, even equilibrium stealing. So, next week, as I swim in the lake and eat walking tacos ([look it up]( I’ll also be working to calm my racing heart. Laura McTaggert offers a good place to start: [reading](. She’s an epic reader (80 books a year, tracked in a color-coded spreadsheet) and has offered us five things to look for in any great beach read. "I have even higher standards for my beach reads, because everything about a summer reading experience should be idyllic," Laura [wrote this week for Cog](. I’m eyeing the stack of books on my messy desk, wondering which ones will make the cut: “House” by Tracy Kidder, “Sing, Unburied, Sing” by Jesmyn Ward, “The Overstory” by Richard Powers, “Pineapple Street” by Jenny Jackson. I’ll keep you posted. Somehow, it’s July. Thank you for reading, Cloe Axelson Senior Editor, Cognoscenti [Follow]( Support the news   Must Reads [However imperfect, affirmative action made us better]( I have degrees from three of the world’s most prestigious universities, writes Kaivan Shroff. The richness of my experience and the quality of my education are directly correlated to the diversity of my peers. [Read more.]( [However imperfect, affirmative action made us better]( I have degrees from three of the world’s most prestigious universities, writes Kaivan Shroff. The richness of my experience and the quality of my education are directly correlated to the diversity of my peers. [Read more.]( [The best beach books have 5 things in common]( I’m not a snob about books, writes Laura McTaggart. But I do have standards, and even my beach reads must meet them. In fact, I have even higher standards for my beach reads, because everything about a summer reading experience should be idyllic. [Read more.]( [The best beach books have 5 things in common]( I’m not a snob about books, writes Laura McTaggart. But I do have standards, and even my beach reads must meet them. In fact, I have even higher standards for my beach reads, because everything about a summer reading experience should be idyllic. [Read more.]( [Commentary: The Supreme Court doesn’t think my daughter deserves to be safe]( It’s a slippery slope from sanctioned discrimination to serious harm, and we’re sliding down it, writes Laura McTaggart. [Read more.]( [Commentary: The Supreme Court doesn’t think my daughter deserves to be safe]( It’s a slippery slope from sanctioned discrimination to serious harm, and we’re sliding down it, writes Laura McTaggart. [Read more.]( [I've been against nuclear power for decades. Until now]( A growing chorus supports a nuclear renaissance, writes Frederick Hewett. The climate crisis changed the equation. [Read more.]( [I've been against nuclear power for decades. Until now]( A growing chorus supports a nuclear renaissance, writes Frederick Hewett. The climate crisis changed the equation. [Read more.]( [More people are living longer with cancer. Stop treating us as ‘dead on diagnosis’]( The number of people surviving cancers is growing, writes Meg Senuta. President Biden’s goal is to cut the death rate from cancer by at least 50% over the next 25 years. And in the meantime, we can at least rethink how we talk about cancer and the stories we tell. [Read more.]( [More people are living longer with cancer. Stop treating us as ‘dead on diagnosis’]( The number of people surviving cancers is growing, writes Meg Senuta. President Biden’s goal is to cut the death rate from cancer by at least 50% over the next 25 years. And in the meantime, we can at least rethink how we talk about cancer and the stories we tell. [Read more.]( What We're Reading "The line that will be most quoted from Jackson’s dissent is likely this one: 'With let-them-eat-cake obliviousness, on Thursday, the majority pulls the ripcord and announces "colorblindness for all" by legal fiat.' The line that follows is almost more heartbreaking: 'But deeming race irrelevant in law does not make it so in life.'" "[Ketanji Brown Jackson Exposed the Supreme Court’s 'Colorblind' Lie]( Slate. "[W]atching my dad’s friends react to his online activity, I realized I should have had a little more faith in their care for him, and the persistence of that care even when he didn’t seem like himself anymore." "[My Dad Had Dementia. He Also Had Facebook.]( The Atlantic. "If we view intellectual dissonance as a problem to fix rather than an opportunity for discussion, our cultural climate suffers." "[75 Years Ago, ‘The Lottery’ Went Viral. There’s a Reason We’re Still Talking About It.]( The New York Times. "In neighborhoods with entrenched cycles of gun violence, residents have long known that hot days bring more shootings." — Gaurab Basu and Jonathan Jay, "[Boston's summer heat is an issue of racial equity. 'Greening' our city is one solution]( ICYMI [Boston's summer heat is an issue of racial equity. 'Greening' our city is one solution]( We will need to do far more than plant trees and increase green space to fully address climate change and gun violence, write Gaurab Basu and Jonathan Jay. But nature-based solutions have significant community-level health benefits and should play an important role in our public policy. [Read more.]( [Boston's summer heat is an issue of racial equity. 'Greening' our city is one solution]( We will need to do far more than plant trees and increase green space to fully address climate change and gun violence, write Gaurab Basu and Jonathan Jay. But nature-based solutions have significant community-level health benefits and should play an important role in our public policy. [Read more.]( If you’d like to write for Cognoscenti, send your submission, pasted into your email and not as an attachment, to opinion@wbur.org. Please tell us in one line what the piece is about, and please tell us in one line who you are. 😎 Forward to a friend. They can sign up [here](. 📣 Give us your feedback: newsletters@wbur.org 📧 Get more WBUR stories sent to your inbox. [Check out all of our newsletter offerings.]( Support the news     Want to change how you receive these emails? Stop getting this newsletter by [updating your preferences.](  I don't want to hear from WBUR anymore. Unsubscribe from all WBUR editorial newsletters [here.](  Interested in learning more about corporate sponsorship? [Click here.]( Copyright © 2023 WBUR-FM, All rights reserved.