Shutdown.
“No one alive has ever experienced what the next two months will be like around the world, but here we are.” 1/24
In South Korea, the number of new cases now is less than the number of patients who recovered. 2/24
Italy has over 10,000 cases of the coronavirus, too many for adequate care, so medical professionals are being forced to triage. 3/24
Iran digs mass graves, totaling 100 yards in length, for victims of the coronavirus in the Shiite spiritual center Qom. 4/24
The hospital staff attending Tom Hanks rolled in a volleyball to keep him company in quarantine. 5/24
Related: A list of tours and festivals canceled or postponed. Examples of people and businesses reacting oddly. Shoppers of the world: chill on the toilet paper! (Buy a bidet instead?) 6/24
“There’s something almost tedious about disaster. Don’t you find?” Reading Emily St. John Mandel, author of pandemics. 7/24
The great shutdown of 2020 is the biggest story to hit the media since the attacks of September 11. 8/24
“Coronavirus culture” is emerging quickly to deal with public fear and the tedium of quarantine. 9/24
"Quick, make plans and watch how fast I cancel!" Xkcd has been doing some good coronavirus comics. 10/24
As social isolation leads to a "social recession," we're going to learn a lot about how much we value connection. 11/24
What doctors talk about when they talk about the coronavirus: video of a Stanford Medicine Grand Rounds lecture. 12/24
Trump's coronavirus address to the nation was a mess: muddled, ego-ridden, and full of errors that swiftly needed to be corrected. Basically, it did the opposite of “what it was supposed to do.” 13/24
Linking Biden’s opposition to Medicare for All to “the Democrats’ cult of pragmatism.” 14/24
In South Korea, a remarkable story about how 13,000 tons of food waste produced daily now become one of three things: compost, animal feed, or biofuel. 15/24
A fabulous essay by Meehan Crist on whether or not to have children during the climate crisis. 16/24
See also, in case you've never seen it before: The wheel of feelings. 17/24
The ocean caused incalculable damage in Fukushima, Japan. Local surfers say it's also helping people to heal and feel at home again. 18/24
A plastic surgery surge in China is linked to apps that let patients book surgeries and apply for credit to pay for them. 19/24
In Houston and Portland, a new era of freeway revolts to fight new ribbons of asphalt (and get people out of their cars). 20/24
Christoph Niemann explains why he moved from New York to Berlin—because the most dangerous comfort zones are those where you’re busy. 21/24
Author Karen Russell explains how motherhood changed how she calculates her finances. 22/24
Seeing how it’s the Tournament of Books and all, a poem by John Maradik, “Men and Their Novels.” 23/24
Melek Zertal's latest book follows Dana Sculley from The X-Files through the more mundane parts of her day. 24/24
And now a brief chat with a new Sustaining Member, Zoe C.
When did you start following TMN? I started reading probably about two years ago. A friend from when I lived in the Bay Area referred me to the Tournament of Books, and I was automatically hooked. I've gone back and re-read prior tournament years, particularly competitions between books I've read and loved. I don't always agree with the results (what fun would that be?), and so far I've yet to find a year where I feel like my own favorite book of the year won, but the complete roster always provides ample fuel for my reading for the year and you guys always send me to new books I might not have ever thought to pick up on my own.
We're glad to hear it! We hope you're enjoying this year's Rooster. I finally realized when the email about this year's competition came along that I've gotten much, much more than $0 out of everything you've done and needed to, as it were, put my money where my mouth was. Plus, the world feels very depressing these days and it's nice to support the positives in one's life.
Major, major thanks to Zoe and all of our supporters. If you haven't already, please consider becoming a Sustaining Member or making a one-time donation today.
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