Six Sunday Reads

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Being single can be hard—but the search for love may be harder.

If we’re willing to see children terrorized because of a false rumor about Haitian immigrants, we should ask who abducted our conscience, not someone’s pet.

He said Republican politicians would be easy to break. He was right.

Ashli Babbitt’s mother and the wife of a notorious January 6 rioter are at the center of a new mythology on the right. They are also my neighbors.

It’s a need that government subsidies and better family policy can’t necessarily address.

In 2016, he tried to stop Trump from becoming president. By 2020, he was trying to help Trump overturn the election. Now he could become Trump’s attorney general.

1. Nobody Wants This, a romantic-comedy series starring Kristen Bell and Adam Brody about the relationship between an agnostic woman and a rabbi (premieres on Netflix on Thursday)
2. Mind Games, an illustrated book about John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s transformation in New York (on sale Tuesday)
3. Megalopolis, a science-fiction epic written, directed, and produced by Francis Ford Coppola (in theaters Friday)

Wood, I don’t think I need to work too hard to convince you, is a fairly amazing substance. It grows out of the ground and then becomes some of the most important things in the world: pencils, baseball bats, clogs, porch swings, campfires, crucifixes, tall shelves filled with books (which are also wood, if you squint a little). Solomon’s temple was wood; so was the Mayflower. So were Kane’s Rosebud and Prince’s guitar. As building materials go, wood’s durability-to-weight ratio is basically unmatched, thanks to the long, thin, hardy cell structure that helps trees withstand extreme weather conditions.

Wood does, however, have its limitations, and many of them are found in the kitchen.

• The Taylor Swift way to defuse a troll
• What we all forgot about Beetlejuice
• The best part of the Emmys was the end.
• Everyone knows The Bear isn’t a comedy.
• Look what she made him do.
• The anti–rock star
• “Dear James”: I see every tiny problem as a social injustice.
• The age of Jennifer’s Body

• This is what a losing campaign looks like.
• Don’t fool yourself about the exploding pagers.
• The real reason Trump and Vance are spreading lies about Haitians