The things to read this weekend

Scroll through these as a mind-improving alternative to playing Candy Crush on your phone

Heidi N. Moore, Side Quests's avatar
Heidi N. Moore, Side Quests
Jun 20, 2025
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Click on what you like, ignore what you don’t find interesting. Is there anything good you read this week? Add it in the comments so we can all enjoy it.

This week was Juneteenth, the federal holiday celebrating the end of slavery in the United States.

  • The peacock chair is a staple of home decor in many Black people’s homes in the United States. The New York Times looks at the history. Hat tip to Phil Lewis’s weekly roundup at What I’m Reading, where I saw the story.

  • Harvard was holding on to two 175-year-old daguerrotypes of enslaved Americans “Papa Renty” and his daughter Delia, which it obtained without consent. The descendants of the people in the photos successfully wrested the prints out of Harvard’s hands so they could be displayed at the International African-American Museum in South Carolina.

Leisure

  • It’s open season on Ocean Vuong in the book-reviewing world, for some reason. Why? If you have theories, please comment below.

  • The Louvre had to close for a day so its staff coul…

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