9 Longform Stories We're Reading This Week: Stripping In A Boomtown And The Real Walter White

Susan Elizabeth Shepard has been traveling to the oil boomtown of Williston, North Dakota, since 2007 to strip for oil field workers. Read her memoir about the town's boom — and potential bust — plus these other great longform stories from around the web.

1. Wildcatting: A Stripper’s Guide to the Modern American Boomtown — BuzzFeed

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Nothing is more emblematic of the American dream than chaotic mining and drilling towns such as Williston, North Dakota, and the people who flock to them in search of fortune. And no one knows better how these communities work — and don’t — than the traveling topless dancer. Read it at BuzzFeed.

2. Huma Abedin Has Her Own Life — BuzzFeed

Anthony Weiner’s “notoriously private” wife is on the campaign trail with her husband, a calculated sacrifice from the woman who has already been through hell — and is experiencing more of it this week. As Ruby Cramer writes, “She wants Anthony to win.” Read it at BuzzFeed

3. Inside The Life And Crimes Of The Real-Life Walter White — BuzzFeed

Natasha Vargas-Cooper reports on what a monthlong wiretap revealed about Stephen Kinzey, a professor by day, and biker drug dealer by night. "When the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department announced, two summers ago, that a professor was the mastermind behind a meth distribution network, fans of AMC’s Breaking Bad made an obvious connection..." Read it at BuzzFeed.

4. To Steal a Mockingbird? — Vanity Fair

Jonathan Becker / Via vanityfair.com

The notoriously private author Harper Lee is now waging a public courtroom battle. Her lawsuit charges that in 2007 her agent, Samuel Pinkus, duped the frail 80-year-old Lee into assigning him the copyright to her only book, To Kill a Mockingbird — then diverted royalties from the beloved 1960 classic. Mark Seal investigates a scandal packed with publishing legends. Read it at Vanity Fair.

5. All My Exes Live in Texts — New York

nymag.com

Maureen O'Connor discusses the impossibility of breaking up for good in the social media age. "There was a time, I am told, when exes lived in Texas and you could avoid them by moving to Tennessee. Cutting ties is no longer so easy—nor, I guess, do we really want it to be. We gorge ourselves on information about the lives of our exes. We can’t help ourselves." Read it at New York.

6. The Last Days of Big Law — New Republic

New Republic / Via Art Streiber

"Of all the occupational golden ages to come and go in the twentieth century—for doctors, journalists, ad-men, autoworkers—none lasted longer, felt cushier, and was all in all more golden than the reign of the law partner." That is no longer the case, argues Noam Scheiber in this portrait of America's highest-end law firms, whose salad days are over. Read it at New Republic.

7. So Why Aren't There More Gay Superheros? — BuzzFeed

Image by Marvel Comics

Andrew Garfield wondered aloud why Spider-Man couldn’t be gay, but Adam B. Vary believes that the reason could lie within the very pages that first brought the character to life. "What makes the lack of major gay superheroes even stranger is how gay comic book heroes otherwise are: all that tight spandex clinging to all those idealized bodies spending all that time and energy hiding a 'secret identity.'" Read it at BuzzFeed.

8. Sleep-Away Camp for Postmodern Cowboys — New York Times Magazine

Luca Locatelli for The New York Times

"Organizers have referred to it as 'the Olympics of counterterrorism': over the next four days, the teams would raid buildings, storm hijacked jets, rescue hostages and shoot targets with live ammunition, all while being scored for speed and accuracy. It was a stage-managed showcase for the 21st-century soldier — not the humble G.I., but the post-9/11 warrior, the superman in the shadows, keeping the world safe from murky threats." Read it at New York Times Sunday Magazine.

9. The Hoboken Sound: An Oral History of Maxwells — New York

vulture.com

"In the pantheon of important New York City rock clubs—Max’s Kansas City, CBGB, the Bottom Line—Maxwell’s ranks as high as any, even though its legal address is New Jersey." The iconic club, which will close July 31, is remembered by its staff and music industry greats. Read it at New York.