Longreads: Longreads Best of 2016: Here Are All of Our No. 1 Story Picks from This Year.

Link via MetaFilter: Time to put your feet up.

Some recommendations:

San Francisco Chronicle: Last Men Standing. “They had the remarkable luck to survive AIDS, and the brutal misfortune to live on.” By Erin Allday.

Outside: The Most Successful Female Everest Climber of All Time Is a Housekeeper in Hartford, Connecticut. “Lhakpa Sherpa ​​has climbed Everest more than any other woman—​and now she’s on the mountain trying for her seventh summit​. So why doesn’t anyone know her name?” By Grayson Schaffer.

Buzzfeed News: Here Is The Powerful Letter The Stanford Victim Read Aloud To Her Attacker. “A former Stanford swimmer who sexually assaulted an unconscious woman was sentenced to six months in jail because a longer sentence would have “a severe impact on him,“ according to a judge. At his sentencing Thursday, his victim read him a letter describing the “severe impact“ the assault had on her.” By Anonymous.

Deadspin.com: The Writer Who Was Too Strong To Live. “Jennifer Frey’s obituary in the Washington Post, her last full-time employer, merely gave “multiple organ failure“ as the cause of her March 26 death. But alcohol killed her as surely as a bullet killed Lincoln.”

And some articles I still want to read:

The Guardian: Alexander Litvinenko: the man who solved his own murder. “This week, the inquiry into the death of Alexander Litvinenko will deliver its findings. The former Russian spy was poisoned with a cup of tea in a London hotel. Working with Scotland Yard detectives, as he lay dying, he traced the lethal substance to a former comrade in the Russian secret service.” By Luke Harding.

Mother Jones: My four months as a private prison guard. “I started applying for jobs in private prisons because I wanted to see the inner workings of an industry that holds 131,000 of the nation’s 1.6 million prisoners. As a journalist, it’s nearly impossible to get an unconstrained look inside our penal system. When prisons do let reporters in, it’s usually for carefully managed tours and monitored interviews with inmates. Private prisons are especially secretive.” By Shane Bauer.

Atavist Magazine: A Family Matter. “Each year, California’s child protective services agencies remove thousands of kids from their homes. The story of how some parents decided to fight back.” By Jessica Weisberg.

Charlotte Magazine: Poverty in Charlotte: ‘It Was Never Okay’.“A working mother fights to give her kids a better life in a city where that’s next to impossible.” By Lisa Rab.

New Republic: Secret Lives of Tumblr Teens. “That feeling when you hit a million followers, make more money than your mom, push a diet pill scheme, lose your blog, and turn 16.” By Elspeth Reeve.

LA Times: ‘You want a description of Hell?’ Oxycontin’s 12-hour problem. “Over the last 20 years, more than 7 million Americans have abused OxyContin, according to the federal government’s National Survey on Drug Use and Health.” By Harriet Ryan, Lisa Girion and Scott Glover.