Note to readers
Welcome to a special year-end issue of The Week.
Welcome to a special year-end issue of The Week. For the first time, we have expanded on the year-end features that we used to squeeze into our last regular issue, and given them their own home. We hope they’ll provide some reading pleasure for our loyal subscribers in the lull between Christmas and New Year’s.
In this issue, we take you on a (not entirely nostalgic) tour of the year in news and business. We select some of the best achievements in books (both novels and nonfiction), music, art, and food. We’ve also curated three great longer reads that we found in our exhaustive reading of newspapers, magazines, and websites. All of it, of course, is spiced with a bit of fun.
At year’s end, I want to express my gratitude to our 560,000 subscribers, who’ve made this the best year yet for The Week. In recent months, subscribers have given more than 100,000 gift subscriptions to friends and relatives. Thanks to your enthusiasm, our business is strong and growing at a time when many print and digital publications are struggling. It’s both gratifying and humbling.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
We live in interesting times. In 2014, we’ll continue to do our best to give you a succinct, intelligent, and lively summary of what’s happening and what a wide variety of very smart people think about it all. My talented staff and I wish you, the extended family of The Week, a very happy New Year.
William Falk
Editor-in-chief
P.S. To recharge our batteries, we are now taking some time off. Your next issue of The Week will be dated Jan. 17 and should begin arriving Jan. 10.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Holy mate-trimony: the rise of 'friendship marriages'
Under the Radar Young people in China, Japan and the US are saying 'I do' to platonic unions, to alleviate social pressure or loneliness and access financial benefits
-
Deportations ensnare migrant families, U.S. citizens
Feature Trump's deportation crackdown is sweeping up more than just immigrants as ICE targets citizens, judges and nursing mothers
-
Trump shrugs off warnings over trade war costs
Feature Trump's tariffs are spiraling the U.S. toward an economic crisis as shipments slow down—and China doesn't plan to back down
-
The final fate of Flight 370
feature Malaysian officials announced that radar data had proven that the missing Flight 370 “ended in the southern Indian Ocean.”
-
The airplane that vanished
feature The mystery deepened surrounding the Malaysia Airlines flight that disappeared one hour after taking off from Kuala Lumpur.
-
A drug kingpin’s capture
feature The world’s most wanted drug lord, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, was captured by Mexican marines in the resort town of Mazatlán.
-
A mixed verdict in Florida
feature The trial of Michael Dunn, a white Floridian who fatally shot an unarmed black teen, came to a contentious end.
-
New Christie allegation
feature Did a top aide to the New Jersey governor tie Hurricane Sandy relief funds to the approval of a development proposal in the city of Hoboken?
-
A deal is struck with Iran
feature The U.S. and five world powers finalized a temporary agreement to halt Iran’s nuclear program.
-
End-of-year quiz
feature Here are 40 questions to test your knowledge of the year’s events.
-
The U.S. and Iran strike a deal
feature The administration defended an international deal with Iran over its nuclear program, as critics at home and in Israel blasted the pact as an act of appeasement.