The Week’s Best Longreads: The Daily Beast Picks for Jan. 28, 2012

Israel vs. Iran
Ronen Bergman, The New York Times Magazine

When will it explode?

The Obama Memos
Ryan Lizza, The New Yorker


The making of a post-post-partisan president.

Amazon’s Hit Man
Brad Stone, Businessweek


Larry Kirshbaum was the ultimate book-industry insider—until Amazon called.

A Life in Writing
Stuart Jeffries, The Guardian


“The nirvana would be if the questions raised by Oprah Winfrey would be answered by the faculty at Harvard,” says Alain de Botton, author of Religion for Atheists.

The Revolt of the Salaried Bourgeoisie
Slavoj Žižek, London Review of Books

How the chance to be exploited in a long-term job came to be seen as a privilege.

The Trillion-Dollar Woman
Christopher Dickey, Newsweek


Christopher Dickey’s exclusive interview with Christine Lagarde, the woman at the center of the global financial storm.