The Daily Beast’s Best Longreads, May 17-23

Many thanks to our friends at Longreads who inspire us every week.

Judy Blume Knows All Your SecretsBy Susan Dominus, New York Times MagazineAfter 17 years, the confidante for legions of young readers is about to publish a new novel for adults.

Where the River Runs DryBy David Owen, New YorkerThe Colorado and America’s water crisis.

UnclimbableBy Eva Holland, SB MagazineWe had two options: I could bow out of the trip entirely, letting the three of them go without me. Or, if they were willing, I could go along, with a lightened pack, leaning heavily on my trekking poles to minimize the impact on my bad leg, and try to manage the long, steep hike in and out of our base camp as best I could.

Frontline health workers were sidelined in $3.3bn fight against EbolaBy Amy Maxmen, NewsweekIt was 25 November, 2014 and hospitals were collapsing under the weight of the deadliest Ebola outbreak in history. The men and women on the frontlines of the crisis, who risked their lives to save the dying and protect the healthy from infection, had begun to feel duped. While millions of dollars had been donated to Sierra Leone from all over the world to help them tackle the crisis, their pleas for pay had been overlooked. But the burial workers knew that the corpses wouldn’t be.

ISIS & the Shia Revival in IraqBy Nicolas Pelham, New York Review of BooksAn Iraqi government adviser estimated that the caliphate might have already earned hundreds of millions of dollars from its sales of Assyrian remains.

Why Are Palo Alto’s Kids Killing Themselves?By Diana Kapp, San Francisco MagazineA panicked town struggles with a wave of suicides.