Seven Compelling Weekend Reads

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The Darién Gap was once considered impassable. Now hundreds of thousands of migrants are risking treacherous terrain, violence, hunger, and disease to travel through the jungle to the United States.

The Voynich Manuscript has long baffled scholars—and attracted cranks and conspiracy theorists. Now a prominent medievalist is taking a new approach to unlocking its secrets.

Corporations and private-equity funds have been rolling up smaller chains and previously independent practices.

Do I dare to eat an old peach yogurt? Yes, yes I do.

Long after graduation, anxiety in waking life often drags dreamers back into the classroom.

Federal workforce-training programs prepare people for dead-end jobs that no one wants.

The voice revolution has only just begun. Today, Alexa is a humble servant. Very soon, she could be much more—a teacher, a therapist, a confidant, an informant.

1. Alien: Romulus, a sci-fi film about a group of space colonizers who encounter a terrifying alien species on an abandoned space station (in theaters Friday)
2. Season 4 of Emily in Paris, a series about an American marketing executive who moves to Paris for a dream opportunity (part one premieres Thursday on Netflix)
3. Peggy, a novel about the life of the art collector Peggy Guggenheim, written by the late writer Rebecca Godfrey and completed by Leslie Jamison (out Tuesday)

To some people, the story began in a dusty field, gone wild with invasive grass. It was a story about high winds and sparks turning to flames. It was a story about harrowing escapes and people fleeing in terror, the lucky ones rushing into the ocean as the deadly wildfire devoured an entire town. Those were the stories most people heard. Those were the stories most people told. But those of us who know this place and know its history know there is so much more.

• A hot new bombshell is taking over reality TV.
• The hotdish ticket
• How greed got good again
• What to read when you want to quit
• When realism is more powerful than science fiction
• A marriage that changed literary history
• This is not your typical campus novel.

• Having a chance has changed the Democrats.
• The law as Justice Gorsuch sees it
• Israel’s disaster foretold