Here’s more great reading for you: five stories we love from across all of WordPress.

1. Spaces of Freedom in Iran

Jake Threadgould

An account of one traveler’s stay in Iran:

On my second night in Iran I was invited to a party in a middle-class area of Tehran. Since we were a mixed gendered group with a foreigner (yours truly) in their midst, we had to be reasonably inconspicuous when we stepped out of the car and onto the street. As soon as we stepped over the threshold of the house, however, we were no longer in the Islamic Republic.

2. Livin’ Thing: An Oral History of Boogie Nights

Alex French and Howie Kahn, Grantland

The full story of how Paul Thomas Anderson created his first masterpiece—and turned Mark Wahlberg into a movie star.

3. York & Fig

Marketplace

An examination of how the neighborhood of Highland Park in Los Angeles is quickly gentrifying. The team at Marketplace interviewed current and former residents, business owners, and investors and developers to paint a full picture of what’s occurring.

4. Cheerleaders for Christ

Jia Tolentino, Adult magazine

“I tell people all the time I never really drank the water, but of course that’s not totally true.” Recollections of a former cheerleader at a Texas private school attached to a Baptist megachurch.

5. Larry Bird’s Greatest Shot Was the One He Didn’t Take

Michael Rubino, Indianapolis Monthly

How basketball great Larry Bird almost walked away from the game.

You can find our past collections here—and you can follow Longreads on WordPress.com for more daily reading recommendations.

Publishers, writers, share links to your favorite essays and interviews (over 1,500 words) on Twitter (#longreads) and on WordPress.com by tagging your posts longreads.

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Longreads’ Best of WordPress, Vol. 9