What We’re Reading

Preeti Aroon

• “Newspapers thriving? Yes – in Asia,” by Simon Montlake in the Christian Science Monitor. Last year, FP said you can no longer argue that newspapers are dead. Although newspaper circulation may be falling in North America, it’s climbing in Asia, fueled in part by rising literacy rates and greater freedom of the press.

Shaun Heasley/Getty Images

Mike Boyer

• “Guest List for the First Lady’s Box at the State of the Union,” posted by Time‘s Mark Halperin. If this list is any indication, watch for the speech to be big on the economy and Iraq, with maybe a little health care and AIDS in Africa chucked in for good measure. The question is whether the economy or Iraq gets more time.

Christine Chen

• “The $100 Billion Woman,” in Fortune. Melinda Gates finally goes public about what it’s like being half of the world’s most powerful philanthropic partnership, giving away billions of dollars to fight malaria and other neglected diseases.

Blake Hounshell

• “McCain’s Secret Plan to Capture Bin Laden,” at the Wall Street Journal‘s Washington Wire blog. The Arizona senator knows how to get the world’s most wanted man, but he’s keeping it to himself, in his words, “because I have my own ideas and it would require implementation of certain policies and procedures that only as the president of the United States can be taken.”

Drew Kumpf

• Epicenter: Why Current Rumblings in the Middle East Will Change Your Future, by Joel C. Rosenberg. From Russia and China to Israel and Iraq, this book examines current events and future newspaper headlines based on Biblical prophecy, interviews with world leaders, and an eye for what’s next.

Prerna Mankad

• “It’s time to drink toilet water,” in Slate. Eileen Zimmerman brings to light the merits of drinking recycled sewage water. It’s clean, efficient, and environmentally friendly, yet people still can’t overcome the “yuck” factor.