Reader staffers share stories that fascinate, amuse, or inspire us.

Hey, did you read:

• That a fatal Austin shooting marks the 500th homicide of the year? (The last time Chicago had 500 or more homicides was in 2008; the murder rate is up 17 percent over last year.) —Tal Rosenberg

• That Arizona's Sheriff Arpaio is putting armed volunteers around schools in his county? —Tony Adler

• Charles Pierce on "the austerity dance"? —Ben Sachs

• That hundreds of men accused of sexual offenses including rape have run for public office in India over the last five years? (Meanwhile, the 23-year-old student who was gang raped earlier this month shows signs of organ failure.) —Kate Schmidt

• Maura Johnston writing at NPR about the current state of music writing? (And, really, you could just cut out "music" and add "on the Internet" after "writing"—they're interchangeable.) —Tal Rosenberg

• Bryant Terry's vegan-Asian-soul food recipes for good luck in the New Year? —Kate Schmidt

• The top ten long-form pieces of the year according to long-form-writing aggregators Longform and Longreads? —Tal Rosenberg