Americans abroad, book igloos and chemo for cats

What our production staff has been reading:

Maddy Mahon:

As a Peace Corps volunteer in Ukraine I became strangely fascinated by

all things Chernobyl. This Wired article looks at the wildlife that's

slowly returning to the area, something that's been applauded by

naturalists and many organizations, but the author suggests that perhaps

all is not as well as it appears in the Chernobyl area...

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(Ukrainian veterans of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster cleanup, also known as liquidators, carry a mock coffin on November 29, 2011 during the symbolic burial of their peer Gennady Konoplyov during a protest in the eastern Ukrainian industrial city of Donetsk. Konoplyov died on November 27, 2011 shortly after police officers forcibly removed a tent camp set up by liquidators in Donetsk to protest cuts in their benefits. Alexander KHUDOTEPLY/AFP/Getty Images)

Emily Kaiser:

Killing by remote control. And I wish my apartment was big enough for a book igloo.

Tom Weber:

Mormom teens on missions

.

Chris Dall:

How much should you spend on a pet?

(An European shorthair cat plays with its booty in a garden in Berlin, Germany, on April 18, 2012. Due to their ability to hunt mouses and other vermin, cats have been domesticated by humans at least 9,500 years ago. WOLFGANG KUMM/AFP/Getty Images)

-- Stephanie Curtis, social media host