There was a lot of news in 2017 — just take a look at the 750 breaking news alerts The New York Times sent this year, a 30 percent jump from last year. So we understand if you might have missed some of these great reads. Here’s a selection of some of our favorite somewhat-overlooked stories from the past year.

As Turkey’s governing party expands the ranks of its enemies, life in a fragile democracy becomes stranger and stranger. Many Turks — journalists, academics, Kurds and people accused of working for the exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen — live in exile, having lost their livelihoods and their citizenship, and having been separated from their husbands and wives and children. By Suzy Hansen.