Overlooked Stories

If you’re spending this Fourth of July holiday in the U.S. grilling or setting off Roman candles, we hope you have some time to take a break and read. Today, we have suggestions for readers anywhere in the world — 25 of the best stories from The Times this year so far.

They’re articles you may not have seen yet. We asked editors around the newsroom to pick their favorite stories that, for one reason or another, most readers overlooked.

There are beautiful photos of Spanish flamenco dresses, a tale of TikTok feuds and a peek inside a pacifist sect in Canada.

Enjoy these 25 stories:

THE LATEST NEWS

International

Fourth of July

Other Big Stories

Opinions

These graphics show that for the majority of American college students, affirmative action made very little difference, Richard Arum and Mitchell L. Stevens argue.

“The Problem of Whiteness”: A class at UChicago stoked outrage after a student with a large online following posted about it.

Lives Lived: Joseph Pedott made Chia Pets a sensation. He died at 91.

SPORTS NEWS

N.B.A.: The Timberwolves signed Anthony Edwards to a max extension worth up to $260 million, The Athletic reports.

The frankfurter favorites: Joey Chestnut and Miki Sudo are favored to win today’s Nathan’s hot dog eating contest. The Athletic asks: Can they beat their own records?

Women’s World Cup: An assault case that rattled one of France’s best soccer teams remains unresolved despite a series of arrests, The Times reports.

Wimbledon upset: Coco Gauff is out after losing her first-round match to Sofia Kenin yesterday. It was a shock for the rising star, The Athletic writes.

BookTok: TikTok has changed the way that readers discover books. Shops that once steered readers toward new authors now struggle to fill requests for writers who have gone viral on the app. BookTok, as the app’s book-loving community is known, is a force in the industry: Sales driven by authors with large followings there rose 60 percent last year. “To say it’s hugely important is an understatement at this point,” one publishing executive said.

TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, recently started its own publishing arm, Elizabeth Harris and Alexandra Alter report. It has been offering deals to self-published authors in genres that are popular on the app, such as fantasy, romance and mystery.

More on culture

• Political fights have come for school plays: People can’t agree on what shows are appropriate for students to stage.

• The Brooklyn Museum’s “Africa Fashion” exhibition is “something wondrous,” a Times review says.

THE MORNING RECOMMENDS …