Welcome back to our weekly behind-the-scenes peek at what our team has been reading‚ learning and discussing. Let us know what you think at info@reasonstobecheerful.world. Big relief This week‚ Executive Editor Will Doig brought our attention to a CBS News story about a major move to help out New Yorkers burdened by unpaid medical bills. Will says:   The US is the only wealthy country without some kind of universal health care‚ and medical debt is the most common cause of bankruptcy for Americans. RIP Medical Debt — a group we wrote about a couple years ago — buys up medical debt and then essentially deletes it. New York City partnered with them to make $2 billion in its residents’ medical debt disappear. A brilliant workaround fix for a broken system. Beyond books Editorial Director Rebecca Worby shared a story from the Guardian about European cities that have embraced the library as a community “living room.” Becca says:   I just love these beautiful libraries. I am a big library user but I don’t actually spend a lot of time inside my local libraries. I suspect I would if I lived near one like these. In fact‚ we’ve covered this phenomenon here at RTBC‚ too: Contributing Editor Peter Yeung wrote about Helsinki’s Oodi library for us just over a year ago.  Credit: Maarit Hohteri What else we’re reading EU bans ‘misleading’ environmental claims that rely on offsetting — shared by Michaela Haas from the Guardian Plastic bag bans have already prevented billions of bags from being used‚ report finds — shared by Will Doig from Grist The push to save the coho at Dry Creek — shared by Rebecca Worby from Sierra Elsewhere in our channels… We’ve enjoyed seeing the responses to Contributing Editor Michaela Haas’ recent story about BookSmiles‚ a New Jersey-based book bank. “Personally I find that books for children are as essential as any other necessity of life‚” writes one reader. The post What We’re Reading: ‘Living Room’ Libraries‚ Medical Debt Relief and More appeared first on Reasons to be Cheerful.