From the Stacks: May 12, 2006

Article Tools

Print

E-mail

Comments

RSS

Utne receives some 1,200 magazines, newsletters, journals, weeklies, and zines. Add in hundreds of books, CDs, and DVDs, and it's a flood of media that lines the walls of our library and piles high on our desks. All the ideas, people, and stories inspire lively daily chatter, but they can't all fit into our bimonthly magazine. So we share the gems here in our weekly editions of 'From the Stacks.' Check in every Friday for the freshest highlights of the independent and alternative media.

Civic pride can be a beautiful thing. Harry Wiland and Dale Bell's Edens Lost & Found: How Ordinary Citizens are Restoring Our Great American Cities (Chelsea Green Publishing, April 2006) focuses on Chicago, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Seattle, with stories and color photos showing that living in cities can be sane, joyful, and even wild and green. Pictures of Philadelphia murals first caught my eye (I spent two hot summers in the City of Brotherly Love decades ago), but then I was engaged by much more: community gardens, habitat restoration, Chicago Wilderness a coalition that publishes an excellent magazine, and profiles of tree planters, innovative teachers, and urban planners working to 'wean a city off its cars.' Finally, inclusion of a resource directory makes the book not just inspirational but useful. -- Chris Dodge

The fourth issue of Words and Pictures Magazine, a new quarterly 'devoted to written and visual expression,' features an arresting photo essay by John Oliver Hodges, a writer, photographer, and teacher living in Alaska. The undated black and white photographs would be compelling on their own, but the accompanying captions (ranging from short stories to explanations) lend a certain charm to the already striking images. Also in this issue is an article about scouring coral reefs for natural medicines, with writer Francesca Lyman addressing the debate surrounding bioprospecting -- called 'biopiracy' by some -- in underwater seascapes. While the fledgling magazine has some editing snafus, the content -- rich with culturally diverse topics and works of art -- more than compensates. -- Miriam Skurnick

RSS | Comments | E-mail | Print