From the Stacks: December 8, 2006

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Utne Reader's library is abuzz with a steady flow of 1,500 magazines, newsletters, journals, weeklies, zines, and other lively dispatches from the cultural front that are rarely found at big-box bookstores, newsstands, or even online. So we share the highlights (and occasional lowlights) of what's landing in our library each week in 'From the Stacks.' Check in every Friday for the latest edition.

The literary magazine Pindeldyboz offers, thankfully, an explanation of its name: it is a 'feeling of confusion and/or anxiety, when ingeniously anesthetized by obese amounts of levity.' After reading the sixth issue, I must admit that it's a strangely fitting title. The stories' quirks and dark humor keep them from venturing into the pedestrian territory of many other literary magazines. Amy Havel's 'The News,' which could easily have been a trite story about an affair,?veers happily off-course by revealing that its protagonist eats clothing -- his lover's and her husband's. Another gem, Greg Sanders' 'Choco,' chronicles the relationship between a woman and her live-in bear. Pindeldyboz is funky enough to read cover-to-cover. -- Danielle Maestretti

Juxtapoz is one of those rare art publications that is smart, but not snooty; powerful, but not pedantic; hip, but not obnoxious. True, it is sometimes overwhelmed by its advertising (at times, it can be hard to tell content from commercial). That said, the ads are cool-as-hell, and so is the content. An arts and culture monthly out of San Francisco, Juxtapoz features young, edgy, under-exposed artists who have a penchant for the political, gritty, and guerilla. Whether the genre is 'psychedelic Southern gothic' or 'social surrealism,' the art in this publication is fresh, exciting, and communicative. -- Elizabeth Oliver

In the post-9/11 scramble to prepare Americans for disaster, the Department of Homeland Security launched Ready.gov, a website that turned out to be laden with questionable and confusing advice. (A disclaimer on the site even warned the information may not be 'accurate, complete, or current.') So a young college student working with the Federation of American Scientists took it upon herself to make things right, creating ReallyReady.org to fill in the government's gaps (especially the gaping hole of advice for people with disabilities). The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists profiles the effort -- deemed 'counterproductive' by the government -- in its November/December issue. The Bulletin, tagged as a publication of 'Security, Science & Survival,'has been nominated for two Utne Independent Press Awards in 2006. -- Rachel Anderson

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