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.

Collect Raindrops: The Seasons Gathered (Abrams, 2007) assembles a retrospective of calendar prints from self-taught artist Nikki McClure. Hardcover, with a cloth spine and no dust jacket, the book has decadent 10-by-13 inch pages that give McClure's exquisite paper cuts (created with an X-Acto knife) plenty of space to stretch and wander. Simple images -- father and son nestling in a tent, a pregnant woman contemplating dipping her toes into the sea, hands stretching into the air -- pair with optimistic words and phrases, reminding us to pay attention to the rhythms of life:  Breathe. Trust. Vote. Admire it as a collection of art, or sit down and cycle through the seasons. McClure's socially conscious tidings make Collect Raindrops a picture book adults and children could share. -- Julie Hanus

Branding itself 'A Magazine of Ideas,' the American is a new project of the conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute aimed at 'survey[ing] the full scope of American life through the lens of business and economics.' Now in its fourth issue (May/June), the magazine presents wide-ranging features in which the free market reigns as the solution for today's pressing political and social issues. Like many of its snarky, liberal print counterparts, the American attempts to turn conventional wisdom on its head with lead stories such as 'The Upside of Income Inequality,' co-authored by Nobel Prize-winning economist Gary Becker, and 'Club Dread,' a portrait of one white-collar criminal's trip to prison that turned out to be nothing like the 'Club Fed' he imagined. The American advances a set agenda to a clearly defined audience of global businesspeople, looking to combine the accessibility of magazines like Forbes and Fortune with the scholarly acumen of Harvard Business Review. -- Eric Kelsey