From the Stacks: June 1, 2007

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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 New Confessionals, a collection of female zinesters' writings compiled by Katie of The La-La Theory fame, will have you running to the office-supply store for scissors, glue sticks, and pens -- because you'll want to make a zine of your own, and right away. Katie has assembled a delicate balance of writings that are funny and somber, thoughtful and lighthearted, and all-around readable. In an excellent excerpt from Clark8, Megan Gendell gracefully chronicles her descent into suicidal thoughts, describing an 'almost manic' evening during which she cleaned her room and folded her clothes: 'I wanted to leave things in a state of order.' In 'M is for Mixtape,' Becky writes an ode to the art of mixtaping and declares her 2007 New Year's resolution to 'make my height in mixtapes.' By her calculations, given her height (5' 2') and the width of a cassette tape (1/2 inch), she'll have to crank out 124 mixtapes by year's end. -- Danielle Maestretti

Coffeeshop Crushes, a one-off zine from 2001 reprinted in April by Microcosm Publishing with a few new additions, catalogues the sometimes awkward, sometimes painful interaction between the java we love and the dreamboats who sell it. Edited by Nicole J. Georges and Jon Van Oast, the zine is split between amusing anecdotes about secret crushes and illustrated comics that chart jittery attempts to gain the attention of beloved baristas. While a good many of the crushes remain simply that, a few gain purchase as lusty encounters of promise that end with embarrassing failures or broken hearts. As one such account concludes: 'After a week and a half of coffee themed hot sex, I decided to declare my love. I was more surprised than he. He said 'You know you're cute and all, but.... You're just too weird for me.'' -- Chris Gehrke

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