Shelf Life: Inside Our Reader’s Digest
(Page 2 of 3)
January-February 2008
by Danielle Maestretti
RELATED CONTENT
From the Stacks...
Bejeezus is the first magazine we’ve snagged from Kentucky in more than a year! The square-shaped, lushly designed “guide to unpopular culture,” based in Louisville, exudes a hometown devotion so genuine that I’m considering moving south. Issue #9 (Autumn 2007) is a colorful mishmash of local art, writing, and ideas; in one of my favorite features, the editors ran a bunch of cool artwork and asked the artists to comment on one another’s pieces. It’s snappy and energetic, like pretty much everything else in this magazine. The issue’s music section includes both a funny vignette about a Toto concert—you know, “Hold the line, love isn’t always on time”—and a tear-jerking tour through one woman’s favorite mourning music after her husband’s death. $15/yr.
(4 issues) from Box 4156, Louisville, KY 40204; www.bejeezuszine.com.
Long, wonky reports are often difficult to digest, but then again, so are the dense summations of them that appear in newspapers and magazines. Enter City Limits Investigates, a New York–based magazine of urban affairs that lets a single lengthy, approachable report stretch out comfortably over as many as 30 pages to fill each issue. The Fall 2007 installment, “Awaiting Justice,” tackles New York City’s bail system, a “middle ground between freedom and guilt” that often gets short shrift in discussions of criminal justice. The investigation finds that judges are increasingly setting bail for low-level crimes such as marijuana possession or trespassing, filling the city’s jails with pretrial detainees who can’t afford bail. Previous issues reported on the city’s “silent sewage crisis” and lack of affordable housing. $25/yr. (4 issues) from 120 Wall St, 20th Floor, New York, NY 10005; www.citylimits.org.
n+1, a thoughtful biannual journal of culture, literature, and politics, has issued the charming pamphlet “What We Should Have Known: Two Discussions,” which is much more entertaining—and much less curmudgeonly—than it sounds. The premise is simple: Writers sit down to chat about the books they read, or wish they’d read, in college. Wisdom ensues. Interns transcribe. Some hilarious, brilliant moments, particularly striking for those of us who’ve seriously questioned the utility of our liberal arts educations, are captured here. One panelist astutely refers to college as a “hiatus”: “I did stuff before college and I did stuff after college, but what the hell did I do in college?” For undergrads: useful, but disillusioning (not necessarily a bad thing). For just about anyone else: fun. $9/pamphlet from 195 Chrystie St. #200, New York, NY 10002, or “free for college freshmen and other 18-year-olds (with ID),” from college pamphlet@nplusonemag.com.