Magazines
Reviews of new magazines: Fresh Home, Sandra Lee Semi-Homemade, and more
By Steve Black -- Library Journal, 05/01/2009
New Reviews for May:
Design and Culture | Fresh Home | PainPathways | Sacred Fire | Sandra Lee Semi-Homemade
Design and Culture. 2009. 3/yr. $302. Ed: Elizabeth Guffey. ISSN 1754-7075. illus. Aud: Ac (Subject: Design—History. Issue examined: Vol. 1, No. 1, Mar. 2009)British publisher Berg continues its steady stream of new scholarly art journals with Design and Culture, the official journal of the Design Studies Forum, a professional group dedicated to the study of design history, theory, and criticism. The editor promotes an interdisciplinary approach to the study of design and of the cultures in which design flourishes. Relevant disciplines include anthropology, geography, political economy, and cultural studies. All articles are peer-reviewed and thoroughly referenced. The inaugural issue’s six research articles cover topics such as faith-based design in electronic circuitry (e.g., a cruciform MP3 player), the tumultuous International Design Conference of 1970, and the imminent death of the CD as the favored medium for recorded music. Design and Culture includes reviews of exhibitions and books. Berg’s newest offering is a fine choice for academic libraries serving students and researchers in design or cultural studies. [The institutional subscription price above includes electronic access; E-ISSN 1754-7083; online-only subs: $257. Sample issue.]
Fresh Home. 2009. q. $19.96. Ed: Neil Wertheimer. illus. adv. Aud: GA (Subject: Interior Decoration. Issue examined: Vol. 1, No. 1, Mar. 2009)Big-box home stores are filled with so many ways to personalize one’s home and drain one’s wallet, where do you start? Fresh Home features project ideas that touch on items in every aisle. In typical Reader’s Digest style, its new magazine’s content is clear, to the point, well organized, and assumes little or no prior experience. Projects include anticipated cost, skill level required, time involved, and a comparison of the cost of do-it-yourself vs. buying a similar object ready-made. This is a beginner’s magazine, and most but not all of the projects presume tools and materials can be purchased in a big-box home store. Fresh Home meets the needs of many homeowners; recommended for public libraries’ home improvement collections.
PainPathways. 2008. q. $20. Ed: Richard L. Rauck, M.D. illus. adv. Aud: GA (Subject: Pain—Treatment. Issue examined: Vol. 1, No. 4, Winter 2008)This glossy is the official magazine of the World Institute of Pain, which is also responsible for the Wiley-Blackwell journal Pain Practice. Rauck is a member of the scholarly journal’s editorial board. The examined issue of Pain Pathways includes a profile of cancer survivor Elizabeth Edwards, an article about migraines, and a feature on gender differences in the incidence of pain. A notable inclusion is a directory of current clinical trials for painful conditions like arthritis, back pain, cancer, fibromyalgia, headaches, and multiple sclerosis. Targeted specifically to people suffering from chronic pain, Pain Pathways states it will be distributed to medical and pain clinics, patients, and caregivers. If it’s commonly found in doctors’ waiting rooms, do libraries need to subscribe? Perhaps, because the personal inspirational stories may create interest in back issues. Appropriate for larger heath and wellness collections.
Sacred Fire. 2005. q. $28. Ed: Jonathan Merritt. ISSN 1557-346X. illus. adv. Aud: GA (Subject: Spiritual Life—New Age Movement. Issue examined: Issue 8, Fall–Winter 2008)In the examined issue, the editor states, “One of the basic premises of Sacred Fire is that the gods are alive and active in the world . . . on every level of being, each with particular attributes and tastes.” This perspective is described in articles rooted in the authors’ personal fascinations with indigenous peoples’ ancestral spiritual traditions, including animism, panentheism, and shamanism. Redesigned in 2008, Sacred Fire is a full-color, professionally produced journal that supports the work of the Sacred Fire Foundation, a group that sponsors “fire circles,” community celebrations of nature and spirit. Unlike superficially similar publications such as Circle Magazine or Modern Witch, Sacred Fire is little concerned with pagan rituals and even less so with occultism. The alternative spiritualities expressed here may interest patrons concerned with living close to nature, even if they have no particular interest in alternative religions. Sacred Fire is recommended for larger collections of spirituality literature and for patrons interested in getting back to nature.
Sandra Lee Semi-Homemade. 2009. bi-m. $19.98. Ed: Sandra Lee. ISSN 1943-8060. illus. adv. Aud: GA (Subject: Cookery. Issue examined: Vol. 1, No. 1, Feb./Mar. 2009)The inaugural issue features “181 Fast Recipes & Easy Ideas,” written in a semi-interesting style with no pretense of boundaries between advertising and editorial content. Recipes combining prepared foods with fresh ingredients will appeal to many busy cooks and are comparable with those in Ceil Dyer’s popular book Best Recipes from the Backs of Boxes, Bottles, Cans and Jars. The graphic design and color palette will be familiar to readers of Hoffman Media’s other publications, e.g., Victoria, Cooking with Paula Dean, and Sew Beautiful. The substantial target audience of busy women who want to create tasty meals and decorate on a tight budget undoubtedly includes many patrons of libraries. So while Sandra Lee Semi-Homemade has little other than its emphasis on using brand-name prepared foods to distinguish it from the plethora of cookery magazines and books, it could appeal to enough users to be a worthwhile acquisition for public libraries.
See Magazine Reviews for January–April
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Steve Black is a librarian at the College of Saint Rose in Albany, NY, and teaches a course in serials at the University at Albany. He is also the author of Serials in Libraries: Issues and Practices (Libraries Unlimited), and he interviews editors on Periodical Radio. Steve would like to give special thanks to his colleague Dan Nester for his help evaluating literary magazines |
