On Spec

On Spec is a digest-sized quarterly packed with SF short fiction and poetry -you'll find science fiction, fantasy, horror, magic realism, and more in every issue. We publish a theme issue annually, and this year it's "Me & Mr. Jones: Addiction."

NB: I was surprised to see that cancellations and refunds are not allowed if you subscribe via amazon.com -we've always offered a full refund to anyone not happy with their subscription. Just goes to show that the best way to subscribe is directly:

Welcome to Ukraine

Like a child at the holidays, I look forward to my copy of Welcome to Ukraine every quarter. The articles are diverse and informative, the pictures are fabulous. My only disappointment with the magazine is that it comes out quarterly instead of monthly! I cherish my copies dearly.

This is a beautiful high quality magazine. From cover to cover it is filled with beautiful pictures of people, places and art from a wonderful country. If you have any interest in Ukraine, its history, culture, art, music, or beautiful scenery, this magazine is a must. You will not be dissapointed. The latest magazine is 144 pages packed with well written articles and perfect photography.

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House: Design Architecture Lifestyle

this has to be the worst magazine ever... total waste. full of ads. nothing else.

Don't be fooled by the $5 subscription price, as this "magazine" is just pages of ads for home design companies located in Long Island, New York. My first issue contained not even one article -just a series of ads. On the plus side, one call to Amazon led to a $5 refund.

Magazine: REALLY BAD

Amazon Customer Service: EXCELLENT

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I got this magazine at a discount rate, hoping to see different ideas to design and upgrade rooms because home decorating is not my forte. This magazine is full of pictures of homes and products that cost HUGE amounts of money. I gave it two stars only because the right audience might find it inspiringperhaps upcoming architects or insanely rich people who have no idea how to decorate? No one I know could come close to actually affording the lavish home and room decor featured in the articles and ads. If you don't make millions per year, I don't think this mag will appeal unless you are someone who is entertained by merely seeing the homes of extremely rich people. Personally, I honestly put it in the recycling bin as soon as it comes, because there is nothing in this magazine that I can relate to or remotely afford. (Even if I did have that kind of money, I can't imagine paying the insane prices listed on the items featured anyway.)

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This magazine is definitely not intended for working class folks. The designs and materials are quite extravagant. Makes me wonder who lives in these places.

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This magazine pretty much went straight to the thrash as soon as it got to me. There is absolutely no useful info in the magazine. I'm very disappointed with the subscription. There are just too many ads. The content is like one of those free magazines that you can pick off the street.

I tried to be a good citizen, asking them to stop sending me the magazine without a refund. But I still receive it in the mail. I feel bad about wasting the paper. Good thing is the subscription will end in March.

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Reiki News Magazine

At any level of Reiki this magazine is one of the best tools. Eash issue has so many interesting and valuable articles.I look forward to every issue & consider it a must for all Reiki enthusiests.

If you are new to Reiki or an old pro this magazine is a great read! It has many ideas and techniques for using your Reiki energy and covers every subject imaginable on Reiki.

Don't miss the opportunity to improve your Reiki knowledge tenfold by subscribing to this treasure!

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The Reiki News Magazine provide comprehensive information for the practitioner. Articles are well written and easy to understand. I read my first issue cover-to-cover.

Even though this is a quarterly journal, I recieved the most recent copy instead of having to wait until the next publication date. It was a nice touch by the magazine!

I would recommend this publication to both new and experienced practitioners of Reiki.

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While I agree there are some very good articles, I find this magazine to be way too promotional with most of the promotions pointing to RAND products and classes. The overpromoting overshadows the articles. Not worth the money to me.

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This magazine has great articles, lets me know what's going on with Reiki and keeps me on track with my own practice.

Vanity Fair July 2007 Africa Issue, Cheadle/Iman Cover

If I were teaching middle school World History I'd use this mag for a text book. This high interest issue exudes style and info as well as gritty images set against gorgeous eye candy. The pages are balanced with the overwhelming obstacles Africans face in the "pursuit of happiness" AND the news about chosen injections to turbo charge African economies. It's hard to get your head around Africa's simultaneous heart ache and potential unless you've been there, but VF did a GREAT job.

I love reading about the stars and their humane aspirations and endeavors. I hope the hopefulness plays out to be real.I read an article a day with morning coffee and pray. I also have ordered some copies for friends from Africa.I wish I had bought 10 copies at the News stand. Now I'm ordering "old copies" from Amazon--

Thanks, VF, Bono, and Amazon.

Self (1-year auto-renewal)

I've subscribed to Self on-and-off for about 15 years, but have recently been feeling like I've outgrown the magazine. The articles seem to focus on issues facing single women who are just starting their careers. Fine, but not for me anymore! Also, their subscription department is terrible! My most recent subscription has been plagued with missed issues, double issues and late issues -and a customer service department that can't quite pull themselves together.

While I look to Glamour and Mademoiselle magazines for intelligent topics on women's interests and look to Cosmopolitan for sex and relationship advice and Vogue for the latest fashion trends, I look to Self for self-improvement. This glossy mag features articles on how to stay fit, eat healthy, look and feel great and delves into issues such as breast cancer and different types of painful menstruation as well as articles on what a difference it makes to eat strawberries instead of chocolate for snack and the importance of drinking water. (My skin is looking great for having started drinking more water.) It is the mag I look to to make me feel good! I have learned how to eat healthier snacks and different exercise routines by reading this gem. This is my first year as a subscriber to this magazine and I shall continue to subscribe to it every year!

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My Self subscription started when Women's Sports & Fitness was cancelled. While it's not quite as athletic as that magazine was, Self has an extra emphasis on participation rather than competition. They use "reader models" in a lot of their photo spreads, and really emphasize the idea of a healthy and strong body, over an idealized "fashion model" body. Articles discuss the latest gym class crazes, nutrition and supplement breakthroughs, and debunking of fad diets. They do include some fashion (focus on workout apparel) and makeup (emphasis on natural look and healthy skin) info, but this is not a foo-foo Cosmo magazine. There are healthy recipes, workout plans targeting a new body part monthly, and creative ways to workout outside the gym as well as inside. Overall, this magazine focuses on real women's lives and how to make them healthier, happier, and more fit. There's a lot of practical advice here that is very applicable to most people's lives.

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Self what? The entire magazine now pushes product on every inch of every page. Their product placements went from "convenient and subtle" to obviously pandering to their revenue sources. Plus the stories and tips are so far out of reality that anyone over 25 with half of a brain couldn't relate. I once enjoyed Self and their monthly self-help plans. Their core message has gotten lost in the sea of product pushing.

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I've been a Self subscriber for two years, and I just cancelled subscription. At first, I loved the magazine because it offers lots of nutritional advice, and the Self Challenge, which starts in March, is really helpful for starting an exercise routine.

However, after two years, I've noticed the following:

Content tends to repeat over and over. If you subscribe, you'll really only need one year to get the gist of what they'll say every month.

Too much emphasis on statistics. I tried to count the number of studies Self referenced in one issue, and lost count because ther were so many.

Too much editorializing on social issues. I don't like being preached at in the name of "women's health," but that's just my personal opinion.

Not enough discussion of exercises to do at the gym. If you don't have a gym membership, Self is great at providing exercises you can do at home. But there's almost no discussion of how to effectively use weight lifting machines, or even free and hand weights.

All in all, a pretty decent magazine. But not good enough for a renewal for a third year!

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Portals of Prayer - Large Print ed

I have read Portals of Prayer for many years; receiving it in large print has made enjoying it easy on my eyes.

Short, quick, concise and uplifting. No home should be without it.

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Discovery Girls (1-year)

My 11-year-old daughter has been a subscriber for about 1 ½ years and absolutely adores Discovery Girls. She reads it cover to cover the day it arrives in the mail. It provides a great mix of articles about issues that affect the 7-12 age group as well as fashion tips, celebrity interviews, quizzes and more all the things the girls are looking for in a magazine! The readers provide much of the content for the magazine so it is truly a forum for girls to express themselves as well as an opportunity to see that other girls are having the same experiences. As a parent, I like the magazine because it is completely appropriate for the "tween" girl great content in the articles (real topics about real issues), limited advertising and the "models" are readers who are chosen by their answers on a questionnaire, not by the way they look. It's nice for girls who are beginning to worry about body image to be able to see normal girls just like them in the pages of a national magazine. I would definitely recommend this magazine to anyone who knows a girl in the 7-12 age range!

I am a media specialist at public school. I am in charge of ordering various media including magazines for our library. Discovery Girls was first sent to me as a sample. Upon reviewing the contents I quickly decided this was a keeper and ordered a subscription for my students.

I is so nice to see someone publishing a magazine where teen girls are presented as wholesome, age-appropriate teen girls and not as exploited, skin-bearing women. I had been hoping for years for a magazine like this. Discovery Girls is packed with topics appealing to teens. The layout is vivid and attracting. If you are concerned about content and role models for teen girls then this is the magazine you have been waiting for.

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I've gotten about half a dozen issues of Discovery Girls, and every time I finished reading it, I came away dissapointed. The way DG writes sounds like a popular girl or an MTV show host talking. Discovery Girls focuses far too much on boys, fashion, makeup, and celebrities. It says right on the cover, "A Magazine for girls ages 7 and up." I know that when I was 7, I did not even think about dating boys, wearing makeup, how cool my clothes were, or whether I owned the latest CD by a singer. However, Discovery Girls puts little or sometimes even no focus on more important elements in life, such as school and family. I have found that DG even subtly hints that school and family are not important. For example, I quote, "an endless day of school" and "your parents had less complicated lives when they were tweens, so do they understand all that you're going through?" which disgusted me immensly. When school is mentioned, it is usually a page of advice on what do if a friend is going boy-crazy, or a "crash-course lesson on school supplies," which brings me to my next point.

Discovery Girls is chock-full of advertisements that annoy me greatly. In addition, the "product reccomendation and reviews" pages reccomend the same products that were advertised. This leads me to believe that Discovery Girls does not geniunely think that the products they reccomend are worth buying; they simply are endorsing the products they are paid to advertize, which I find extremely misleading. The products they advertize are also pretty expensive, for example a small chest of drawers that cost over $60. This might trigger some girls into nagging their parents into buying them things that they just saw in a magazine and thought, "Well, if Discovery Girls thinks it's cool, then it's cool, so I want it!" which will be a waste of money for the parents.

One of the most disgusting parts of Discovery Girls magazine is that they often hint that there are only two types of girls: The high-fashion, glamorous actress who loves pink and purple, and the sporty, gym-class-loving athlete. I'm not exactly sure what they are trying to promote here, but there is only one word to describe what is going on here: STEREOTYPING. I find that utterly horrible, and especially in a magazine for girls ages 7 and up. This will make 7-year-olds believe that if they aren't glamorous or sporty, they will fade into oblivion. I know that for sure I am neither, and am having no pre-teenage crises at the moment because I do not conform to these standards. To further support my point, I will give one example that stands out in my mind: there was an issue that featured a craft article on locker decorating. Sounds pretty harmless. However, there were only two themes presented: the "glamor girl," whose theme was pink, purple, and fake jewels, and the "super sports star," whose theme comprised of soccer balls and fake medals. This made me feel incredibly happy to be who I was, seeing that I am in neither camp and yet still "mysteriously" managed to be happy and lead a decent life.

There is a "Spotlight on [name of sport]" in every issue, which can be interesting, right up to the point where there is a subheading reading "What you'll need." A few issues ago, the article was on basketball, and the "what you'll need" was all of expensive Nike shoes and sports equipment. Girls who read the article will subconsciously be pressured into thinking, "I play basketball. I need expensive name-brand clothes and sports equipment," which is absolutely not true. Moderately-priced sports clothing and equpiment will work just as well as the more pricey equipment. A couple dozen issues back, LIP GLOSS was advertized on the sports page! I think this was in a highly inappropriate place, seeing that there was a message saying, "Don't forget to wear Lip Smackers lip balm while you're playing tennis!" That was the most shocking part of it. It was totally obvious that Smackers paid Discovery Girls to endorse their product, which is highly dissapointing. Plus, the "What you'll need" does not even need to be there. I am perfectly confident in saying that girls ages 7 and up know that you need a basketball and shoes to play basketball!

As my mom sometimes says, kids and teenagers are "the blind leading the blind." Discovery Girls has advice pages, but the advice is written by girls ages 7-12. Now, I think some of the advice given is not very helpful, and girls reading the advice would be better off asking a parent or trusted adult for advice. If the problem is so serious that it is worth it to send the problem in to a magazine and get it published to get advice, I think the advice should come from a responsible adult, or at least be better.

In addition, there is always a "fashion" section in the magazine, which spans over a few pages, bearing pictures of blondes wearing name-brand clothes and thumbnails of jewelry, accessories, and high-fashion items. I think that tweens are exposed enough to pop culture and are pressured daily at school to wear makeup and buy high-fashion, expensive clothes. Why promote it more in a magazine? On the subject of clothes and fashion, the "Beauty" section does not promote makeup or shaving, but it does talk about hairstyles and other issues like that. This kind of topic may be well-suited for girls ages 10 and up, who are starting to be interested in things like that, but for 7-, 8and 9-year-olds? I think not. Girls that young don't need to worry about things like that yet; growing up happens too fast anyway. They should just enjoy the time they have to be a kid.

Overall, I do admit that once in a while I find an article or a quiz I enjoy reading that has a decent moral. However, the overall message the magazine gives to girls is one similar to fashion and gossip magazines, only translated into a language that girls 8 and up can understand. I don't reccomend it.

P.S.: Instead of Discovery Girls, I HIGHLY reccomend American Girl magazine... it's more appropriate, has NO ADVERTISEMENTS, well-written and fun to look at articles, good advice, and fun projects and crafts that are unique and don't look like they were found on the internet. American Girl is a far better magazine!

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BBC History

I too recently subscribed to BBC History Magazine through Amazon and had no problems. It's a colorful magazine full of interesting and lively articles and stimulating ideas. Indirectly, I also see BBC History Magazine as a kind of travel magazine. There are lots of historical places I want to check out after reading a few issues. Highly recommended!

I really enjoy this magazine, so much so that I asked for it as a gift for Christmas. But, as of ten months later I have not recieved any of the magazines. If you want a subscription for BBC History my suggestion is to contact the magazine directly, especially if you live in the U.S. I have contacted the magazine department at Amazon and have not received any real response. This was supposed to be a gift subscription. It was not worth the money.

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I love this magazine.

Covers a wide array of topics, from medieval to WWI and WWII.

Very well written and researched.

I'm a loyal subscriber

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I do not know of a better magazine for world wide history articles. Even its small paragraphs are packed with important items. I look forward to receiving it each month.

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GREAT! This is the best for any lover of history. Studied the subject in college and really missed at good magazine that is all history. This one also includes historical subjects outside the British realm. Well researched, well written and much enjoyed.

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