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Biography: Noelle Williams is the resident magazines blogger here at Amazon.com. When not reading magazines, buying magazines, or thinking about them, she's generally enjoying her new baby, her new Mac, and her new drip irrigation system.

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Good Housekeeping Tests "The Goods"

4:02 PM PDT, September 18, 2007

The October issue of Good Housekeeping has arrived, and while I can't say I would normally find myself perusing its pages, I did come across their no-nonsense product reviews, titled "The Goods," and found myself wanting to share. This month's "what to buy, what to skip" section featured Celebrity Cookware, and while it was only a matter of time before the chefs we see on our TV would have more than recipes to sell us, a few items are both economical and well-made, according to the GH testers.

Among them, Mario Batali's Mozzarella Slicer, Nigella Lawson's robin's egg blue Kitchen to Oven Tableware, and Rachael Ray's famous 8 Quart Oval Pot, which watchers of her show will no doubt recognize - but whose sole drawback, according to the GH testers, is that it's so big, it doesn't fit on one burner. A small price to pay, they say.

Also featured in this month's issue, getting ready for Halloween (is it that time of year already?), and cleaning up shaving cream, eggs, and more, the day after the semi-dreaded holiday. (A yardstick wrapped in duct tape - with the sticky side out - makes a great weapon against toilet-papered trees, should you be so lucky.) Now, I know magazines have a far-reaching editorial schedule, but I honestly can't think about Halloween just yet - not until Summer is really, officially over. According to my calendar, anyway, and not the weather.

In topics: Family Room, Parenting, Recipes, What's Cooking?

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The Marriage of Print and Web: Fashion Week Coverage from "Elle"

10:16 AM PDT, September 12, 2007

With the internal workings of fashion magazines made mainstream by “Ugly Betty” and “The Devil Wears Prada,” Elle magazine has shrewdly gone where no fashion magazine has gone before. Yesterday they announced that they would be sharing an unprecedented amount of footage online from Fashion Week in New York. And not only are they making nearly 100 videos public – they’re doing it on a variety of online platforms, including YouTube, MySpace, and their own Elle Video Player. So embrace your inner diva and do like Martha Stewart, Diddy, Carole King, Demi Moore, and Ivana Trump do. (And yes, all of those people were at the same show. Zac Posen must be one heck of a versatile designer.)

Elle’s example is one in a growing group of internet-focused magazine brands. As magazine publishers become increasingly savvy internet users, bringing their pages to life through interactive media, the question will invariably come up again – how long can print magazines survive? Depending on who you ask, recent indications are promising – the Magazine Publishers of America announced on Monday that magazines have outpaced all other media usage – except internet, of course – in the last five years. While that bodes well for magazine fans, environmentalists take note: the MPA is also calling on magazine publishers to print PSAs in their pages asking readers to recycle the magazine they hold in their hands. Print won’t be going away any time soon, but magazines like Elle are wise to start reminding their customers of the value of multimedia experiences on the Web.

-- Noelle Williams

In topics: Fashionista, Guilty Pleasures

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Celebrating Midcentury Architecture: Who Knew?

11:58 AM PDT, September 6, 2007, updated at 2:02 PM PDT, September 7, 2007

Occasionally you find a magazine which makes you think, “huh, there’s a magazine on that?” That was my first impression of Atomic Ranch, which celebrates mid-20th century home architecture – essentially that “Brady Bunch” style of rambling angular ranch. The magazine, subtitled “Midcentury Marvels,” is a fine example of form meeting function: the uncluttered layout is superb, the color photographs, and even many of the ads, are gorgeous. The articles are generally engaging, and some are particularly helpful even to those of us with homes which are as far from this magazine’s style as they can get. (Did you know, for example, that there’s a company that actually sells slipcovers for select, mod pieces of Ikea furniture?)

Fifteen issues in, this quarterly magazine is certainly finding an audience; lately it’s been seen on more and more newsstands. Kudos to a niche magazine which celebrates and defines an under-served era in American architecture. Will this style become the new cool home everyone’s clamoring to have?

-- Noelle Williams

In topics: Family Room, Nonfiction, Collectibles, Recently Reviewed, Guilty Pleasures, Editors' Picks

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