It's summertime and the living is easy. Or so it would seem for the readers of 944, which focuses this month on travel. It's really a perfect summertime read: light but interesting. You won't find stories about the war in Afghanistan or the still-tanking national economy, but hey, don't we get enough of that every day online and on TV? When I'm sitting in my lounge chair, I'd much rather read about why I should plan a trip to India.

Most of us undoubtedly think of magazines as year-round reads, not tied to a particular season. But I know quite a few newsstand buyers who equate People, Us, and other frothy entertainment mags with beach chairs and chaise lounges. I even had a friend who only bought People in May and June, just so she could stock her beach house with a few weeks' worth of guilty reading pleasures each summer.

If you want to know how to play like a winner, pick up a subscription to Golf Digest. The monthly is geared to serious players and sports a strong template: well-organized, concisely written sections that feature solid information from pros -- players and coaches alike -- as well as profiles, tour information and fashion tips. It's like Popular Mechanics for golfers; no detail is ignored.

The term "salad days" has taken on a new meaning in our house. We increased our membership in a local Community Supported Agriculture farm to a full share this year, meaning we get a full box of produce every week instead of the half box we had been getting in years past. As a result, I've had more romaine lettuce than I know what to do with. I'm hoping edibleWOW will help me down the line with recipes to use up future loads of veggies since it focuses on what's currently in season. And since what's in season varies from …

When the going gets tough, the tough go to the movies. How better to escape than settling back in a comfy chair for two hours in cool darkness? So taking a look at Moving Pictures magazine seems like a good idea; these are trying times and movies may be our last means of escapism, with "reality" programming taking over the tube.

A regional magazine rises and falls on the enthusiasm of its constituency, sort of the way Dixieland did. Maybe that's why an awful lot of periodicals in this category have floundered over the years, yet Southern Living has continued to roll off the presses since 1966. Perhaps it's because there just seems to be something different about the South. You don't often see T-shirts bragging about the Pacific Northwest or bumper stickers proclaiming the greatness of the Mid-Atlantic States. Quick! Name a ballad about the Great Lakes States.

I arrived at work one morning to find a copy of Vegas on my desk, with a Post-it slapped above the strangely death-like gaze of actress Heather Graham. The note read: "Mock me." As my colleagues will attest, I'm the first to do a coffee run and aim to be a congenial office mate. So let the jabs begin!

Saveur has been at the top of my list to review for a couple of months, but when I saw that the current issue was "The Texas Issue," my heart dropped. There's a life-size "cowboy rib eye" on the cover. I haven't eaten beef or pork in more than 20 years; could I give this magazine a fair shake when the majority of the articles were likely to involve red meat consumption?

Last week Nickelodeon Magazine Group announced it plans to shut down both Nick and Nick Jr. by the end of this year. Such news is always a shame, and for many reasons. But in this year of multiple media closures, it's particularly disturbing to think that so many budding magazine readers will soon enough find their mailboxes empty. One wonders if many of these kids will find other print publications to fill the void, or begin to focus exclusively on electronic media. What's especially sad is that there's some good content in both publications.

It was just a little over a year ago that I wrote about Wondertime and gave it probably the most blatantly gushing review I have ever written. When that mag was killed, Disney began sending out FamilyFun as a replacement to subscribers -- not a good idea. I feel like physically shaking each and every big advertiser in FamilyFun and saying "Why didn't you advertise in Wondertime instead, so I could still be reading it and not this inane drivel?"