Monocle takes its subtitle — A Briefing on Global Affairs, Business, Culture & Design — very seriously. Each issue is packed with dispatches from a truly international roster of contributors who report on esoteric to universal topics, always with a personal and culturally specific angle. The May 2007 issue features a highly recommended collection of pieces on the global bicycle culture and business.

-TR

Three issues old, this excellent Brooklyn-based quarterly serves up a Zeitgeist-tapping fix of great contemporary fiction, poetry, and essays alongside a feature portfolio focusing on the literature of a single region (so far they've been to Japan, Russia, and, most recently, Peru). Paris Review veteran Brigid Hughes is at the helm, along with a couple of regular Boldtype contributors.

-SD

Butt has already inspired a gaggle of budding art-fag mags and been name-dropped in the New York Times, yet it's is still your pink, one-stop read for gossipy tidbits about the peccadilloes of fabulous (if not famous) homos, candid conversations that out-interview Interview, and beautiful photos of nekkid guys of all makes and models.

-MS

Editor-in-Chief Michael Thompson explains Russia!'s existence: "After quite a few years, there can be a magazine about this country that isn't boring." And he's right: the thoroughly modern design and playful-yet-investigative pieces on Russian culture create an intriguing magazine that illuminates contemporary Russia wonderfully, for better or worse.

-TR

GOOD is a magazine "for people who give a damn." It slaps together useful and stimulating cultural investigations — from a guide to understanding North Korea to a study of HBO's formula for success — in an elegant, matte finish. Smart, worldly, and witty — it's definitely not a glossy.

-EMM