June 27, 2013

Quick Reads: “Humboldt” by Emily Brady


 

Humboldt cover

Humboldt: Life on America’s Marijuana Frontier

By Emily Brady

GRAND CENTRAL PUBLISHING

Pot-growing hippies who fled San Francisco for Northern California’s rural Humboldt County are victims of their own success in this multigenerational epic about the pathologies and paradoxes of the nation’s biggest weed-based economy, and how a growers’ utopia devolved into paranoia and violence. It’s an empathetic but unflinching portrait of a community caught in the legalization movement’s crosswinds.

This review originally appeared in our July/August issue of Mother Jones.

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A full one-third of our annual fundraising comes in this month alone. That’s risky, because a strong December means our newsroom is on the beat and reporting at full strength—but a weak one means budget cuts and hard choices ahead.

The December 31 deadline is closing in fast. To reach our $400,000 goal, we need readers who’ve never given before to join the ranks of MoJo donors. And we need our steadfast supporters to give again—any amount today.

Managing an independent, nonprofit newsroom is staggeringly hard. There’s no cushion in our budget—no backup revenue, no corporate safety net. We can’t afford to fall short, and we can’t rely on corporations or deep-pocketed interests to fund the fierce, investigative journalism Mother Jones exists to do.

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