Harper 's be simply the best magazine around -- thoughtful , critical , vary , insightful , challenging . it refuse to bow down and to pretend that the emperor be not naked , and yet it do not have a shrill or grating tone . in a world go mad , it be the voice of reason and sanity , liberal in the finest and most liberating sense of the word . it be the only magazine I give as gift -- as of 2008 , to seven different people , who have all come to love it , and to look forward to it , as much as I do .