The Slate Endorsements
Books, music, movies, and other stuff Slate writers liked last month.
Slate critics and columnists often recommend all sorts of useful and fascinating stuff: books, documentaries, albums, television shows, new gadgets, and the like. Sometimes these endorsements appear in obvious spots (like our movie reviews), but just as often they come in unexpected places, like a "Dear Prudence" or "Fighting Words" column. So at the start of every month, we'll be publishing a handy roundup of all the things we like, since we figure you'd like some of these things, too. Take a look at our latest favorites, and remember you can purchase SlateT-shirts, mugs, and other merchandise at the Slatestore.
December 2009
Books
Thomas Mallon's Yours Ever: People and Their Letters
(Recommended by Megan Marshall in "Hey, Mr. Postman")
John Keegan's The American Civil War: A Military History
(Recommended by David W. Blight in "America's Armageddon Revisited")
Michael Scammell's Koestler: The Literary and Political Odyssey of a Twentieth-Century Skeptic
(Recommended by Johann Hari in "The Casanova of Causes")
Zadie Smith's Changing My Mind
(Recommended by Nathan Heller in "How Should Fiction Be Read?")
Gail Collins' When Everything Changed
(Recommended by Julia Turner in "The Culture Gabfest, 'They'll Remember Me 100 Years From Now Edition' ")
P.G. Wodehouse's The Code of the Woostersand Leave It to Psmith
(Recommended by Jody Rosen in "The Culture Gabfest, 'They'll Remember Me 100 Years From Now Edition' ")
Henning Mankell's Firewall
(Recommended by Stephen Metcalf in "The Culture Gabfest, 'They'll Remember Me 100 Years From Now Edition' ")
Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly
(Recommended by Amman Sood in "The Endless Afghanistan Gabfest")
Peter Matthiessen's Shadow Country
(Recommended by Ted Tripp in "The You Say Tomato Gabfest")
Robert Kurson's Shadow Divers: Adventure of Two Americans Who Risked Everything To Solve One of the Last Mysteries of WWII
(Recommended by Erica Hatfield in "The Kitchen Bitch Gabfest")
Also see Slate's best books of 2009 feature.
Movies
Scott Cooper's Crazy Heart
(Recommended by Dana Stevens in "The Dude Abides")
Jason Reitman's Up In the Air
(Recommended by Chris Suellentrop in " The Culture Gabfest, 'Better Than an Emery Board to the Eyeballs Edition' ")
The Brad Bird film Ratatouille
(Recommended by Dana Stevens in "The Culture Gabfest, 'Do You Want to Touch My Poof Edition' ")
Julian Schnabel's The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
(Recommended by Dana Stevens in "The Culture Gabfest, Do You Want To Touch My Poof Edition' ")
The Coen brothers' O Brother, Where Art Thou?
(Recommended by Dana Stevens in "The Culture Gabfest, 'Do You Want to Touch My Poof Edition' ")
Spike Lee's Inside Man
(Recommended by Dana Stevens in "The Culture Gabfest, 'Do You Want to Touch My Poof Edition' ")
Benito Zambrano's Solas
(Recommended by June Thomas in "The Culture Gabfest, 'Do You Want to Touch My Poof Edition' ")
José Luis Garci's Bloody May
(Recommended by June Thomas in "The Culture Gabfest, 'Puny Ingratiation Edition' ")
Also see Grady Hendrix's list of the 10 great 2009 movies no one saw and Dana Stevens' list of her favorite movies of the year and of the decade.
Music
Animal Collective's Sung Tongs, among other albums.
(Recommended by Jonah Weiner in "Animal Collective")
The music of Eva Tanguay
(Recommended by Jody Rosen in "Vanishing Act")
Alicia Keys' "Try Sleeping With a Broken Heart"
(Recommended by Jody Rosen and Jonah Weiner in "Track of the Week: Alicia Keys' 'Try Sleeping With a Broken Heart' ")
Everything But the Girl's "Unless It Rains" and "Get Me."
(Recommended by Stephen Metcalf in "The Culture Gabfest, 'That's My Gingerbread Edition' ")
Low's Christmasalbum
(Recommended by Stephen Metcalf in "The Culture Gabfest, Better Than an Emery Board to the Eyeballs Edition")
Sandy Denny singing "Who Knows Where the Times Goes"
(Recommended by Stephen Metcalf in "The Culture Gabfest, 'Do You Want to Touch My Poof Edition' ")
The Replacements song "Alex Chilton."
(Recommended by Julia Turner in "The Culture Gabfest, Do You Want to Touch My Poof Edition")
Also see Slate's year-end music club and Fred Kaplan's article on the best jazz albums of 2009.
Technology
See Farhad Manjoo's column on the older, cheaper gadgets that make great gifts.
Television
Mr. Ed
(Recommended by Nathan Heller in "Trojan Horse")
Parks and Recreation
(Recommended by Jonah Weiner in "You Should Really Be Watching Parks and Recreation")
Hoarders
(Recommended by Troy Patterson in "The Wrong Stuff")
Fraggle Rock
(Recommended by Torie Bosch in "Why Must Fraggle Rock Get Updated?")
November 2009
Books
Joan Biskupic's American Original
(Recommended by Emily Bazelon in "The Alienator")
Gail Collins' When Everything Changed
(Recommended by Katha Pollitt in "The Real Secret of Feminism")
Konstantin Pleshakov's There Is No Freedom Without Bread
(Recommended by Anne Applebaum in "1989 and All That")
Jennifer Burns' Goddess of the Market and Anne Heller's Ayn Rand and the World She Made
(Recommended by Johann Hari in "How Ayn Rand Became an American Icon")
Nicholas Humphrey's Seeing Red
(Recommended by Ron Rosenbaum in "The Dangerous Mysteries of Consciousness")
Roald Dahl's James and the Giant Peach
(Recommended by James Parker in "Outfoxed")
Kinsley Amis' Lucky Jim
(Recommended by Stephen Metcalf in "The Culture Gabfest: Cute vs. Evil Edition")
Ian McEwan's Black Dogs
(Recommended by Stephen Metcalf in "The Culture Gabfest: Cute vs. Evil Edition")
Masha Gessen's Perfect Rigor: A Genius and the Mathematical Breakthrough of the Century
(Recommended by June Thomas in "The Culture Gabfest: Tangled Up in Yule Edition")
Ariel Levy's Female Chauvinist Pigs
(Recommended by Julia Turner in "The Culture Gabfest: Tangled Up in Yule Edition")
Movies
Werner Herzog's Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
(Recommended by Dana Stevens in " Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans")
The Twilight Saga: New Moon
(Recommended by Dana Stevens in " The Twilight Saga: New Moon")
Roland Emmerich's 2012
(Recommended by Dana Stevens in "It's the End of the World as We Know It")
Wes Anderson's Fantastic Mr. Fox
(Recommended by Dana Stevens in " Fantastic Mr. Fox")
Robert Zemeckis' A Christmas Carol
(Recommended by Dana Stevens in "Scrooge 3.0")
The documentary New York Doll
(Recommended by Stephen Metcalf in "The Culture Gabfest: Plutonium Blonde Edition")
Music
Cecilia Bartoli's Sacrificium
(Recommended by Jan Swafford in "Nature's Rejects")
Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance"
(Recommended by Troy Patterson in "Notes Toward a Close Reading of the New Lady Gaga Video")
Jamie's Foxx's "Speak French"
(Recommended by Jonah Weiner in "Track of the Week: Jamie Foxx ft. Gucci Mane, 'Speak French' ")
Yeasayer's "Ambling Alp"
(Recommended by Jonah Weiner and Jody Rosen in "Track of the Week: Yeasayer's 'Ambling Alp' ")
Patricia Highsmith's novel-turned-film The American Friend
(Recommended by Stephen Metcalf in "The Culture Gabfest: Good Breeding Edition")
The soundtrack to the Wes Anderson movie Rushmore
(Recommended by Dana Stevens in "The Culture Gabfest: Good Breeding Edition")
Television
Glee
(Recommended by Troy Patterson in "I Love Glee")
Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations
(Recommended by Troy Patterson in "Slouching Towards St. Louis"
Modern Family
(Recommended by Julia Turner in "The Culture Gabfest: Good Breeding Edition")
Parks and Recreation
(Recommended by Julia Turner in "The Culture Gabfest: Cute vs. Evil Edition")
Bones
(Recommended by Julia Turner in "The Culture Gabfest: Plutonium Blonde Edition")
Other
Big Boggle, the old-school 5x5 version
(Recommended by Julia Turner in "The Culture Gabfest: Good Breeding Edition")
October 2009
Books
Jeffrey L. Sheler's Prophet of Purpose
(Recommended by Alan Wolfe in "Riding God's Wave")
Donald Kagan's Thucydides: The Reinvention of History
(Recommended by Anthony Grafton in "Did Thucydides Really Tell the Truth?")
Ludmilla Petrushevskaya's There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried To Kill Her Neighbor's Baby
(Recommended by Juliet Lapidos in "Survivalist Fairy Tales")
Frans de Waal's The Age of Empathy
(Recommended by Christine Kenneally in "How Nice Are We?")
Bruno Bettelheim's The Uses of Enchantment
(Recommended by Dana Stevens in "The Culture Gabfest: Bombard Me With Phenomes Edition")
Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 8
(Recommended by Julia Turner in "The Culture Gabfest: Bombard Me With Phenomes Edition")
William Langewiesche's The Outlaw Sea
(Recommended by Jody Rosen in "The Culture Gabfest: Bombard Me With Phenomes Edition")
Robert Weinstock's Food Hates You Too and Other Poems
(Recommended by Stephen Metcalf in "The Culture Gabfest: The I'll Eat You Up Edition")
Movies
Kenny Ortega's This Is It
(Recommended by Dana Stevens in "The Last Moonwalk")
Chris Rock's Good Hair
Recommended by Dana Stevens in "Straight Talk")
Lone Scherfig's An Education
(Recommended by Dana Stevens in "An Education")
Kristopher Belman's More Than a Game
(Recommended by Josh Levin in "Self-Love and Basketball")
Ruben Fleischer's Zombieland
(Recommended by Josh Levin in "Naked Female Zombies Running in Slow Motion")
The Coen Brothers' A Serious Man
Recommended by Dana Stevens in " A Serious Man")
Music
Chris Brown's I Can Transform Ya
(Recommended by Jonah Weiner in "New Single")
Creed's Greatest Hits
(Recommended by Jonah Weiner in "Creed Is Good")
Paramore's Brand New Eyes
(Recommended by Jonah Weiner in "Fall in Love With Paramore")
Bob Dylan's Christmas in the Heart
(Recommended by Jody Rosen in " I Dreamed I Saw St. Nicholas: Why Bob Dylan's Christmas Album Isn't a Joke")
Brad Paisley's American Saturday Night.
(Recommended by Jody Rosen in "The Culture Gabfest: The Flying Circus Edition")
Kings of Convenience's Declaration of Dependence
(Recommended by Stephen Metcalf in "The Culture Gabfest: The Flying Circus Edition")
Richard Thompson's "Beeswing"
(Recommended by Stephen Metcalf in "The Culture Gabfest: The Damage Control Edition")
Television
The League
(Recommended by Troy Patterson in " The League")
Lock 'N Load
(Recommended by Troy Patterson in " Lock 'N Load")
The Good Wife
(Recommended by Troy Patterson in " The Good Wife")
The Larry Sanders Show
(Recommended by Stephen Metcalf in "The Culture Gabfest: Bombard Me With Phenomes Edition")
On the Road With Charles Kuralt
(Recommended by Seth Stevenson in "On the Road Again")
Technology
Microsoft's Windows 7
(Recommended by Farhad Manjoo in "Get Windows 7")
Tune-identifying app Shazam
(Recommended by Farhad Manjoo in "That Tune, Named"
Other
Yamaha's AvantGrand Digital Piano
(Recommended by Chris Wilson in "Roll Over, Beethoven")
Fage Yogurt
(Recommended by Nathan Heller in "Yoplaited Out")
Vintage Hondas
(Recommended by Tim Wu in "The Cult of the Vintage Hondas")
September 2009
Books
James Davidson's The Greeks and Greek Love
(Recommended by Emily Wilson in "Ancient Greek Lessons About Gay Marriage")
William Trevor's Love and Summer
(Recommended by Judith Shulevitz in "The Encumbrance of Things Past")
Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn's Half the Sky
(Recommended by Johann Hari in "Where Have All the Women Gone?")
Lorrie Moore's A Gate at the Stairs
(Recommended by Claire Dederer in "What Nanny Knew")
Ben Winters and Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters
(Recommended by Ben Winters in "This Scene Could Really Use a Man-Eating Jellyfish")
Popular Mechanics' 100 Skills Every Guy Should Know
(Recommended by Matthew Schneier in "Mr. Manners")
Sarah Schulman's Ties That Bind: Familial Homophobia and Its Consequences
(Recommended by June Thomas in "The Culture Gabfest: Teen Beat Edition")
Mark Davidson's Right Wrong and Risky: A Dictionary of Today's American English Usage
(Recommended by Julia Turner in "The Culture Gabfest: The If You Were Keats, You'd Be Dead by Now Edition")
Movies
Jane Campion's Bright Star
(Recommended by Dana Stevens in "There's Something About Keats")
Steven Soderbergh's The Informant!
(Recommended by Dana Stevens in " The Informant!")
Karyn Kusama's Jennifer's Body
(Recommended by Dana Stevens in " Jennifer's Body")
Shane Acker's 9
(Recommended by Dana Stevens in "Little Burlap Guys")
Leslie Cockburn's American Casino
(Recommended by Dana Stevens in " American Casino")
Mike Judge's Extract
(Recommended by Dana Stevens in "The Discreet Charm of the American Bonehead")
Hal Ashby's Bound for Glory
(Recommended by David Haglund in "Forget Harold and Maude")
Masaki Koboyashi's The Human Condition
(Recommended by Grady Hendrix in "King of Pain")
Masterpiece Theatre's post-Cold War spy comedy Sleepers
(Recommended by Julia Turner in "The Culture Gabfest: Old Fogies and Jailbait Edition")
Kathryn Bigelow's Point Break
(Recommended by Dana Stevens in "The Culture Gabfest: The If You Were Keats, You'd Be Dead by Now Edition")
Dean Parisot's Galaxy Quest
(Recommended by Stephen Metcalf in "The Culture Gabfest: The Kill Rock Stars Edition")
Jan de Bont's Twister
(Recommended by Dana Stevens in "The Culture Gabfest: The Kill Rock Stars Edition")
Phil Alden Robinson's Sneakers
(Recommended by Julia Turner in "The Culture Gabfest: The Kill Rock Stars Edition")
Music
Miley Cyrus' "Party in the USA"
(Recommended by Jonah Weiner in "Can Miley Cyrus Save Health Care Reform?")
Bruce Springsteen's Born To Run
(Recommended by Louis P. Masur in "Tramps Like Us")
Pearl Jam's "The Fixer"
(Recommended by Jonah Weiner in "The Last Sellouts")
The Beatles' "There's a Place"
(Recommended by Colin Fleming in "Beatles for Sale")
Throw Me the Statue's Creaturesque
(Recommended by Stephen Metcalf in "The Culture Gabfest: The Teen Beat Edition")
The Concretes' self-titled album
(Recommended by Stephen Metcalf in "The Culture Gabfest: The If You Were Keats, You'd Be Dead by Now Edition")
Isaac Hayes' Hot Buttered Soul
(Recommended by Stephen Metcalf in "The Culture Gabfest: Old Fogies and Jailbait Edition")
French singer-songwriter Charles Trenet
(Recommended by Jody Rosen in "The Culture Gabfest: Old Fogies and Jailbait Edition")
Television
Modern Family
(Recommended by Troy Patterson in " Modern Family")
Community
(Recommended by Troy Patterson in " Community and Cougar Town")
Kings
(Recommended by David Plotz in "The Death of Kings")
Technology
Google's browser Chrome
(Recommended by Farhad Manjoo in "Chrome for Clunkers")
The business search engine Redbeacon
(Recommended by Farhad Manjoo in "How To Fix Craigslist")
The iPhone app B.iCycle
(Recommended by Tom Vanderbilt in "iTransport")
The game Must Pop Words
(Recommended by Julia Turner in "The Culture Gabfest: Old Fogies and Jailbait Edition")
Other
2007 J.J. Prüm Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Kabinett
(Recommended by Mike Steinberger in "I'm Tasting Tar, Traffic Cones, Motor Oil ..."
Apple cider from Wandering Aengus Ciderworks
(Recommended by Brian Palmer in "What Would John Adams Drink?")
Ja-ru Fun Bubbles
(Recommended by Dahlia Lithwick in "Blown Away")
The L Magazine's "The Evolution of the Modern Blockbuster"
(Recommended by Dana Stevens in "The Culture Gabfest: Old Fogies and Jailbait Edition")
August 2009
Books
Thomas Pynchon's Inherent Vice
(Recommended by Jonathan Rosenbaum in "Pynchon on the Beach")
Alison Gopnik's The Philosophical Baby
(Recommended by Paul Bloom in "What's Inside a Big Baby Head?")
Tracy Kidder's Strength in What Remains
(Recommended by Johann Hari in "Genocide From the Inside")
Linda Yang's The City Gardener's Handbook
(Recommended by Julia Turner in "The Culture Gabfest: The Springtime for Tarantino Edition")
Patrick Radden Keefe's The Snakehead: An Epic Tale of the Chinatown Underworld and the American Dream
(Recommended by Julia Turner and June Thomas in "The Culture Gabfest: The All Hail Meryl Edition")
Scott Snyder's Negotiating on the Edge
(Recommended by Fred Kaplan in "Clinton in Pyongyang")
Alex S. Jones' Losing the News: The Future of the News That Feeds Democracy
(Recommended by Jack Shafer in "Ink Hole")
Food
The Charlotte, Vt., restaurant Pizza on Earth
(Recommended by Stephen Metcalf in "The Culture Gabfest: The 'I Weep for the Future' Edition")
Jennifer Reese's food blog, "The Tipsy Baker"
(Recommended by Dana Stevens in "The Culture Gabfest: The All Hail Meryl Edition")
Movies
Hayao Miyazaki's My Neighbor Totoro
(Recommended by Dana Stevens in "The Culture Gabfest: The Springtime for Tarantino Edition")
Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds
(Recommended by Dennis Lim in "Quentin Tarantino")
Nora Ephron's Julie & Julia
(Recommended by Dana Stevens in " Julie & Julia")
Uli Edel's The Baader Meinhof Complex
(Recommended by Dana Stevens in " The Baader Meinhof Complex")
Whit Stillman's The Last Days of Disco
(Recommended by Troy Patterson in " When Preppies Became Yuppies")
Music
Miles Davis' Kind of Blue
(Recommended by Fred Kaplan in " Kind of Blue")
The two-disc Curtis Mayfield compilation The Anthology 1961-1977
(Recommended by Stephen Metcalf in "The Culture Gabfest: The Total Commitment Edition")
Morrissey's Vauxhall and I
(Recommended by Stephen Metcalf in "The Culture Gabfest: The Total Commitment Edition")
Mary J. Blige's cover of U2's "One"
(Recommended by Julia Turner in "The Culture Gabfest: The Total Commitment Edition")
Dream Academy's cover of the Smiths' "Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want" (from Ferris Bueller's Day Off)
(Recommended by Dana Stevens in "The Culture Gabfest: The 'I Weep for the Future' Edition")
Television
Kourtney and Khloé Take Miami
(Recommended by Troy Patterson in "Self-Promotion on the Beach")
Shaq Vs.
(Recommended by Troy Patterson in "The Importance of Being Shaq")
The new season of Project Runway
(Recommended by Troy Patterson in "Let the Good Lines Roll")
The G4 network
(Recommended by Troy Patterson in "The G4 Man")
Lifetime's series Drop Dead Diva
(Recommended by June Thomas in "The Culture Gabfest: The 'I Weep for the Future' Edition")
The ABC Family original gymnastics series Make It or Break It
(Recommended by Julia Turner in "The Culture Gabfest: The Total Commitment Edition")
The 1980s drama thirtysomething
(Recommended by Seth Stevenson in " thirtysomething Turns Twentysomething")
Technology
Dave Winer's Web syndication service, RSS Cloud
(Recommended by Farhad Manjoo in "To Live, Twitter Must Die")
Google's ring-all-your-phones telephone service Google Voice
(Recommended by Farhad Manjoo in "The Great iPhone Lockdown")
Apple's iPhone dictionary app Ninja Words
(Recommended by Farhad Manjoo in "A Killer Mobile Dictionary")
The iPhone app video game Wolfenstein 3-D
(Recommended by Farhad Manjoo in "Killer Apps: Wolfenstein 3-D")
Other
Dunkin' Donuts Coffee and McDonald's Cappuccino McCafé
(Recommended by Nathan Heller in "Coffee Talk")
The Electra Amsterdam Royal 8i bicycle
(Recommended by Seth Stevenson in "I Want To Ride My [$1,400, Dutch-Style] Bicycle")
Robert Frost's poem "The Sound of Trees"
(Recommended by Stephen Metcalf in "The Culture Gabfest: The 'I Weep for the Future' Edition")
The photography archive blog Shorpy.com
(Recommended by Dana Stevens in "The Culture Gabfest: The Total Commitment Edition")
The Hermanos Peciña Rioja Crianza 2003 wine from Aulden Cellars
(Recommended by Mike Steinberger in "The Results of Slate's Twitter Wine Tasting")
July 2009
Books
Leszek Kolakowski's Main Currents of Marxism
(Recommended by Christopher Hitchens in "A Sense of Historical Irony"
Scandinavian crime novelist Stieg Larsson
(Recommended by Nathaniel Rich in "Scandinavian Crime Wave")
Maile Meloy's Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It
(Recommended by Judith Shulevitz in "A Very American Malignancy")
Richard Holmes' The Age of Wonder
(Recommended by Adam Kirsch in "What's Romantic About Science?"
James MacGregor Burns' Packing the Court
(Recommended by Emily Bazelon in "The Supreme Court on Trial"
Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art
(Recommended by Julia Turner in "The Culture Gabfest: The Smooth Criminal Edition")
Food
Cooks Illustrated's blueberry muffin recipe (login required), featured in The New Best Recipe cookbook
(Recommended by Julia Turner in "The Culture Gabfest: The Rocket Experience Edition")
Movies
Armando Iannucci's In the Loop
(Recommended by Dana Stevens in " In the Loop")
Sacha Baron Cohen's Brüno
(Recommended by Dana Stevens in "Whipping Boy")
The 2000 Australian film Chopper
(Recommended by Stephen Metcalf in "The Culture Gabfest: The Shrinky Dink Edition")
Todd Philips' The Hangover
(Recommended by Zachary Pincus-Roth in "Is The Hangover Really the Most Successful R-Rated Comedy Ever?")
DJ Spooky's Rebirth of a Nation
(Recommended by Nathan Heller in "DJ Spooky's 'Birth of a Nation' Remix."
Music
Jay-Z's "Death of Autotune" and "Run This Town"
(Recommended by Julia Turner in "The Culture Gabfest: The Shrinky Dink Edition")
Theremin player Pamelia Kurstin
(Recommended by Dana Stevens in "Theremin at the Movies: It's Not Just for Aliens Anymore.")
Gil Scott-Heron's "Whitey on the Moon"
(Recommended by Jody Rosen in "Space Ain't the Place: Gil Scott-Heron's 'Whitey on the Moon' ")
Country band Gloriana
(Recommended by Jody Rosen in "Summer Camp: Gloriana's 'Wild at Heart' ")
June Christy's Something Cool
(Recommended by Stephen Metcalf in "The Culture Gabfest: The Rocket Experience Edition")
Marianne Faithfull's 2008 album of covers, Easy Come, Easy Go
(Recommended by Dana Stevens in "The Culture Gabfest: The in Brüno Veritas Edition")
The Go-Betweens' "Cattle and Cane"
(Recommended by Stephen Metcalf in "The Culture Gabfest: The in Brüno Veritas Edition")
Caetano Veloso's cover of "Billie Jean"
(Recommended by Dana Stevens in "The Culture Gabfest: The Everybody's Dead Edition")
Television
Dating in the Dark
(Recommended by Troy Patterson in "Dreamfloats")
The Wendy Williams Show
(Recommended by Troy Patterson in " The Wendy Williams Show")
"Auto-Tune the News"
(Recommended by Troy Patterson in "Fresh Fake News"
The Day Today
(Recommended by Jessica Winter in "Armando Iannucci")
The 1990s sitcom Parker Lewis Can't Lose
(Recommended by John Swansburg in "The Culture Gabfest: The Smooth Criminal Edition")
The TV dancing competition So You Think You Can Dance
(Recommended by Stephen Metcalf in "The Culture Gabfest: The Everybody's Dead Edition")
Technology
Readability, the Web readability enhancer
(Recommended by Michael Agger in "Minimalist Igloos of Text")
The British music service Spotify
(Recommended by Farhad Manjoo in "The World's Greatest Music Service")
Typography company Typekit
(Recommended by Farhad Manjoo in "Down With Veranda!")
The videogame Kodu
(Recommended by Chris Wilson in "Logo on Steroids")
Single-subject Tumblrs
(Recommended by Farhad Manjoo in "Hipsters, Tempura Burgers, and Pets Who Want to Kill Themselves")
Other
Philip Johnson's Glass House
(Recommended by Witold Rybczynski in "If You Live in a Glass House")
The Nalgene Grip-n-Gulp bottle
(Recommended by Chip Brantley in "Sippin' on Milk and Juice")
Sculptor Jerry Blackman
(Recommended by Nathan Heller in "Re-examining the Artist-Gallery Relationship")
Verlyn Klinkenborg's "The Rural Life" column in the New York Times
(Recommended by John Swansburg in "The Joys of 'The Rural Life'.")
June 2009
Books
John Updike's My Father's Tears and Other Stories
(Recommended by Brad Leithauser in "The Examined, and Exhibited, Life")
Cristina Nehring's A Vindication of Love
(Recommended by Meghan O'Rourke in "Crazy in Love")
Israeli author Amos Elon
(Recommended by Christopher Hitchens in "Remembering Amos Elon")
Barry Edelstein's Thinking Shakespeare
(Recommended by Ron Rosenbaum in "The Best Way To Speak Shakespeare")
Barry Edelstein's Bardisms: Shakespeare for All Occasions
(Recommended by Ron Rosenbaum in "The Best Way To Speak Shakespeare")
Food
Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid's Beyond the Great Wall, Hot Salty Sour Sweet, and Flatbreads and Flavors
Fuchsia Dunlop's Land of Plenty and Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook
Najmieh Batmanglij's New Food of Life
Su-mei Yu's Cracking the Coconut
Andrea Nguyen's Into the Vietnamese Kitchen
Melissa Guerra's Dishes From the Wild Horse Desert
Darra Goldstein's A Taste of Russia and The Georgian Feast
Elizabeth Andoh's Washoku: Recipes From the Japanese Home Kitchen
(Recommended by Sara Dickerman in "The Recipe Detectives")
Movies
Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker
(Recommended in Dana Stevens in " The Hurt Locker")
Harold Ramis' Year One
(Recommended by Dana Stevens in "Two Cave Men Walk Into the Old Testament")
Todd Philips' The Hangover
(Recommended by Dana Stevens in "Dumb Summer Guy Movies")
Brad Silberling's Land of the Lost
(Recommended by Dana Stevens in "Dumb Summer Guy Movies")
Sam and Ivan Raimi's Drag Me to Hell
(Recommended by Dana Stevens in "Go to Hell")
Bill Forsyth's Comfort and Joy
(Recommended by Stephen Metcalf in "The Culture Gabfest, the Middle of the Road Edition")
Television
Hung
(Recommended by Troy Patterson in "Big Membership Has Its Privileges")
NYC Prep
(Recommended by Troy Patterson in "Vanity Fair Jr.")
It's On With Alexa Chung
(Recommended by Troy Patterson in "Can Alexa Chung Save MTV?")
Make It or Break It
(Recommended by Troy Patterson in "Make It or Break It")
The Real World/Road Rules Challenge
(Recommended by Bonnie Vaughan in "The Real World/Road Rules Challenge")
Music
Pedro the Lion's It's Hard To Find a Friend
(Recommended by Stephen Metcalf in "The Culture Gabfest, the Failed Species Edition")
Dmitri Shostakovich's "String Quartet No. 10"
(Recommended by Stephen Metcalf in "The Culture Gabfest, the Failed Species Edition")
Mogwai's EP+2
(Recommended by Stephen Metcalf in "The Culture Gabfest, the Heavy Traffic Edition")
Built To Spill's song "Car"
(Recommended by Julia Turner in "The Culture Gabfest, the Middle of the Road Edition")
R. Kelly's mixtape The "Demo" Tape
(Recommended by Jonah Weiner in "Acquitting Himself Nicely")
Lady Gaga's single (and video) "Paparazzi"
(Recommended by Jonah Weiner in "How Smart Is Lady Gaga?")
Composer Charles Ives' Symphony No. 1: Three Places in New England
(Recommended by Jan Swafford in "This American Composer")
Other
Jonathan Torgovnik's pictures of the Rwandan genocide
(Recommended by Mia Fineman in " 'Children of Bad Memories' ")
The Green Johanna Hot Composter
(Recommended by Jude Stewart in "Soil Yourself")
The Bolt bus between Boston and New York
(Recommended by Noreen Malone in "Get on the Bus")
Technology
The Google task manager Gmail Tasks
(Recommended by Chip Brantley in "To Do: Make To-Do List")
Mozilla's Firefox 3.5
(Recommended by Farhad Manjoo in "The Fantastic Firefox")
May 2009
Books
Gerald Martin's Gabriel García Márquez: A Life
(Recommended by Michael Wood in "The Myth of Gabriel García Márquez")
Matthew Crawford's Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work
(Recommended by Michael Agger in "Heidegger and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance")
Aleksandar Hemon's Love and Obstacles
(Recommended by Adam Kirsch in "Nowhere Man")
Peter Robb's Midnight in Sicily and Lawrence Millman's Last Places
(Recommended by Stephen Metcalf in "The Culture Gabfest, the Performance Anxiety Edition")
W.H. Auden and Louis MacNeice's Letters From Iceland
(Recommended by Stephen Metcalf in "The Culture Gabfest, the Mature Adaptation Edition")
George R. Stewart's Names on the Land
(Recommended by Jody Rosen in "The Culture Gabfest, the 'Boo-Effing-Hoo' Edition")
Marc Okrand's Klingon Dictionary
(Recommended by Arika Okrent in "There's No Klingon Word for Hello")
Thomas McCormick's China Market
(Recommended by Daniel Gross in "General Tso, Meet Colonel Sanders")
Michael Oren's Power, Faith, and Fantasy
(Recommended by Christopher Hitchens in "President of Which Israel?")
Richard Golden's Depth of Revenge and Cormac McCarthy's The Road
(Recommended by Ron Rosenbaum in "The New Nuke Porn")
Daniel Pinchbeck's Breaking Open the Head
(Recommended by Ron Rosenbaum in "2012: Tsunami of Stupidity")
Drinks
All of the wine importers on this handy list. Buy a bottle with one of their names on the back, and it'll almost certainly be good. (Recommended by Mike Steinberger in "Never Buy a Bad Bottle of Wine Again")
Movies
J.J. Abrams' Star Trek
(Recommended by Dana Stevens in "Go See Star Trek")
Stephen Soderbergh's The Girlfriend Experience
(Recommended by Dana Stevens in "Ho Mortgage Crisis")
Richard Berge, Bonni Cohen, and Nicole Newnham's documentary The Rape of Europa
(Recommended by Dana Stevens in "The Culture Gabfest, the 'Boo-Effing-Hoo' Edition")
Pixar's Up
(Recommended by Dana Stevens in "Time To Get High")
Music
Erlend Øye's album Unrest
(Recommended by Stephen Metcalf in "The Culture Gabfest, the Franchise Reboot Edition")
The Lucksmiths
(Recommended by Stephen Metcalf in "The Culture Gabfest, the Mature Adaptation Edition")
The Pernice Brothers' song "The Weakest Shade of Blue"
(Recommended by Stephen Metcalf in "The Culture Gabfest, the 'Boo-Effing-Hoo' Edition")
GS Boyz's single "Stanky Legg"
(Recommended by Jody Rosen in "Do Da Stanky Legg")
The Black Eyed Peas' single "Boom Boom Pow"
(Recommended by Jonah Weiner in "Over the Hump")
Don Omar's iDon and King of Kings
(Recommended by Jody Rosen in "Neuromántico")
Television
In Treatment
(Recommended by Julia Turner in "The Culture Gabfest, the Performance Anxiety Edition")
Star Trek: The Next Generation
(Recommended by Juliet Lapidos in "There Are Four Lights!")
Other
Titus, an adaptation of Shakespeare's play Titus Andronicus by the Washington Ensemble Theater
(Recommended by June Thomas in "The Culture Gabfest, the Mature Adaptation Edition")
"Into the Sunset: Photography's Image of the American West" at the Museum of Modern Art
(Recommended by Sarah Boxer in "Ready, Aim—Dream")
"Francis Bacon: A Centenary Retrospective" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
(Recommended by Christopher Benfey in "The Raw Vision of Francis Bacon")
April 2009
Books
Grigoris Balakian's Armenian Golgotha: A Memoir of the Armenian Genocide and Christopher de Bellaigue's Rebel Land: Travels Among Turkey's Forgotten Peoples
(Recommended by Christopher Hitchens in "Telling the Truth About the Armenian Genocide")
Amos Oz's Rhyming Life and Death
(Recommended by Judith Shulevitz in "Why Write While Israel Burns?")
Reza Aslan's How To Win a Cosmic War
(Recommended by Alan Wolfe in "Let's Fight Wars on Earth, Not in Heaven")
John Demos' The Enemy Within and Thomas Robisheaux's The Last Witch of Langenburg
(Recommended by Johann Hari in "Why the Wicked Witch Isn't Dead")
Frank Partnoy's The Match King
(Recommended by Sam Kean in "Where's Our Scapegoat?")
Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish's How To Talk So Teens Will Listen and Listen So Teens Will Talk
(Recommended by Dear Prudence in "Dream Lover")
Leslie Morgan Steiner's Crazy Love
(Recommended by Linda Hirshman in " Crazy Love, Crazy Choices")
John Harley Warner and James M. Edmonson's Dissection: Photographs of a Rite of Passage in American Medicine 1880–1930
(Recommended by Barron H. Lerner in "Gather 'Round the Cadaver")
Susan Jacoby's Alger Hiss and the Battle for History
(Recommended by Stephen Metcalf in "The Culture Gabfest, 'Oh My God, Ugly People Can Sing' Edition")
Cook Books
Joan Nathan's Jewish Cooking in America, Bernard Clayton's New Book of Breads, Anne Mendelson's Milk: The Surprising Story of Milk Through the Ages, and The King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion
(Recommended by Jennifer Reese in "Scratch That")
Nancy Baggett's Kneadlessly Simple
(Recommended by Sara Dickerman in "My Inner Baker")
Drinks
Penfolds' St. Henri Shiraz, the Leeuwin Estate Art Series Riesling, and Betts & Scholl's O.G. and Chronique
(Recommended by Mike Steinberger in "Not Such a G'Day")
Movies
Sacha Gervasi's Anvil! The Story of Anvil
(Recommended by Dana Stevens in "This is Anvil!")
John Cassavetes' Faces
(Recommended by Dana Stevens in "Essential Cassavetes")
Albert and David Maysles' Grey Gardens
(Recommended by Troy Patterson in "Decaying Preppies")
The films of Jason Statham, especially Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels, War, and Crank
(Recommended by Jody Rosen in "The Last Action Hero")
So Yong Kim's Treeless Mountain
(Recommended by Dana Stevens in "The Culture Gabfest, 'Oh My God, Ugly People Can Sing' Edition")
Television
The Golden Girls
(Recommended by Troy Patterson in "Four Old Women Share an Apartment")
Music
The oeuvre of Run-DMC, especially Raising Hell
(Recommended by Jody Rosen in "Kings of Rock")
Limp Bizkit's Significant Other and Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water
(Recommended by Jonah Weiner in "Was Limp Bizkit Really That Bad?")
Morrissey's Years of Refusal, Viva Hate, Your Arsenal, and Vauxhall and I
(Recommended by Stephen Metcalf in "Bigmouth Strikes Again")
The Thermals' Now We Can See
(Recommended by Julia Turner in "The Culture Gabfest, 'Oh My God, Ugly People Can Sing' Edition")
Other
The Kinesis Advantage, an ergonomic keyboard
(Recommended by Laura Moser in "Apple Option Ouch")