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 Slate T-shirts, mugs, and other merchandise at the Slate store.
April 2011
David Foster Wallace’s The Pale King (Recommended by Judith Shulevitz in “ Why David Foster Wallace Couldn’t Finish“) Jim Shepard’s You Think That’s Bad (Recommended by Jennifer Schuessler in “ Miniaturist of Massive Catastrophe“)
Elijah Anderson’s The Cosmopolitan Canopy (Recommended by Sudhir Venkatesh in “ What Is the Matter With Sociology?“)
David Orr’s Beautiful & Pointless (Recommended by Craig Morgan Teicher in “ The Secrets of Poetryland“)
Sidney Lumet’s Making Movies (Recommended by Dana Stevens in “ Sidney Lumet’s Making Movies“)
Aki Kamozawa and H. Alexander Talbot’s Ideas In Food (Recommended by Sara Dickerman in “ Vacuum Sealing for the Everyday Cook“)
Eric Idle’s audio book reading of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Recommended by Dana Stevens in “ The Culture Gabfest, ‘Daddy, Can I Keep This Direwolf?’ Edition“) Roald Dahl’s story “ Taste” (available in the collection Someone Like You). (Recommended by Dana Stevens in “ The Culture Gabfest, ‘Drinkable Suede’ Edition“)
David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest (Recommended by Meghan O’Rourke in “ The Culture Gabfest, ‘Drinkable Suede’ Edition“)
George Orwell’s The Road to Wigan Pier and his 1949 essay “ Reflections on Gandhi.”
(Recommended by Stephen Metcalf in “ The Culture Gabfest, ‘Debonair Counterspy’ Edition“)
Paul Shaw’s Helvetica and the New York City Subway System (Recommended by Julia Turner in “ The Culture Gabfest, ‘Debonair Counterspy’ Edition“)
John Darnton’s memoir Almost a Family. (Recommended by David Grann in “ The Culture Gabfest, ‘Debonair Counterspy’ Edition“)
David Grann’s The Devil and Sherlock Holmes (Recommended by Jonah Weiner in “ The Storyteller’s Storyteller“)
Laurence Sterne’s The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (Recommended by Ron Rosenbaum in “ Is Ulysses Overrated?“)
Sigrid Nunez’s Sempre Susan: A Memoir of Susan Sontag (Recommended by Meghan O’Rourke in “ Book of the Week: Sempre Susan by Sigrid Nunez“) Meghan O’Rourke’s The Long Goodbye (Recommended by Jessica Grose in “ Book of the Week: The Long Goodbye“)
Music
Rockpile’s “ If Sugar Was As Sweet As You”
(Recommended by Julia Turner in “ The Culture Gabfest, ‘Why All These Stupid Altruistic Urges?’ Edition“)
Archers of Loaf’s “ Web in Front”
(Recommended by Julia Turner in “ The Culture Gabfest, ‘Why All These Stupid Altruistic Urges?’ Edition“)
Folk rock band the Avett Brothers (Recommended by Adam Goodheart in “ The Culture Gabfest, ‘Why All These Stupid Altruistic Urges?’ Edition“)
Elliott Smith’s “ Clementine”
(Recommended by Stephen Metcalf in “ The Culture Gabfest, ‘Why All These Stupid Altruistic Urges?’ Edition“)’Til Tuesday’s “ Voices Carry”
(Recommended by Julia Turner in “ The Culture Gabfest, ‘Daddy, Can I Keep This Direwolf?’ Edition“)
Australian rock band AC/DC (Recommended by Julia Turner in “ The Culture Gabfest, ‘Drinkable Suede’ Edition“)
Grenadine’s album Goya (Recommended by Stephen Metcalf in “ The Culture Gabfest, ‘Drinkable Suede’ Edition“)
The songs of Trey Parker and Matt Stone films Cannibal! The Musical, South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, and Team America: World Police (Recommended by Jeremy Stahl in “ The Greatest Musical Satirists of Their Generation”
Movies
Werner Herzog’s Cave of Forgotten Dreams (Recommended by Dana Stevens in “ Cave of Forgotten Dreams” and by Daniel Engber in “ Herzog Comin’ At Ya“) Kelly Reichardt’s films Old Joy, Wendy and Lucy, River of Grass, and Meek’s Cutoff (Recommended by Elbert Ventura in “ The Wanderer“)
Wes Craven’s Scream 4 (Recommended by Josh Levin in “ Cutting Edge“) James Gunn’s Super (Recommended by Nathan Heller in “ Super“)
Tim Hetherington’s short film Diary (Recommended by Dana Stevens in “ Tim Hetherington’s Diary“) Television
AMC’s The Killing (Recommended by Troy Patterson in “ The Killing“)
HBO’s fantasy series Game of Thrones (Recommended by Julia Turner in “ The Culture Gabfest, ‘Drinkable Suede’ Edition“)
FX’s drama Damages (Recommended by Meghan O’Rourke in “ The Culture Gabfest, ‘Drinkable Suede’ Edition“)
Other
The EarthTainer container-based growing system
(Recommended by Farhad Manjoo in “ A Revolutionary Way to Grow Tomatoes!“)
Google Android’s speech recognition software (Recommended by Farhad Manjoo in “ Now You’re Talking!“)
The photo blog Rides a Bike (Recommended by Dana Stevens in “ The Culture Gabfest, ‘Why All These Stupid Altruistic Urges?’ Edition“)
Paul Krugman’s New York Times blog “ The Conscience of a Liberal”
(Recommended by Stephen Metcalf in “ The Culture Gabfest, ‘Why All These Stupid Altruistic Urges?’ Edition“)
The movie soundtrack website and magazine Film Score Monthly (Recommended by Dana Stevens in “ The Culture Gabfest, ‘Debonair Counterspy’ Edition“)
The Punchdrunk theater company’s immersive theater experience Sleep No More (Recommended by Nina Shen Rastogi in “ The Culture Gabfest, ‘Daddy, Can I Keep This Direwolf?’ Edition“)
