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.
March 2011
Books
David Bezmozgis’ story collection, Natasha
(Recommended by Juliet Lapidos in “Purgatory Lit“)
James Gleick’s The Information
(Recommended by Tim Wu in “Bit by Bit“)
Sarah Bakewell’s How to Live: Or a Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer and Saul Frampton’s When I Am Playing With My Cat How Do I Know That She Is Not Playing With Me?
(Recommended by Kwame Anthony Appiah in “The First Liberal“)
Tina Fey’s Bossypants
(Recommended by Katie Roiphe in “Tina Fey’s Tough Girl Feminism“)
Meryle Secrest’s Modigliani: A Life
(Recommended by Christopher Benfey in “ Torrid Life, Transcendent Art“)
George R. R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones
(Recommended by Nina Shen Rastogi in “Game of Thrones” and Your Favorite Doorstopper Novels“)
Cathleen Schine’s The Three Weissmanns of Westport
(Recommended by Emily Bazelon, Hanna Rosin and Margaret Talbot in “DoubleX Audio Book Club: The Three Weissmanns of Westport“)
Kate Atkinson’s Started Early, Took My Dog
(Recommended by Kate Julian in “Double X Gabfest: The Little Prince Edition“)
Karen Russell’s Swamplandia!
(Recommended by Hanna Rosin in DoubleX Gabfest: The Winning the Future Edition and “Slate’s Audio Book Club”)
Jim Steinmeyer’s The Last Greatest Magician in the World
(Recommended by Ruth Graham in “The Next Queen of Magic”)
Annia Ciezadlo’s Day of Honey
(Recommended by Noreen Malone in “Book of the Week: “Day of Honey” by Annia Ciezadlo“)
Heather Sellers’ You Don’t Look Like Anyone I Know
(Recommended by Jessica Leader in “Book of the Week: You Don’t Look Like Anyone I Know“)
Margaux Fragoso’s Tiger, Tiger
(Recommended by Jessica Grose in “Book of the Week: “Tiger, Tiger” “)
Susan Conley’s The Foremost Good Fortune
(Recommended by Ellen Tarlin in “Book of the Week: The Foremost Good Fortune by Susan Conley”)
Alice Bradley and Eden M. Kennedy’s Let’s Panic About Babies!
(Recommended by Dana Stevens in “The Culture Gabfest, “How Does That Make You Feel?” Edition“)
Janet Malcolm’s The Purloined Clinic
(Recommended by Stephen Metcalf in “The Culture Gabfest, “How Does That Make You Feel?” Edition“)
Music
The score of Martin Scorcese’s Taxi Driver, composed by Bernard Herrmann.
(Recommended by Dana Stevens in “Listening to Taxi Driver“)
Britney Spears’ album Femme Fatale.
(Recommended by Jody Rosen in “ Ceci N’Est Pas une Pop Star“)
Francis and the Lights’ album It’ll Be Better.
(Recommended by Nina Shen Rastogi in “DoubleX Gabfest: The Winning the Future Edition”)
Wild Flag’s song “Glass Tambourine”
(Recommended by Jessica Grose in “ DoubleX Gabfest: The Winning the Future Edition“)
Adele’s album 21
(Recommended by Julia Turner in “The Culture Gabfest, “Adonis DNA” Edition“)
Trick Daddy’s “Sugar”
(Recommended by Julia Turner in “The Culture Gabfest, “How Does That Make You Feel?” Edition“)
PJ’s Harvey song “The Last Living Rose” from her latest album Let England Shake
(Recommended by Julia Turner in “The Culture Gabfest, “SXSW” Edition“)
Thunderbird Coffee
(Recommended by Julia Turner in “The Culture Gabfest, “SXSW” Edition“)
Aberdeen’s album Homesick and Happy to Be Here
(Recommended by Stephen Metcalf in “The Culture Gabfest, “Gray Ladies” Edition“)
Movies
Richard Press’s Bill Cunningham New York
(Recommended by Nathan Heller in “Bill Cunningham New York“)
Abbas Kiarostami’s Certified Copy
(Recommended by Dana Stevens in “Certified Copy“)
Cary Joji Fukunaga’s Jane Eyre
(Recommended by Dana Stevens in “Jane Eyre“)
Lucasta Miller’s The Brontë Myth
(Recommended by Dana Stevens in “The Culture Gabfest, “SXSW” Edition“)
Ian MacDonald’s Revolution in the Head: The Beatles’ Records and the Sixties
(Recommended by Stephen Metcalf in “The Culture Gabfest, “SXSW” Edition“)
Gerald Allan Cohen’s Self-Ownership, Freedom, and Equality
(Recommended by Stephen Metcalf in “The Culture Gabfest, “Thousands Ridicule Teen Singer” Edition“)
Sam Kashner and Nancy Schoenberger’s Furious Love: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton and the Marriage of the Century
(Recommended by Dana Stevens in “The Culture Gabfest, “Gray Ladies” Edition“)
Television
Loren Bouchard’s Bob’s Burgers
(Recommended by Troy Patterson in “Bob’s Burgers“)
The Investigation Discovery channel
(Recommended by Troy Patterson in “Death Be on Cable“)
AMC’s Breaking Bad
(Recommended by Jessica Grose in “DoubleX Gabfest: The Crazypants Edition“)
Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace
(Recommended by Dana Stevens in “The Culture Gabfest, “Thousands Ridicule Teen Singer” Edition“)
Other
David Grann’s “A Murder Foretold”
(Recommended by Nina Shen Rastogi in “DoubleX Gabfest: The Crazypants Edition“)
The iTunes U course “The Civil War and Reconstruction Era, 1845-1877,” by Yale professor David Blight
(Recommended by Hanna Rosin in “DoubleX Gabfest: The Crazypants Edition“)
A Catherine Deneuve 25-film retrospective
(Recommended by Troy Patterson in “Catherine Deneuve x 25“)
See Jessica Winter’s assessment of the best Jane Eyre adaptations in “Up in the Eyre”
Chip’ins, the popcorn chip
(Recommended by Hanna Rosin in “Double X Gabfest: The Little Prince Edition“)
The HelloFax system
(Recommended by Farhad Manjoo in “Kill Your Fax Machine”)
The podcast WTF with Marc Maron
(Recommended by Mike Pesca “The Culture Gabfest, “How Does That Make You Feel?” Edition“)
New York City restaurant Torrisi Italian Specialties in Nolita
(Recommended by Julia Turner in “The Culture Gabfest, “Thousands Ridicule Teen Singer” Edition“)
The game Set (which you can play online)
(Recommended by Julia Turner in “The Culture Gabfest, “Gray Ladies” Edition“)
Correction, April 11, 2011: Because of a production error, the wrong content originally appeared in this page.
