Books, music, and movies Slate writers recommend.

Books, music, and movies Slate writers recommend.

Books, music, and movies Slate writers recommend.

The inner workings of Slate.
Jan. 1 2010 7:29 AM

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")

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Zadie Smith's Changing My Mind
(Recommended by Nathan Heller in "How Should Fiction Be Read?")

Henning Mankell's Firewall
(Recommended by Stephen Metcalf in "The Culture Gabfest, 'They'll Remember Me 100 Years From Now Edition' ")

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Peter Matthiessen's Shadow Country
(Recommended by Ted Tripp in "The You Say Tomato Gabfest")

Also see Slate's best books of 2009 feature.

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Movies

James Cameron's Avatar
(Recommended by Dana Stevens in "Cat Power")

Scott Cooper's Crazy Heart
(Recommended by Dana Stevens in "The Dude Abides")

Matteo Garrone's Gomorrah
(Recommended by Jonah Weiner in "Badfellas")

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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' ")

The Coen brothers' O Brother, Where Art Thou?
(Recommended by Dana Stevens in "The Culture Gabfest, 'Do You Want to Touch My Poof Edition' ")

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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' ")

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' ")

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")

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")

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")

Modern Family
(Recommended by Julia Turner in "The Culture Gabfest: Good Breeding 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")

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")

Tony Jaa's Ong Bak 2
(Recommended by Grady Hendrix in "Jaa Rules")

Sebastian Silva's The Maid
(Recommended by Dana Stevens in "The Maid")

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")

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")

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")

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")

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")

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")

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

Pluots
(Recommended by Chip Brantley in "Plu-What?")

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")

Hayao Miyazaki's Ponyo
(Recommended by Dana Stevens in " Ponyo")

Uli Edel's The Baader Meinhof Complex
(Recommended by Dana Stevens in " The Baader Meinhof Complex")

Robert Siegel's Big Fan
(Recommended by Dana Stevens in " Big Fan")

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

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"

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")

Lynn Shelton's Humpday
(Recommended by Dana Stevens in " Humpday")

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")

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")

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 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

Scrubs

(Recommended by Joanna Weiss in " Scrubs")

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

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")

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")

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")

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")