JAMES ADAMS
PUBLISHING
The sheer physical bulk of War and Peace ($47, Knopf) has daunted many a would-be reader. Now, novices and acolytes alike have a fresh opportunity to wander Leo Tolstoy's universe, thanks to a new, 1,296-page English translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, the husband-and-wife team who have earned plaudits for their translation of Tolstoy's other undisputed masterpiece, Anna Karenina, among others.
Christmas means lots of CDs under the tree, not to mention other electronic gear packaged in air-tight clamshell plastic seals. But actually getting your mitts on the stuff can be a frustratingly protracted, occasionally bloody affair. No more, thanks to the handy Safe-Cut Package Opener ($9.97, Home Hardware). It has two blades, a retractable one for piercing the cellophane on your CD jewel box and a safety one to cut through the clamshell keeping you from your TV channel changer.
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Released in 1972, On the Corner was Miles Davis's last official full-length studio recording before the Prince of Darkness went into a kind of self-imposed exile that lasted for more than eight years. The record's Stockhausen-meets-Sly Stone sonorities made it a hard sell upon its debut, but now it's seen as an important and prophetic work. The six-CD Miles Davis: The Complete On the Corner Sessions (about $150, Sony Legacy) includes all the official tunes from the 1972 session plus outtakes, unreleased tracks, as well as stuff Miles recorded afterward.
JOHN DOYLE
TELEVISION CRITIC
No, it's not weird to give someone a Canadian documentary as a Christmas gift. Manufactured Landscapes (Mongrel Media, $37.99) is a classic, a visually thrilling account of Edward Burtynsky's work photographing the surreal and disturbing state of the environment in China today. This is not simply a veracious account of Burtynsky going about his work. It's hauntingly about China and the society and landscape that lay themselves bare in the photographer's extraordinary oeuvre.
The box set of Seinfeld: The Complete Series (Sony Pictures, about $350) is a must-have for anyone interested in owning the best of television on DVD. At last: 32 discs, featuring all 180 episodes, and many bonus features, including The Official Seinfeld Coffee Table Book, a 226-page anthology of photos, quotes and offbeat trivia.
Saving the World: A Guide to Heroes by Lynnette Porter, David Lavery and Hillary Robson (ECW Press, about $17) is not your usual, gushing and quickly written tribute book about a popular TV show. All three co-authors are scholars of popular culture. Not only is the book a smart and useful guide to the intricate plotting on the series' first season; it examines the Heroes concept in the context of the wider comic-book culture.
ROBERT EVERETT-GREEN
MUSIC CRITIC
A guitarist friend of mine bought a ukulele because it's the only strumming instrument you can plausibly manage while lounging in bed. It has been an undercover interest for musicians from George Harrison to Bruce Springsteen, and like the banjo and the accordion, it has crept into the touring kit of indie bands who value its naive tone and humble image. Depending on materials, you can get a pro-quality instrument for $50 to $200.
U2 lent their name and image to an iPod. Not very punk rock of them, eh? Consider the latest merch from the White Stripes, who have collaborated with lomography.com on limited-edition Jack and Meg Holga/Diana plastic cameras. The Jack Holga and Meg Diana are souped-up versions of the simple plastic shutter boxes whose wonky optics and erratic results have endeared them to all who like a little adventure in their photography. Amaze your friends for only $180, for which you get a complete kit including fish-eye adapter, but not including development of the outsized 120 film.
Most rock-star bios are hack work done for a guaranteed readership of fans. Mark Simpson's Morrissey: A Portrait of This Charming Man by an Alarming Fan (Touchstone, about $19) is different. Simpson tells of Morrissey's painful passage from his lonely adolescence, to something like happiness in the Smiths, to his current career as a solo musician who sings every night of his loneliness while being embraced onstage by adoring strangers.
RICK GROEN
FILM CRITIC
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