Latest DVDs, CDs, books: Feb. 8, 2011

DVDS

“Life as We Know It” (PG-13): Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel play mismatched singles forced together when their mutual best friends die in an accident and name them guardians of their baby.

Writer-director Tyler Perry’s “For Colored Girls” (R) updates Ntozake Shange’s 1974 “choreopoem” cycle, intertwining the lives of nine troubled women (played by, among others, Janet Jackson, Thandie Newton, Kerry Washington and Kimberly Elise). High-school frenemies Sigourney Weaver and Jamie Lee Curtis clash at a family wedding in the comedy “You Again” (PG). In the fact-based “Middle Men” (R), which filmed on location in Las Vegas, an Internet pioneer (Luke Wilson) wrestles with his morals when online pornography takes off. And “It’s Kind of a Funny Story” (PG-13) focuses on a clinically depressed teen (Keir Gilchrist) who checks himself into a psychiatric ward.

On the horror front, a malevolent presence haunts a family in “Paranormal Activity 2” (R), while a serial killer stalks his hometown in “My Soul to Take” (R). A pair of British imports rounds out today’s recent-release lineup: “Tamara Drewe” (R), a satire of raging egos (and raging hormones) in rural England; and “Wild Target” (PG-13), about a hit man (Bill Nighy) drawn to an intended victim (Emily Blunt).

Also in stores: Blu-ray Disc editions of “Thelma & Louise: 20th Anniversary” (R), Federico Fellini’s “Amarcord” (R) and Elia Kazan’s “America America” (not rated); and the unrated TV transfers “Columbo: Mystery Movie Collection 1991-1993,” “House of Payne: Volume Six,” “Project Runway: The Complete Eighth Season” and “The Guardian: Final Season.”

CDS

… And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead, “Tao of the Dead”: Their sound is almost as big as the belt buckles of their native Texas.

The kaleidoscopic Austin indie rockers continue to push their sound outward and upward on their latest disc to an equally sweeping and scalding degree.

The Dead have never sounded more alive.

Also in stores: Crowbar, “Sever the Wicked Hand”; Jessica Lee Mayfield, “Tell Me”; Over the Rhine, “The Long Surrender”; Pop Evil, “War of Angels”; and Yanni, “Truth of Touch.”

BOOKS

“The Matchmaker of Kenmare” by Frank Delaney: The Irish author continues the WWII story of Ben MacCarthy, which began with “Venetia Kelly’s Traveling Show.” Ben remains haunted by the disappearance of his wife, Venetia, but forms a friendship with Miss Kate Begley. The pair, at the direction of an American intelligence officer, are drawn into danger as they operate as spies under the cover of Irish neutrality.

On the nonfiction front, Donald Rumsfeld reflects on his life and career in his memoir, “Known and Unknown.”

Also in stores: “Afterlives of the Rich and Famous” by Sylvia Browne; “A Discovery of Witches” by Deborah Harkness; “Heartwood” by Belva Plain; “The Heroes” by Joe Abercrombie; “I Beat the Odds: From Homelessness to the Blind Side and Beyond” by Michael Oher with Don Yaeger; “I Think I Love You” by Allison Pearson; “A Red Herring Without Mustard” by Alan Bradley; “The Rules According to JWOWW: Shore-Tested Secrets on Landing a Mint Guy, Staying Fresh to Death, and Kicking the Competition to the Curb” by JWoww and Sheryl Berk; “The Secret Soldier” by Alex Berenson; “So Shelly” by Ty Roth; and “Spirits in the Stars” by Erin Hunter.