The List: Latest DVDs, CDs, books, February 26
A look at some of the DVDs, CDs and books hitting stores this week:
DVDs
“The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part 2” (PG-13): Team Edward and Team Jacob unite as the box-office behemoth comes to an end with Bella (Kristen Stewart) adjusting to life as a vampire while protecting her daughter, Renesmee (Mackenzie Foy), from the Volturi.
Elsewhere, a volatile former Naval officer (Joaquin Phoenix) has trouble settling into post-World War II America, until he’s taken in by the flamboyant leader (Philip Seymour Hoffman) of a fledgling religious movement, in writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson’s “The Master” (R). And teenage surfing phenom Jay Moriarity (John Weston) enlists a local surf legend (Gerard Butler) to train him to master one of the biggest waves on Earth in the fact-based drama “Chasing Mavericks” (PG).
Topping today’s TV transfers: “The Client List: The Complete First Season” and “Law & Order: The Twelfth Year.”
CDs
Atoms for Peace, “Amok”: “Stuck Together Pieces.”
That’s a track from new supergroup Atoms for Peace’s debut album, and its title illustrates the dangers of projects such as this.
After all, simply assembling an all-star team of players seldom works as well as it might seem on paper.
And so this group, featuring Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke, Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea, acclaimed producer Nigel Godrich, Beck and R.E.M. drummer Joey Waronker and percussionist Mauro Refosco, has some history to buck on “Amok.”
Also in stores: Joan Armatrading, “Starlight”; Michael Bolton, “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough: A Tribute to Hitsville U.S.A.”; Darkthrone, “The Underground Resistance”; Wayne Hancock, “Ride”; Emmylou Harris & Rodney Crowell, “Old Yellow Moon”; KMFDM, “Kunst”; Johnny Marr, “The Messenger”; The Mavericks, “In Time”; and Saxon, “Sacrifice.”
BOOKS
“Calculated in Death” by J.D. Robb: Lt. Eve Dallas and partner Peabody suspect the death of an accountant found with her neck broken at the bottom of a stairway is more than a mugging gone wrong.
In another series installment, Hannah Swenson must clear her name after a rival is found dead in Joanne Fluke’s “Red Velvet Cupcake Murder.”
Also hitting shelves: “Animal Wise: The Thoughts and Emotions of Our Fellow Creatures” by Virginia Morell; “Bad Blood” by Dana Stabenow; “Battle of Stones River” by Larry J. Daniel; “Eleanor & Park” by Rainbow Rowell; “Fragments” by Dan Wells; “Gods and Beasts: A Novel” by Denise Mina; “Hostile Shores” by Dewey Lambdin; “Prisoner B-3087” by Alan Gratz; and “Revenge of the Girl with the Great Personality” by Elizabeth Eulberg.
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