New releases

Aficionados may argue about which season of "24" is the best (or the worst) but our top vote always goes with the first season, before the premise and pulse-pounding action became forced beyond even TV credulity. Kiefer Sutherland as counterterrorism agent Jack Bauer faces the worst day of his life as he tries to outwit and outlast enemy forces, rescue his wife and daughter, and save the life of a presidential candidate. The special edition contains the usual extended and deleted scenes and an alternative finale.

Action: National Treasure 2
Classic Film: The Night They Raided Minsky's
Comedy: Strange Wilderness
Mini series: Cranford
Western: James Stewart, The Western Collection
TV: Bill Engvall Show, Season 1
TV: Square Pegs, Complete series
TV: Cheerleader U, Season 1
Animation: Richie Rich/Scooby-Doo Hour, Vol. 1

Esperanza Spalding
Esperanza (Heads Up)
The package of talent offered by Berklee College of Music graduate Esperanza Spalding portends great things for this young artist. A classically trained musician who became a sizzling bass player and singer/composer, Spalding covers jazz and Brazilian music on her debut album with verve and energy. Most impressively, Spalding does the improvisational singing of the high notes while her fingers pound out the rhythmic line on bass.

R&B: Donna Summer / Crayons (Burgundy)
World: Orchestra Baobab / Made in Dakar (Nonesuch)
Family: Ralph's World / Rhyming Circus (Disney)
Country: George Jones / George Jones: The Hits - Then 'Til Now (Time Life Records)
Pop: Scarlett Johansson / Anywhere I Lay My Head (ATCO)
Alternative: 3 Doors Down / 3 Doors Down (Universal Republic)
Country: Julianne Hough / Julianne Hough (Mercury Nashville)
Alternative: The Foxboro Hot Tubs / Stop Drop and Roll (Warner Records)

Stronghold Crusader Extreme (Firefly Studios)
Another in the series of "Stronghold" games by Firefly Studios, Stronghold Crusader Extreme is a medieval war game and features massive battles (imagine an "arrow storm") - new outposts, and new tactical powers - all set along a new "crusade extreme trail." The action is fierce, but the game is more strategy than bloodlust.

Bryson's Dictionary for Writers and Editors
Bill Bryson (Broadway)
Despite his sidesplitting humor writing, Bill Bryson ("A Walk in the Woods," "A Short History of Nearly Everything") takes the English language quite seriously, having experienced it on both sides of the Pond. And yet this American-born and England-dwelling scribe knows that the language of Shakespeare is a fickle creature, full of caprice and semantic traps. In line with other surprisingly popular books on the quirks of the King's English ("Eats, Shoots & Leaves" by Lynn Truss comes to mind) Bryson ponders capitalization, plurals, spelling, hyphens, and other grammatical necessities.