Lars and the Real Girl

A surprisingly sweet love story that isn't overly cloying; I guess casting a sex doll as the love interest can add a bit of levity to the situation.

Rating: Moby Dick

Paul's Boutique

What can you say about the Beastie Boy's at their peak: made when sampling was still acceptable, it reamins one of the most creative, and listenable hip-hop albums of all time.

Rating: Grapes of Wrath

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

The Swedes know how to make a hell of a thriller, well-acted and well-paced, it'll keep you on the edge of your seat the entire time.

Neko Case: Fox Confessor Brings the Flood

Case's beautiful voice are a perfect match to her haunting lyrics; absolutely amazing from start to finish.

Rating: Grapes of Wrath

Zeitoun (book), by Dave Eggers

Zeitoun, the true story of a Syrian immigrant in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina, is hilariously tragic, or tragically hilarious, until halfway through, when it suddenly isn't; from that point on it is simply shocking.

Rating: Grapes of Wrath

U2: October

The only U2 album worth owning, and the one you've probably never heard - makes you feel like you just spent a year in Dublin...the rough part.

Rating: Barley...I mean "Grapes" of Wrath

London Calling, the Clash

Too bad the greatest album of the 1980s arrived at the beginning of the decade; way too damned eclectic (reggae, horns, straight ahead rock) to be labeled "punk," true power pop at its finest.

Rating: Grapes of Wrath

Catch-22, by Joseph Heller

World War II satire in which war is not only hell, but eminently corrupting; at least the absurdity of it all is occasionally humorous.

Rating: Grapes of Wrath

Touching the Void (film)

Touching the Void is a gob-smackingly harrowing tale of best-laid plans gone disastrously awry, of friendship and abandonment, and of survival against all odds.

Rating: Grapes of Wrath

Ulysses, by James Joyce

About some Irish bloke that has a seriously trippy day; anybody who claims they like this book is either: a) a english major flunky looking for hipster cred, or b) lying through their damned teeth.

Rating: Ulysses (what, you were expecting Hot Tub Time Machine?)