The Guide
Books: The neo-nail-biters
Sick of short stories in which nothing, like, happens? You know, the guy-in-the-suburbs-has-epiphany-over-his-cocktail-as-the-light-fades-into-dusk routine? A small but growing group of literary writers has embraced genres like detective fiction, fantasy, and sci-fi for just that reason. McSweeney's Enchanted Chamber of Astonishing Stories (Vintage, $13.95) is full of such tales of the strange and spine-tickling. Spawned by the hipper-than-thou McSweeney's Quarterly set, Astonishing Stories includes authors as diverse as Margaret Atwood and Stephen King. Particularly creepy is Ayelet Waldman's "Minnow"--you'll never look at a baby monitor in quite the same way again. -Sara Sklaroff
Museums: Lively archives
Charged with preserving the federal government's records, the National Archives is a trove for researchers but dry as old paper for tourists. The new $6 million National Archives Experience aims to prove what fun the archives can be--and how significant its holdings are. Using touch-sensitive plasma screens, you can watch home movies of presidents, tap into declassified documents on the Rosenbergs and UFOs, and pull up digitized samples of census records and marriage certificates. (For real research, you have to hit the paper and microfilm files.) The exhibit also makes good use of old-fashioned paper. A census book encased in glass shows 33-year-old Henry David Thoreau living with his parents. -Bret Schulte
DVDs: Righteous rock
On July 13, 1985, Live Aid--a pair of simultaneous, internationally televised all-star rock shows in Philadelphia and London--raised tens of millions for the Ethiopian famine, launched an era of concerteering for political causes, and assembled a bewildering cast of pop talent (from Patti LaBelle to Judas Priest) that hasn't been matched since. But for all its pioneering power, this week's DVD release of Live Aid--after a nearly 20-year exile in the archives--is a reminder that the event was, on one level, simply a string of fine performances, from Elvis Costello's singalong "All You Need Is Love" to Sting's duet with saxophonist Branford Marsalis on a spare "Roxanne." -Dan Gilgoff
Music: A mighty blend
Fiddler-vocalist Alison Krauss is best known for her bluegrass licks. But Lonely Runs Both Ways (Rounder, $18), the first studio album in three years from Krauss and her band, Union Station, mixes progressive and old-time bluegrass, honky-tonk and traditional country, and a dash of folk--a blend that defies pigeonholing. "This Sad Song," which Krauss cowrote, showcases her driving, precise fiddling; on the quiet lament "Gravity," she plays viola. Band-mate Jerry Douglas's classy work on resonator guitar, which bluegrass fans know as a dobro, recalls Mike Auldridge, who helped define the new-grass group Seldom Scene in the '70s. Krauss has won 17 Grammys, the most of any female artist; this CD says she isn't about to play it safe. -Avery Comarow
The Guide: The game must go on
Here's one lesson video games have learned from Hollywood: It's not a blockbuster unless there's a sequel.
Halo 2 ($50, for Xbox). This shoot-'em-up--which made an estimated $125 million in its first day of sales last week--rises to the standards of the original and continues the story, as players repel an alien invasion of Earth.
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater ($50, for PlayStation 2, November 17). In this prequel, our hero Snake (right) has to extract a nuclear scientist who wants to defect from a 1960s Soviet Union.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas ($50, for PS 2). More virtual terrain to explore means more room to commit all sorts of felonies: "San Andreas" is reportedly six times the size of its "Vice City" predecessor. So parents will hate it six times as much. -Kenneth Terrell
This story appears in the November 22, 2004 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.
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