"A Good Man is Hard to Find" ends with the most terrifying depiction of evil I've ever read in a short story?primarily because it is so real and so matter-of-fact. In all these stories, O'Connor skewers the pretension and arrogance of modernism and the self-obsession of modern men and women, forcing the reader to confront hard truths about the human condition, often with astringent humor.

If you think Hawaiian music is unhip or corny, you haven't heard real Hawaiian music. A perfect place to start is with this CD, which mixes Hawaiian songs of exceptional power?songs about home and myth and history?with Hawaiianized versions of a few American standards. Bruddah Iz had the voice of an angel, and his medley of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" and "What a Wonderful World" is simultaneously haunting and mood-elevating in the extreme, and alone worth the price of the CD. He is dead now, but his voice is immortal.

I rarely watch television. In the history of TV, surprisingly few drama series stand up to repeat viewing. Although the stunning twists and turns of 24 pack no surprise after a first viewing, the DVDs of this show offer other rich rewards. The first five seasons (I won't look at the sixth until it's on DVD) offer the tightest, most logical, most audacious writing in the history of TV suspense, and a second viewing allows you to appreciate the brilliance of this work. Keifer Sutherland's portrayal of Jack Bauer is a tour-de-force of acting, nuanced in ways not always apparent in the excitement of the initial viewing. It is the iconic drama-series performance in the history of the medium. And the other acting is stunning. I would in an instant vote for the President that Dennis Haysbert portrayed in the early years!

Most critics hated this film (starring Anthony Hopkins and Brad Pitt), but it is a beautifully done cross-genre piece, part supernatural tale, part love story, part comedy, part morality play. The pace is now and then leisurely, but the film is so gorgeously shot that even in those moments it remains a feast for the eyes. I've recommended it to many people, and all have been enthusiastic about it. A friend says the critics hated it because (1) Anthony Hopkins brilliantly plays a sympathetic and in fact admirable billionaire businessman, and in a media saturated with politically correct stereotypes, no billionaire and certainly no businessman is permitted to be sympathetic or admirable, and (2) the movie has a quiet spiritual aspect that also makes the average faithless reviewer bristle, even though it is in the pop-spiritual tradition of Hollywood. I think that analysis may be correct. But the film is entertaining, moving, with several good performances, not least of all that by the amazing Mr. Hopkins, and by the lovely Claire Forlani.

Qiu Xiaolong's series of Inspector Chen crime novels?Death of a Red Heroine, A Loyal Character Dancer, and When Red Is Black are the first three?offer a gripping and poignant view of contemporary China. Good characters, clear elegant writing, and twisty storylines provide what any mystery reader wants, but these novels probe deeper than the average mystery and are unique not only for their settings and for the exploration of what, to the average American, is an exotic culture, but also for the mind of the author revealed in them.