The Road by Cormac McCarthy
I'm a big fan of post-apocalyptic novels so it was a nice surprise that America's favourite postmodern western novelist would tackle the genre. Or that it'd be an Oprah Book Club pick. It's a fantastic novel, grim and depressing and horribly compelling.

King Corn by Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis
A documentary from the Michael Moore school of social justice, only without the smug obnoxious presence of Michael Moore. Really quite sweet and understated, two filmmakers spend a year growing and sell an acre of corn and document the process and the people. Lots of insight into the economics and consequences of modern agribusiness, well told without being preachy.

Burnout: Paradise by Criterion Games
The Burnout games have been light racing / crashing fun for a long time. Paradise is a real improvement, though, with a free roaming design. It's like Grand Theft Auto only the driving is actually fun and you can't sleep with hookers. The fans had a minor revolution when the demo was released because it was different and honestly not very good. The full game is much better than the demo. Best innovation is the elimination of long event load times.

culture
  2008-01-27 01:18 Z