KT Tunstall (musician, "Drastic Fantastic")
Book: "A Million Little Pieces" by James Frey. Gave me insight and deeper empathy toward drug addictions. Apparently the book -- which was purportedly an autobiography -- was slightly fabricated, which caused a big furor, but I don't think that affects the power of it. It's harrowing, but worth it!
Music: "Iodene" by Halfcousin. I played in his band a few years ago and he remains a huge source of inspiration. A brilliant mix of punk and folk. This guy definitely puts the mental into experimental.
Movie: "No Country for Old Men" by the Coen brothers. Amazing script, amazing actors, and plenty of time to digest it all with brilliant pauses. I love a bit of dark humor, and these two directors always deliver that with their excellent films. Some of the best one-liners I've heard since "Pulp Fiction."
Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket, author, "A Series of Unfortunate Events," and musician)
Book: Desperate, spooky and lively, the best book of poetry I read this year was Cate Marvin's "Fragment of the Head of a Queen."
Music: A conflict of interest prevents me from touting "In Our Bedroom After the War" by Stars as the best album of the year, so I'll go with the Dirty Projectors' glorious "Rise Above," which grabs the backing choir from Prince's "Kiss" and makes them the Pips to David Longstreth's passionate if tipsy Gladys, chops in some guitar from South Africa, muddles around with a little cruise ship percussion and whips the whole thing up into the sort of album Sufjan Stevens would make if he wanted to rock your ass. I listened to it five or six times before learning that it's a cover of an entire album by Black Flag. I never listened to Black Flag in my life -- back in the day there were too many Human League 12-inch singles to buy -- and I love this thing to death. Hands down, the dance-around-in-your-underwear album of the year.
Movie: The best film of the year is the two-minute thing on YouTube of Doris Lessing learning she's won the Nobel Prize. I watch it over and over. It's an inspiration.
Bobby Flay (restaurateur and "Iron Chef" star)
Movie: "American Gangster." I love seeing the New York of the '70s and '80s that I remember growing up. All the details were perfect, especially the wardrobe. And I love Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe.
Jack McBrayer (actor, "30 Rock")
Book: "Ant Farm" by Simon Rich. This book is insanely funny. I am such a fan of Simon Rich. Plus it's broken up into small pieces for easy, short-attention-span reading ... that's what I'm talking about.
Music: "Odessey and Oracle" by the Zombies. My brother-in-law turned me on to this one. It's from 1968 and has stereo and mono versions of the songs. My only regret is that I wasn't as familiar with them earlier. They are a phenomenal group.
Movie: "Knocked Up." This Apatow fella I've heard so much about can do no wrong. I loved the story, and all of the performances were so hysterical. I must say, though, that Kristen Wiig could just sit there and still crack me up.
Christopher Noxon (author, "Rejuvenile: Kickball, Cartoons, Cupcakes, and the Reinvention of the American Grown-up")
Music: My favorite CD this year was Beirut's "The Flying Club Cup." In a pretty great year for music, one record I can't shake is a new one from the maddeningly young New Mexican gypsy-bandleader trumpet god Zach Condon. Shambling, sweet and waltzy, it's a gorgeous sound. Runners-up: Feist's "The Reminder" and Radiohead's "In Rainbows."
Movie: I've had long debates about it since, but hands-down the best time this year at the movies was seeing "Superbad" in a big suburban multiplex opening weekend. A badass combo platter of rude and sweet. I haven't felt that kind of unhinged hilarity in a movie house in forever. Lingering worry: that a supposedly candid look at how today's teens actually talk was really just a front for the in jokes of middle-aged Jewish comedy writers, just like "Sex and the City" was less about go-go Manhattan ladies than bitchy urban homosexuals.
Hesta Prynn (musician, Northern State, "Can I Keep This Pen?")
Book: "No Country for Old Men" by Cormac McCarthy. I heard wonderful things about this book and knew the movie was coming out. I brought it on tour and was captivated every night. It's a short book, but Cormac McCarthy is a very dense writer as anyone who's read his work knows, so it took me most of Canada to read. Haven't seen the movie yet but I will.
Music: "Baby 81" by Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. Coolest band ever. Awesome album. Listening till my iPod explodes.
David Cronenberg (director, "Eastern Promises")
Book: I read a Henry James novel published in 1897 called "What Maisie Knew," about a child of divorce who bounces back and forth between her soon-remarried parents like a tennis ball. The relationship of James' language to the psychology of his characters and then to their actions is dense and fascinating and pleasurable. It is also a very emotionally charged story, something you almost don't notice until it flattens you. The experience of reading the book was enhanced by the fact that I was reading an edition published in 1947 that came from my father's library. I loved it.
John Darnielle (musician, the Mountain Goats, "Get Lonely")
Music: "Songs for a Dark Horse" by Bowerbirds. I toured with them twice this year and heard their songs every night: never got tired of any of the songs. Seriously. That's how good the melodies are.
"The Adventures of Ghosthorse & Stillborn" by CocoRosie. "Werewolf" delivers the best wash-that-man-right-outta-my-hair jam since "I Will Survive"; most divisive band around, which ought to and does count for something.
"Phantom Limb" by Pig Destroyer. This is like the new rosetta stone for riffs. There are so many of them. And they're so good. And the nature of the aggression is kind of tempered differently than it was on "Terrifyer." Amazing album.
Curtis Sittenfeld (author, "The Man of My Dreams")
Book: The best book I read this year is the novel "The Cottagers" by Marshall N. Klimasewiski. It's about two academic-ish couples who rent a house together in the off-season on remote Vancouver Island, and then something goes horrendously wrong. A lot of the reason I loved this book is that you can really sink your teeth into it -- it's the opposite of glib or breezy. Klimasewiski calmly and persuasively goes into many characters' heads, including the locals, and he's great at evoking a sense of place. It's a novel that's suspenseful, psychologically smart, and extremely well-written.
Gary Ross (director, "Seabiscuit" and the forthcoming "The Free State of Jones")
Book: "Supreme Discomfort: The Divided Soul of Clarence Thomas" by Kevin Merida and Michael Fletcher. This biography of Thomas should not be confused with his weak rebuttal in the form of an autobiography. Merida and Fletcher set out to answer one of the imponderable questions of our age: How did a poor black kid from "Pin Point," Ga., raised by a single mom, helped by affirmative action, ever turn into Clarence Thomas? You might have more luck dwelling on the origins of the universe. But these authors tell a vivid and compelling story that grips you and doesn't let you go. It's like reading a mystery and watching a train wreck all at the same time.
"Redemption," by Nicholas Lemann. This chronicle of Adelbert Ames, a "carpetbagger" governor of Mississippi, attempts to set the record straight about one of the most crucial and misunderstood periods of American history: Reconstruction. Almost a hundred years ago, D.W. Griffith lied to us in "Birth of a Nation" and no one has tackled the era in a popular narrative since. Lemann tells the truth: that Reconstruction ended with a genocidal pogrom visited on black people by the Ku Klux Klan, the White League, the Knights of the White Camelia and other white vigilante groups who never stopped fighting the Civil War. Some of this is hard to read, especially for Civil War junkies who would rather indulge the gentlemanly mythologies of Robert E. Lee. That's all the more reason to pick up a copy.
Movie: "In the Shadow of the Moon." This surprisingly moving documentary about the 12 men who went to the moon was more about the wisdom of aging and the bravery of youth than it was about the Apollo program. You see this group of men literally gain perspective on the tiny, fragile planet where they live. It was marvelous.
"Persepolis." A complicated and nuanced portrait of a modern girl fleeing the repression of fundamentalist Iran. Beyond showing us that animation can easily be an adult medium, it paints a rich character study without ever devolving to polemics. She experiences as much turmoil in Paris after her flight as she ever did inside Iran. It's a beautiful movie, subtly told and richly drawn in black-and-white.
TV: "Kitchen Nightmares." The Gordon Ramsay "reality show" is one of the few in that genre that is actually "real." Despite the amped-up drama at commercial breaks, cheesy narration and cloying music, you see people struggling to save their restaurants every week, and this "life and death" drama could never be feigned. Ramsay is a brilliant chef, compassionate mentor and tough SOB who really seems to care about the people he is helping. We never miss an episode with our kids.
"Man vs. Wild." We were watching this show when they still pretended that the hero, Bear Grills, did all these feats of survival without assistance. Then they had "Man-vs.-wild-gate" and it was revealed that Bear had spent a night or two in a four-star hotel. I don't really care. I've seen this guy start a fire with a rock in the middle of a swamp, climb inside a dead sheep to stay warm, use his wristwatch as a compass and save himself from quicksand. He deserves a night in a hotel. This is a great show.
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