You need it, we got it. Every week our editors comb the site for the best of the best and round it up for you. Read on.

MUSIC

Mat Brewster's Bootleg Country: Nanci Griffith - 11/29/98 is a wonderful look at the artist and her music blended with a nice little story about how he came to discover her music.

In When White Bands Covered Motown Hits, Holly Hughes reflects on the recent Grammy awards and the history of Motown, as well as those who covered some of their biggest hits. It's a really nice stroll down music's memory lane.

DJRadiohead's Music Review: Norah Jones - Not Too Late digs deeper than the surface of this latest release and looks at pop trends and the industry as a whole. It's a personal perspective well worth the read.

BOOKS

From Books Editor Natalie Bennett:

Not having a language in common with an author might, you might think, be an impossible barrier to conducting an interview. You'd be wrong, as Richard Marcus proves with this interview with the Algerian writer Yasmina Khadra. Richard gets prizes for tenacity, effort, but most of all for producing a fascinating interview that gives a personal but highly illuminating account of life in a turbulent and little-known country.

"Imagine you're on Barbara Walter's television show and you foolishly tell her that you can reproduce a drawing never seen by you that lies concealed in an envelope on her desk..." Want to know what to do? Then read Ed Rust's review of the Skeptical Inquirer, which not only explains the magazine, but also recent events in what used to be the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal.

From Asst. Books Editor Gordon Hauptfleisch:

"I’m shamelessly fascinated with books on the life of Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes," Ms. Strega says, "for reasons I can't always pinpoint." For the purposes of her compellingly written review of Lover of Unreason, it doesn't matter — Ms. Strega's enthusiasm and passion has her infusing her analysis with an extra degree of expressiveness and resonance.

Article Author: Lisa McKay

Lisa McKay is Blogcritics' Executive Editor. At BC she can usually be found hanging out in the film section. She recently started food blogging at Will Kill for Food.

In her spare time, she watches movies, listens to music, reads, and caters to the whims of two spoiled cats. …

Visit Lisa McKay's author page — Lisa McKay's Blog