Up in the Air directed by Jason Reitman (Paramount Pictures, 2009)The most unbelievable thing about Jason Reitman's slick black comedy is that there is anybody left in America who still likes to fly.

In 1929 Al Jolson told audiences of The Jazz Singer that they hadn't heard (or seen) nothin' yet, and he was right. They hadn't seen Judy Garland croon and dance down that dazzling yellow brick road to find The Wizard of Oz. They hadn't shuddered as the earth and sky trembled and quaked when God (or Cecil B. DeMille) gave Charlton Heston The Ten Commandments.

The Future Church By John L. Allen Jr. (Doubleday, 2009)  There are few Catholic journalists as well-known and quoted as the National Catholic Reporter’s John Allen. As NCR’s Vatican correspondent for the better part of a decade, his access to Catholic figures of international significance is unparalleled.

Holiness and the Feminine Spirit: The Art of Janet McKenzie Edited by Susan Perry (Orbis Books, 2009) Early disciples never said how Jesus looked, so the image of Christ that leaps to mind does not derive from gospel or creed, pope or theologian. Artists gave us Jesus as we know him. Guessing, they gave us the fish and other symbols, then the Good Shepherd.

While We Wait: Spiritual and Practical Advice for Those Trying to Adopt By Heidi Schlumpf (ACTA, 2009)Wherever you are in your process of waiting to adopt a child-the paperwork stage, the home study stage, or "the unexpected delay" stage-Heidi Schlumpf's book, subtitled Spiritual and Practical Advice for Those Trying to Adopt, has something to offer.

Christmas in the Heart Bob Dylan (Columbia, 2009)

Where the Wild Things Are (Warner Brothers, 2009) Almost 45 years after Maurice Sendak's dark little fairy tale first saw the light of day director Spike Jonze has brought this magical children's story to the screen, and the result is equally unsettling and satisfying.

By Mary Gordon (Pantheon, 2009)

The Avett Brothers (Sony, 2009)

Directed by Drew Barrymore (Fox Searchlight, 2009) In Drew Barrymore’s new film about tattooed Texas lasses on skates, Ellen Page, who played a glib pregnant teen in Juno (Fox Searchlight), takes a turn around the track as a spunky, frightened, and impulsive roller derby princess.

Yo La Tengo (Matador Records, 2009) First off, Yo La Tengo is not a salsa band. They're not even Hispanic. They are white, artsy-bohemian types in their mid-to-late 40s. The band name, which means "I have it," was what guitarist Ira Kaplan heard a Spanish-speaking New York Mets outfielder using to call a teammate off a fly ball.

By Jason Berggren (X Media, 2009) So much for Paul's assertion to the Corinthians that "the greatest of these is love." Jason Berggren openly admits in his debut book, subtitled "Working Through the Frustrations of Faith," that hate isn't what you're supposed to feel, but he's an angry young man and he does anyway.

by Rembert Weakland (Eerdmans, 2009) When Milwaukee Archbishop Rembert Weakland resigned in May 2002, he did so in the midst of a media firestorm. Earlier that month, ABC News had broadcast an interview with Paul Marcoux, who claimed that Weakland had sexually assaulted him two decades earlier.

by Malcolm Gladwell (Little, Brown, and Company, 2008) Malcolm Gladwell likes to explore the hidden patterns behind our daily lives, trying to figure out what makes us tick.

There is something delightfully ironic about Nora Ephron's new cooking comedy, a quirky upbeat feminist tale in which a postwar Connecticut housewife and her 21st century protégé both achieve fame and fortune by heading back into the very kitchen so many mid-century housewives were attempting to escape.

Directed by Neill Blomkamp (Key Creatives, 2009) Two very different sci-fi films opened and closed Hollywood's Summer blockbuster season this year. The new Star Trek (Paramount Pictures, 2009) got things off with a bang in May, and District 9 (Key Creatives, 2009) is winding things down with a bit of a whimper this August.

By Thomas Cahill (Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, 2009) Titling this book A Saint on Death Row seems almost inevitably destined to provoke the ire of those who accuse death penalty opponents of naivete. But best-selling author Thomas Cahill's account of Dominique Green's life and death succeeds in drawing readers into a truly amazing story.

Levon Helm (Vanguard Records, 2009) Beginning in 1969, Levon Helm, with his mates in The Band, helped save rock and roll from psychedelia and all its pomps. In a world crazed by fads and fashions, songs like "The Weight" and "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" sounded 100 years old. And that was the point.

Directed by Pete Docter (Pixar, 2009) Ask anybody under 30 and they will tell you that Pixar is the animation studio. But the company that has stunned us with now 10 lush and dazzling computer animated films is also the studio that tells stories from the margins, putting a sympathetic (if not human) face on a menagerie of aliens, freaks, and monsters.

Elvis Costello (Hear Music, 2009)