ALBUMS

THEN 

Colvin & Earle—Shawn Colvin and Steve Earle 

Shawn Colvin and Steve Earle have seen their share of ups and downs throughout their long music careers. Hearing them together makes you wonder what took them so long. Together they’ve written beautiful new material, and revisited old favorites from the Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Emmylou Harris and others. Their cover of The Nashville Teens’ 1964 hit “Tobacco Road” is a bona fide foot-stomper.

NOW

Be Myself—Sheryl Crow

Sheryl Crow returns with a throwback to her ’90s hit-making roots. Reuniting with her collaborators Jeff Trott and Tchad Blake—who helped bring favorites like “Every Day is a Winding Road” and “My Favorite Mistake” into the world—Crow revisits the sound and the emotion of that period and creates something entirely new. Be Myself brings forth an album’s worth of new timeless tracks that will delight longtime fans.

BOOKS

THEN

All Our Pretty Songs by Sarah McCarry

 A mysterious narrator, romance, music and magic all swirl together in this addictive story about a friendship between two teenage girls, and Jack, the gifted musician who tests their friendship. Weaving together mythology and grunge music (it’s set in the ’90s) and masterfully pulling in references to authors like Rousseau, this is a rare bird of a YA novel—and fans should rejoice, as it’s now part of a best-selling trilogy!

NOW 

Piper Perish by Kayla Cagan

This inspiring YA novel from debut author Kayla Cagan centers around Piper, a senior whose life ambition is to attend art school. Everything will be better once she leaves Houston for New York City, right? Of course! Maybe? Ugh! With only three months to go before graduation, boys, friends and family are all turning her life upside down. Is she strong enough to leave it all behind? Is that even the right thing to do?

DVDs

THEN

Night of the Living Dead

George Romero is on the Mount Rushmore of horror-movie-directing for good reason; not only has he made some genuinely terrifying, artistic horror movies, but he approached the horror genre with a social conscience. In 1968’s Night of the Living Dead he deliberately cast a black male lead to set up the movie’s shocking final standoff. Time has not dulled the impact of this flick’s final moments.

NOW

Get Out

 Comedian Jordan Peele (half of TV’s Key and Peele) is now Director Jordan Peele; to get corny, he’s been killing it in comedy and now he’s killing it in horror movies (sorry). Peele’s debut Get Out uses the horror genre to flip the script on the definition of horror—in this case, a black man visiting his white girlfriend’s family for the first time. It’s terrifying on multiple levels; it’s also funny; and, as a socially conscious bonus, it’ll make you think.

By Sharon Penny