DVDs, CDs and Books – Aug. 23, 2011 | Movies

A look at some of the DVDs, CDs and books hitting stores this week:

DVDS

"Win Win" (R): Moonlighting as a high-school wrestling coach, an on-the-skids lawyer (Paul Giamatti) thinks he's found an easy payday with a shady deal involving an elderly client (Burt Young) -- until unexpected events involving the client's grandson (Alex Shaffer) threaten to derail his plan. Amy Ryan, Jeffrey Tambor and Bobby Cannavale co-star for writer-director Tom McCarthy ("The Station Agent," "The Visitor").

Mel Gibson, meanwhile, goes mad in "The Beaver" (R), playing a deeply depressed businessman who adopts the title hand puppet as his alter ego, using it to confront his demons -- and communicate with his wife (Jodie Foster, who also directs), children and employees. Rounding out today's theatrical transfers: "Super Size Me" director Morgan Spurlock's "The Greatest Movie Ever Sold" (PG-13), a satirical look at the roles shameless product placement plays; and the award-winning "The Elephant in the Room" (not rated), about the controversial world of exotic animal ownership.

For the kids: the animated "Tom & Jerry & The Wizard of Oz" (not rated) and the Blu-ray Disc debut of "Bambi II" (G). Definitely not for the kids: the Blu-ray debut of 1962's "Lolita" and the DVD debut of the 1960 gangster saga "The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond" (both unrated).

Leading today's TV transfers (all unrated unless otherwise noted): "Phineas & Ferb: The Movie -- Across the Second Dimension" (G), "Medical Center: The Complete First Season," "NCIS: Los Angeles -- The Second Season," "Gossip Girl: The Complete Fourth Season," "Brothers & Sisters: The Complete Fifth Season" (PG), "NCIS: The Complete Eighth Season" and "Off the Map: The Complete Series" (G).

CDS

Barbra Streisand, "What Matters Most: Barbra Streisand Sings the Lyrics of Alan and Marilyn Bergman": Like buttah, her voice is.

You're getting all verklempt aren't you, just thinking about the prospects of a new Barbra Streisand record.

So bear hug that box of Kleenex and get to the record store already.

Also in stores: Active Child, "You Are All I See"; Black Tide, "Post Mortem"; CSS, "La Liberación"; Game, "The R.E.D. Album"; Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, "Mirror Traffic"; Connie Smith, "Long Line of Heartaches"; Dave Stewart, "The Blackbird Diaries"; and Sunny Sweeney, "Concrete."

BOOKS

"Flash and Bones" by Kathy Reichs: Race Week in Charlotte, N.C., keeps forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan busy after a body is found in a barrel of asphalt near the speedway.

And the Lorien Legacies continue with Pittacus Lore's "The Power of Six," in which the Mogadorians hunt the remaining Lorien Nine, but as their powers develop, the six survivors are ready for a fight.

Also hitting shelves: "Bloodlines" by Richelle Mead; "The Buddha in the Attic" by Julie Otsuka; "Cocktail Hour under the Tree of Forgetfulness" by Alexandra Fuller; "The Eighty-Dollar Champion: Snowman, the Horse That Inspired a Nation" by Elizabeth Letts; "Envy" by Gregg Olsen; "The Kennedys: All the Gossip Unfit for Print" by Darwin Porter; "Maximum Security" by Robert Muchamore; "The Measure of the Magic: Legends of Shannara" by Terry Brooks; "The Most Dangerous Thing" by Laura Lippman; "Rafa: My Story" by Rafael Nadal; "Saint's Gate" by Carla Neggers; "Sweetly" by Jackson Pearce; and "Torn" by Margaret Peterson Haddix.