Murder and the secrets families hold make The Girl Who Stopped Swimming (Grand Central, $23.99), the latest from Joshilyn Jackson, a must read this month. The Gods in Alabama author sets her latest in suburban Florida.

The walking wounded wander New York's Lower East Side in Lush Life (Farrar, Straus, $26), the latest from Richard Price. A big cinematic novel an author who knows the underbelly of the big city.

novelist Jonathan Coe brings personal and family history together in his latest work, The Rain Before It Falls (Knopf, $23.95).

Jim the Boy is back and semi-grown in The Blue Star (Little, Brown, $23.99) where Aliceville's high school boys are comtemplating the World War about to break over their heads.

Colonial Brazil, Imperial Britain, the beseiged Amazon and the rubber tree plant come together in the new book by Joe Jackson, The Thief at the End of the World (Viking, $27.95).

 Why Women Should Rule the World (HarperCollins, $24.95) has DeeDee Myers, Clinton's press secretary, checking in with her pundit credentials on the topic of women in power.

Editor's Choice: Nicholson Baker brings the beginnings of World War II into sharp focus through a series of  brilliant vignettes in Human Smoke (Simon & Schuster, $30).

What they're reading
Elisa Munoz
Assistant buyer, children and teen books, Books a Million 
"The $64 Tomato" by William Alexander

"I have recently become very interested, possibly even obsessed, with and $64 Tomato chronicles a novice gardener who battles everything from Superchuck (a relentless groundhog) to aphids, all in the name of organic, homegrown food. The stories were hilarious and charming. After reading this, I have been poring over gardening catalogs and buying seeds, planning my very own little urban veggie garden!"  

Brooke Chamblee
Interior designer, TurnerBatson Architects  
"The Time Traveler's Wife" by Audrey Niffenegger

  "This novel was recommended to me by a friend, and I was surprised to that it was more of a romantic novel, rather than a Sci-Fi as the title suggests. I found it to be a very clever novel with a well-conceived plot. This first-time novelist manages to develop a well-written story, with amazing creativity and unexpected twists. While the plot could be somewhat challenging to follow, she definitely kept your attention and had you thinking from page one. If you are looking for something different, yet intriguing, I would definitely recommend this book."

Listen to this 
Tristan Prettyman
Hello
Prettyman is a true California girl, and that is inevitably reflected in her music. But its an influence that's more sonic than thematic. Hello (Virgin Records) retains the beachy vibe of her earlier work, but at heart this is a classic break up CD. Given the subject matter, it's a surprisingly airy album, filled with catchy tunes and rhythms. Even when she's threatening the end of a relationship, like in "Echo" and "Madly Madly," Prettyman's folk-pop leaves listeners optimistic about what's ahead. And Birmingham fans will have a chance to hear that, live, this month. Prettyman stops at WorkPlay on April 22. -Carla Jean Whitley

Music Makers

The raucous tracks that comprise the "Saturday nights" portion of the Counting Crows' latest album consistently fall short of the band's sonic capabilitiesÑbut lyrical prowess remains. In "Cowboys," Duritz sings gems like "This is a list of what I should have been, but I'm not," proving that the first half of Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings (Geffen) is worth a listen, even though it's the softer, acoustic second half that shines.
Zooey Deschanel-yes, the actress-and M. Ward have blended their musical talents to form She & Him. The band's first album, Volume One (Merge Records), leans heavily on Deschanel's writing. The result is a charming, retro-pop collaboration that you'll want to put on repeat. Victor Wooten, a renowned bassist perhaps best-known for his work with Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, explores spiritual themes and varied sounds on Palmystery (Heads Up). You'll also find Wooten's work on bookstore shelves; the album was released simultaneously with his first novel, The Music Lesson.

myTunes
Mark Patrick
Director of Operations, Alabama Symphony Orchestra
"Having worked in the music industry for over 20 years now, I truly believe there are only two types of music-no, it's not Country and Western, as proclaimed by Jake and Elwood Blues as they attempt to hijack a gig from Ole Boys. The answer is simply good and bad. Since we don't want to waste time and space on the bad, I'll let you in on something locally good: Atom Moon. Led by multi-instrumentalist Chris Goodson, Atom Moon's self-titled CD is full of great songs with killer hooks, searing guitar leads and sing-a-long choruses that have resonated in my head since first listen. The Replacements' Pleased to Meet Me did the same thing to me 20 years ago and 20 years from now, Atom Moon will have equal musical traction."

Get your fix
Several years ago, my best friend asked how I found the bands I recommended to her. She wanted to discover new (or new-to-her) music, but didn't know where to begin. Some of the sources I offered her-friends, blogs, music magazines-required time or money she couldn't invest, but they were a starting point.
I didn't realize then how many websites would offer exactly what she was looking for, based on what she already likes. Whether books, music or movies are your passion, you can find tailor-made recommendations online.

Librarything.com
Medium: Books
Ranking scale: 1 to 5
Recommendations: Once you've added books to your library, visit your LibraryThing profile to find recommendations. Those are split into several categories: people with your books also have; similarly tagged books; "special sauce" recommendations; and most popular books you don't have. Unlike some shopping sites that consider what you've purchased, LibraryThing only looks at what you own. The fiction "people with your books also have" recommendations looked a lot like the bookshelves at my friends' houses.

Rateyourmusic.com
Medium: Music
Ranking scale: 0.5 to 5, with half-points allowed. RYM will also predict your ratings based on what you've rated in the past and what others like. It's fun to see how accurate it is!
Recommendations: I began by ranking the catalogues of my five favorite artists (Nickel Creek, Patty Griffin, Ryan Adams, Damien Rice and Derek Webb), then added a few other high-ranking acts and recent obsessions (Band of Horses, John Mayer, The Everybodyfields). RYM then recommended a mix of older music I should already own and newer bands I'm not yet familiar with.

Criticker.com
Medium: Movies
Ranking scale: 0 to 100, allowing for nuances
of opinion
Recommendations: The site divides the films you've ranked into 10 tiers, with T10 as the best. The rankings of reviewers with similar taste will show up in a sidebar as you rate each movie. Criticker then offers recommendations by genreÑin theaters, obscure, comedy, romance, et cetera. As you develop a record of your preferences, Criticker offers a Probable Score Indicator both for movies you're about to rank and movies it recommends to you.