Horton Foote, Horton Foote’s Three Trips to Bountiful: Teleplay, Stageplay, and Screenplay. Originally written for live TV in 1953, The Trip to Bountiful, the poignant story of an old woman trapped in Houston who longs to visit her rural home one last time, was adapted by Foote for the stage and, in 1983, the screen. This invaluable 1993 volume, published by Southern Methodist University Press, contains all three scripts, accompanied by interviews with Foote and his various collaborators. I can’t think of a better way to study the differences between the three media–or to deepen your familiarity with a once-obscure play that is now rightly regarded as an American classic (TT).

V.S. Naipaul, The Mimic Men. Now that the uproar over Sir Vidia’s nastiness has started to subside, it’s worth recalling why we cared about him in the first place. Start with this bracingly astringent 1967 novel about a Caribbean politician whose uneasy embrace of Western manners and mores leaves him doubly estranged from the two worlds that he straddles. To my mind, it’s the best of Naipaul’s books–and the wisest (TT).

John Williams, Stoner (New York Review Books, $14.95 paper). This darkly stoic novel, which tells the story of a Missouri farm boy who became a professor of literature, is reminiscent of and directly comparable in quality to Willa Cather’s O Pioneers! Originally published in 1965, it is an insufficiently heralded masterpiece, one of the most remarkable novels to be published in this country in the Sixties. Don’t look to Stoner if you want to have your heart warmed, but anyone strong enough to look straight into the dual abyss of marital estrangement and frustrated aspiration will find it extraordinary in every way (TT).

The Essential Bill Monroe and His Blue Grass Boys, 1945-1948 (Sony, two CDs). Bluegrass took shape in these classic recordings, the best of which also feature Lester Flatt on guitar and lead vocals and Earl Scruggs on banjo–a supergroup by any conceivable standard. Listen first to “It’s Mighty Dark to Travel” and you’ll hear in three electrifying minutes exactly what Monroe and his colleagues contributed to the history of American music (TT).

Hollywood Homicide. Half cop drama, half Bull Durham-esque adult comedy, this wonderfully agreeable Ron Shelton-Harrison Ford-Josh Hartnett film was so hard to pigeonhole that it slipped between the commercial cracks when it was released in 2003, even though two prominent critics praised it. They were right. Ford is at his best as a middle-aged detective lost at sea in the everything-goes culture of postmodern Los Angeles, and the supporting cast (Keith David, Martin Landau, Lena Olin) is solid from top to bottom (TT).

The Rockin’ Hammond of…Milt Buckner (Jasmine). Released in 2009, this two-for-one CD contains twenty-two hard-charging tracks originally recorded for Capitol in 1955 and 1956 by one of the unsung pioneers of jazz organ. The fare is bluesy and the mood is swinging (especially on the tracks that feature Duke Ellington’s Sam Woodyard on drums). Buckner’s trademark “locked-hands” style is in evidence throughout. Definitely not for irremediable eggheads, but if you like jazz that makes you pat your foot, prepare to turn it loose (TT).

Booker T. and the MGs, The Definitive Soul Collection (Atlantic/WEA, two CDs). This 2006 collection of thirty tracks by the R-&-B counterpart of Count Basie’s All-American Rhythm Section contains virtually all of the group’s A-side single releases, including “Green Onions” and “Hip Hug-Her,” plus a nicely chosen sprinkling of other cuts. Go here for Stax-style instrumental soul at its funkiest (TT).

House Calls. If the situation calls for pure entertainment and you’re at a loss, go for Howard Zieff’s 1978 romcom about a widowed doctor who decides to play the field but ends up falling for a prickly middle-aged lady with a kid and no money. Walter Matthau and Glenda Jackson strike sparks galore, and Art Carney and Richard Benjamin provide sterling support. The witty script is credited to a gaggle of pros, among them Julius J. Epstein, the co-author of Casablanca, and Max Shulman, the creator of Dobie Gillis. Whoever did what, the results are fluffy and fine (TT).