The Critics’ Choices

For that hard-to-please person on your gift list, who better to offer guidance than our most discriminating colleagues-- The Times’ critics. Here are their holiday picks, from “flash fiction” and DVD classics to scents and spa treatments.

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Art

Christopher Knight

Times art critic

More nonsense has been written and spoken about Andy Warhol’s work than about any other art of the last 50 years. So the insightful PBS documentary, “American Masters: Andy Warhol” (PBS, $24.99), came as a bracing surprise. No wonder the four-hour analysis, now available on DVD and with lots of great archival footage, won a 2006 Peabody Award.

L.A.-based publisher BukAmerica has issued its fourth set of six gorgeously designed pamphlets ($11.95) that can be slipped into a pocket or purse for perusal while waiting for the subway or grabbing a cup of coffee. The new offerings include poems by Modern art’s first great critic, Charles Baudelaire, and animal portraits by the late photographer Peter Hujar.

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film&tv;

KENNETH TURAN

Times film critic

Sunday Press Books has done it again. After its dazzling reprint edition of “Little Nemo in Slumberland,” the Palo Alto press returns with “Sundays With Walt and Skeezix” ($95), a massive 16-by-21-inch edition showcasing the best Sunday pages of the “Gasoline Alley” strip from 1921-’34. Created by Frank King, “the gentlest and most domestic of strip artists,” this comic wins you over with its emphasis on the characters’ human qualities.

DVD sets bring you an entire universe. The “Blade Runner: Five-Disc Ultimate Collector’s Edition” (Warner Bros., $78.92) comes in the briefcase that held the dread Voight-Kampff machine. The 12-disc “Hopalong Cassidy: The Complete Television Collection” (Infinity Entertainment Group, $79.98) offers a more innocent world, with all of Hoppy’s 1950s TV episodes and 10 earlier features. Most impressive of the bunch is the 24-film “Ford at Fox” (20th Century Fox, $299.98), which includes a beautiful hard-bound book and all those John Ford classics.

Silent movie fans will cherish “The Valentino Collection” (Flicker Alley, $39.98) and Eisenstein’s “Battleship Potemkin” (Kino, $24.99), the result of a 20-year pan-European restoration project. The politically aware will relish the astonishing “Darwin’s Nightmare” (Home Video, $26.99) and the savage Japanese World War II doc “The Emperor’s Naked Army Marches On” (Facets, $29.95). And the Alastair Sim 1951 “A Christmas Carol” (VCI Entertainment, $19.99) presents the best version of the Dickens classic.

Mary McNamara

Times television critic

“The Sopranos Season Six” (HBO, $199.96). They may have loved the final episode, or hated it, but “Sopranos” fans will appreciate the opportunity to complete their collections or pore through episodes leading to that fateful moment looking for clues.

For those who feel that life is no longer worth living, two terrific shows should more than fill the void: “Brotherhood,” the first season (Showtime, $27.99). One brother’s a thug, the other’s a politico, neither of them the most moral creature ever evolved, but the tension between their two worlds, and the gorgeous evocation of street life in Providence, R.I., make this a perfect substitute for waste-management shenanigans in New Jersey. “Big Love,” the complete second season (HBO, $59.99). Who knew the perfect TV marriage would be polygamous? With the mix of female drama--with three wives, how could there not be drama--and the fire-’n’-brimstone gang wars of Juniper Creek, “Big Love” had a nearly perfect second season.

Flip through Netflix, take a walk through Blockbuster and it’s obvious--television isn’t just about television anymore, it’s about DVDs. Try a Philips 10.2-inch DVD player ($279.99), and those hours spent waiting in airports will fly by.

Forget the Barcalounger. The most comfortable TV viewing chair is--wait for it--a nursing rocker. In my house, it’s the chair everyone fights over when the set goes on. There’s a nice selection at the L.A. Rocking Chair Store from $200 to $2,400. 304 S. La Brea Ave., Los Angeles, (323) 937-7858.

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BOOKS

DAVID ULIN

Times book editor

“The Yiddish Policemen’s Union,” by Michael Chabon (HarperCollins, $26.95). Chabon’s sixth novel is an alternate history masterpiece--a murder mystery set in an imaginary Jewish homeland that occupies a sliver of the Alaskan coastline. Part of the fun has to do with Chabon’s understanding of the tropes of genre fiction, but what makes the novel sing is his ability to evoke the inner lives of his characters: their sins and sacrifices, their struggles and their desire to be redeemed.

“Painting Chinese: A Lifelong Teacher Gains the Wisdom of Youth,” by Herbert Kohl (Bloomsbury, $19.95). Not long before his 70th birthday, Kohl--a well-known educator and writer on the art of teaching--began to study Chinese painting in a class of young schoolchildren, and this profound, elegant memoir recounts that experience with an understated grace. Kohl finds much to think about in the interplay with both teacher and students, but even more he reaffirms his belief that learning is a lifelong process.

“One Hundred and Forty Five Stories in a Small Box: Hard to Admit and Harder to Escape, How the Water Feels to the Fishes, and Minor Robberies,” by Sarah Manguso, Dave Eggers and Deb Olin Unferth (McSweeney’s, $25 for the boxed three-volume set). It’s tough to write “flash fiction”--you don’t have a lot of space to develop characters, themes, ideas. But done well, short shorts can work with the immediacy of haiku, which is what happens here. This project makes us re-imagine how fiction moves us with its stories built less on action than on inference. “Tell me your secrets, she tells her friends,” begins Dave Eggers’ “Lily.” “Tell me anything, she says, because I will forget it all.”

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FASHION

&BEAUTY;

VALLI HERMAN

Times hotel and spa critic

The new Voda Spa models itself on the Russian baths of old, but has glamour galore. It offers scrubs, massages, facials and wraps, of course, but also the Russian dry-heat banya sauna treatment, a cocktail lounge and a VIP suite. Gift certificates are available. 7700 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood, (323) 654-4411; www.vodaspa.com.

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THEATER

CHARLES MCNULTY

Times theater critic

“If I’m not very careful,” Max Beerbohm once quipped, “I shall soon have that deadliest of all assets, a theatrical library.” It is indeed an occupational hazard of drama critics to collect plays by the truckload, but no theater lover in his right mind would look askance at “The August Wilson Century Cycle”

(Theatre Communications Group, $200), a boxed set of handsome hardcover editions of his 10 dramas chronicling the African American experience in the 20th century.

As a general rule, theater productions don’t play well on the small screen, but let’s make exceptions for two BBC Video offerings, “The Noel Coward Collection” ($59.99) and “The Judi Dench Collection” ($69.99). These two Brits--one an all-around stage genius, the other an acting Dame nonpareil--will revive you as reliably as a whiff of theatrical smelling salts.

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DANCE

Lewis segal

Times dance critic

More than a century ago, American dancer Loie Fuller literally electrified the dance world by using lighting and enormous lengths of fabric to create metaphors for forces of nature. Now, 80 years after her death, she has inspired two ambitious books: “Traces

of Light: Absence and Presence in the Work of Loie Fuller,” by Ann Cooper Albright (Wesleyan University Press, $27.95) and “Electric Salome: Loie Fuller’s Performance of Modernism,” by Rhonda K. Garelick (Princeton University Press, $35).

You may never have heard of Vera Volkova, but the British, Danish and Russian classical companies and stars she influenced are world famous. Now the authoritative “Vera Volkova: A Biography,” by Alexander Meinertz (Dance Books, $39.95) has been translated from the Danish, giving us the full story of this transformative ballet teacher.

Although titled “Carlos Saura’s Flamenco Trilogy,” the three-DVD set from Eclipse ($44.95) will interest dance audiences for its look at the performances and choreography of the late flamenco icon Antonio Gades. Saura’s films of “Blood Wedding” (1981), “Carmen” (1983) and “El Amor Brujo” (1986) are included.

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FOOD

S. Irene virbila

Times restaurant critic

For anyone who loves to cook pasta, the Alessi pasta set ($434) isn’t just a beauty; it also performs brilliantly. Designed by Massimo Morozzi, it includes a stainless-steel pot with a heat-diffusing bottom, a colander with handles that fit inside and a lid with a hollow knob to allow steam to escape. Alessi, 301 N. Robertson Blvd., West Hollywood, (310) 276-7096; www.alessi-shop.com.

Fra’ Mani is producing salame as good, and often better, than that of the old country. For the holiday season, there are sumptuous gift packs that include its two bestselling products, salametto (an all-natural pork salame) and salametto piccante (a dry chorizo-style sausage ), along with Marcona almonds, extra-aged Parmigiano-Reggiano and other goodies. Gift boxes, $150 and $275, including shipping. Fra’ Mani Handcrafted Salumi, Berkeley, (510) 526-7000; www.framani.com.

The Austrian firm Riedel has taken its iconic Rheingau glass and given it a pretty green stem, introducing some color without compromising the serious nature of its incredibly thin crystal bowl. This one is ideal for Riesling, Gruner Veltliner, Pinot Grigio or any crisp white wine that hasn’t seen a lot of wood. $68 per stem at www.winemerchantraleigh.com, or call Riedel Crystal America at (732) 346-8960 for local retailers.

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MUSIC

Mark Swed

Times music critic

“Maria Callas: The Complete Studio Recordings” (EMI Classics, $169.98). Callas’ career was short. Her debut recording was a 1949 recital in Turin, Italy, when she was 25. Her stage career was over by 1965, her voice in tatters. But whether fresh and ecstatic in ’49 or world-weary in her last recording in ‘69, she was the greatest.

“Harmonia Mundi: The Fiftieth Anniversary Boxed Set” ($99.98). Harmonia Mundi is always a class act. The French company began by specializing in early music, but has branched out. You’ll find all manner of music in this 30-disc treasure chest. Be it medieval or modern, obscure finds or enduring masterpieces, you can count on a refreshing, ear-opening, historically aware sensibility.

“Philip Glass and Robert Wilson: Monsters of Grace” (Orange Mountain Music, $17.99) and “Philip Glass: Book of Longing” (Orange Mountain Music, $19.99). Everyone’s got something to say about Philip Glass--the ninth-greatest genius in the world (according to one British newspaper), Hollywood sellout or opera bore. How about just a sensitive, moody, sometimes profound composer? “Monsters of Grace” is Rumi poetry made luminous. “Book of Longing” is a new cycle of Leonard Cohen poems touchingly handled. Beautiful artwork and deluxe packaging are a bonus.

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Ann Powers

Times popular music critic

Whether you’ve spent hours understanding Schoenberg’s 12-tone structures or know nothing about modern classical music beyond Philip Glass’ score for “Koyaanisqatsi,” you will be engaged by “The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century,” by Alex Ross (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $30), a richly detailed, amiably toned history by the New Yorker scribe. Showing how composers from Richard Strauss to John Adams have been deeply engaged with the social upheavals of our time, Ross offers a new way in to a fascinating musical epoch.

Vilified by jazz purists upon release, reclaimed by hip-hop and electronic experimenters in the 1990s, “On the Corner” was one of Miles Davis’ most defiant explorations of form. “Miles Davis, The Complete On the Corner Sessions” (Columbia Records, $139.98) is a six-CD set, the last in a series assembled by producers Bob Belden and Michael Cuscuna. It offers not only the full sessions that original Davis producer Teo Macero cut and pasted to create the 1972 one-disc release, but notable stuff from the years following, including the gorgeous, ambient tribute to Duke Ellington, “He Loved Him Madly.”

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For more gift ideas, including donations and museum memberships, go to latimes.com/magazinegifts.