Latest DVDs, CDs, books: March 8, 2011

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

DVDS

"Inside Job" (PG-13): Director Charles Ferguson's Oscar-winning documentary dissects the country's, and the world's, economic meltdown of 2008, employing user-friendly graphics and Matt Damon's narration to make a potentially headache-inducing (and heartbreaking) subject cinematic.

On the fictional front, the comedy "Morning Glory" (PG-13) focuses on a beleaguered morning TV show producer (Rachel McAdams) trying to keep her anchors (grouchy Harrison Ford and chirpy Diane Keaton) from killing the show -- or each other. In "The Next Three Days" (PG-13), a professor (Russell Crowe) plots to break a convicted killer, his wife (Elizabeth Banks), out of prison. "Jackass 3" (in R-rated and unrated versions) finds Johnny Knoxville, Bam Margera, Steve-O and the rest of the gang comin' at you with a third round of in-your-face mayhem, while the terrorist satire "Four Lions" (R) follows incompetent British Muslims plotting suicide bombings. Another documentary rounds out today's recent releases: "A Film Unfinished" (not rated), a haunting study of the Nazi propaganda machine -- and the Warsaw Ghetto.

CDS

Avril Lavigne, "Goodbye Lullaby": Brat rock banshee Avril Lavigne says "Goodbye" on her latest disc.

Not really, though.

Lavigne's not going anywhere -- except maybe to the bank with another clutch of hits thanks to producers like Butch Walker and Max Martin.

Also in stores: Buffalo Tom, "Skins"; Exene Cervenka, "The Excitement of Maybe"; Sara Evans, "Stronger"; Aaron Gillespie, "Anthem Song"; Jag Panzer, "The Scourge of the Light"; Lupe Fiasco, "LASERS"; Charley Pride, "Choices"; Raekwon, "Shaolin Vs. Wu-Tang"; R.E.M., "Collapse Into Now"; TRUSTcompany, "Dreaming in Black and White"; and Various Artists, "Glee: The Music, Season Two, Volume 5."

BOOKS

"The Jungle" by Clive Cussler with Jack Du Brul: In this latest installment, Juan Cabrillo and the crew of the Oregon confront a major threat against U.S. security in a seafaring adventure that takes them from the mountains of Afghanistan to the Burmese jungles.

Walter Mosley also continues his series this week with "When the Thrill Is Gone," which finds New York City private investigator Leonid McGill facing many a personal problem while working for a young woman whose tale of woe McGill finds hard to swallow.

Also in stores: "Afterlife" by Claudia Gray; "The Bone Yard" by Jefferson Bass; "The Company We Keep: A Husband-and-Wife True-Life Spy Story" by Robert Baer and Dayna Baer; "The Complaints" by Ian Rankin; "Evercrossed" by Elizabeth Chandler; "The Informationist" by Taylor Stevens; "Love You More" by Lisa Gardner; "The Money Class: Learn to Create Your New American Dream" by Suze Orman; "One of Our Thursdays Is Missing" by Jasper Fforde; "Silent Mercy" by Linda Fairstein; "The Source of All Things" by Tracy Ross; "The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim" by Jonathan Coe; "Three Stages of Amazement" by Carol Edgarian; "The Tiger's Wife" by Tea Obreht; and "The Vespertine" by Saundra Mitchell.