THE LIST: DVDs, CDs and books hitting stores week of April 20

DVDS
  “Avatar” (PG-13): You’ll have to wait until Thursday for writer-director James Cameron’s Oscar-winning titanic special-effects extravaganza, set on the 22nd-century planet Pandora, where paraplegic ex-Marine Jake Sully (“Clash of the Titans’ ” Sam Worthington) joins a corporate mining operation’s scientific program — and finds a new life when he encounters the native Na’vi.
   Speaking of Oscars, Jeff Bridges collected an at-long-last best actor award for “Crazy Heart” (R); he plays a running-on-empty country singer who strikes a chord with an aspiring music journalist (Oscar nominee Maggie Gyllenhaal). “The Young Victoria” (PG), an Oscar-winner for best costumes, chronicles the turbulent early years of Britain’s Queen Victoria (Emily Blunt). In “The Lovely Bones” (PG-13), based on Alice Sebold’s best-seller, a murdered teenager (“Atonement’s” Saoirse Ronan) witnesses the aftermath of her death from a dreamlike limbo halfway between heaven and earth; Oscar nominee Stanley Tucci, Mark Wahlberg and Rachel Weisz co-star.
  In our “Welcome to Las Vegas” file, the fates of a New York video game designer (Gael García Bernal), a surgeon (Michelle Williams) and their daughter’s Filipino nanny (Marife Necesito) intertwine in “Mammoth” (not rated), the English-language debut of acclaimed Swedish writer-director Lukas Moodysson. The gritty gangster thriller “44 Inch Chest” (R) reteams “Sexy Beast” co-stars Ray Winstone and Ian McShane (along with Tom Wilkinson, John Hurt and Stephen Dillane). Cillian Murphy and Susan Sarandon headline “Peacock” (PG-13), about a quiet Nebraska bank clerk with a double life. A young couple (Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Lynn Collins) find themselves at a crossroads in the thriller “Uncertainty” (not rated). And in the acclaimed French drama “Summer Hours” (not rated), siblings (Juliette Binoche, Charles Berling, Jeremie Renier) try to figure out what to do with their late mother’s estate.
  On the documentary front, “Cheech and Chong’s Hey Watch This” (R) follows the reunited comedy duo on tour. “Tales From the Script” (not rated) focuses on award-winning screenwriters from William Goldman (“Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”) to Paul Schrader (“Taxi Driver”). A Texas couple and their autistic son make a horseback trek through Outer Mongolia in “The Horse Boy” (not rated). And a Philadelphia high school teacher inspires her culinary arts students to succeed in “Pressure Cooker” (not rated).
  Tuning in to TV transfers (all unrated), series arrivals range from “Falcon Crest: The Complete First Season” to “Hercules: The Legendary Journeys — Season One” and “Xena: Warrior Princess — Season One.” Other TV titles hitting DVD today include “Heartland: The Complete First Season,” “Merlin: The Complete First Season,” “Perry Mason: Season Five, Vol. One,” “Whispering Smith: The Complete TV Series” and “Frontier Circus: The Complete TV Series.”

CDS
  Cypress Hill, “Rise Up”: It was only a matter of time wasn’t it?
  Talk about one of the all time most obvious musical hook-ups: On their latest disc, reefer lovin’ rap rockers Cypress Hill team up with Cheech & Chong for some really, really high times. 
  There’s plenty of other guests too, from hip-hop (Everlast, Pitbull, The Alchemist) to hard rock (Tom Morello, System of a Down’s Daron Malakian, Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda).
  “Rise Up” and get down.
  Also in stores: Airbourne, “No Guts, No Glory”; The Apples in Stereo, “Travellers in Space and Time”; Caribou, “Swim”; Roky Erickson and Okkervil River, “True Love Cast Out All Evil”; Merle Haggard, “I Am What I Am”; Taylor Hawkins & The Coattail Riders, “Red Light Fever”; Kottonmouth Kings, “Long Live the Kings”; Shelby Lynne, “Tears, Lies, and Alibis”; Willie Nelson, “Country Music”; Ozomatli, “Fire Away”; Ratt, “Infestation”; Sevendust, “Cold Day Memory”; Sick of It All, “Based on a True Story”; Sweet Apple, “Love & Desperation”; and Rufus Wainwright, “All Days Are Nights: Songs For Lulu.”

BOOKS
  “Deliver Us from Evil” by David Baldacci: Evan Waller has made a fortune selling anything and anyone. His latest business venture could result in millions of deaths worldwide, and it’s up to Shaw, the operative from Baldacci’s “The Whole Truth,” to stop Waller from closing the deal.
  Alexander McCall Smith’s latest installment in The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency Series also is expected out this week. “The Double Comfort Safari Club” finds Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi visiting the Okavango Delta north of Botswana, where some troubling events at a safari lodge have led to the demise of one of the guests.
  Also hitting shelves: “The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption, and Pee” by Sarah Silverman; “Bounce: Mozart, Federer, Picasso, Beckham, and the Science of Success” by Matthew Syed; “A Boy Should Know How to Tie a Tie: And Other Lessons for Succeeding in Life” by Antwone Fisher; “Boys and Girls Like You and Me: Stories” by Aryn Kyle; “Burning Lamp (Arcane Society Series No. 8)” by Amanda Quick; “Contact!: A Book of Encounters” by Jan Morris; “Crossing Mandelbaum Gate: Coming of Age Between the Arabs and Israelis, 1956-1978” by Kai Bird; “Edge of Apocalypse” by Tim LaHaye; “Eight Days to Live” by Iris Johansen; “A Game of Character: A Family Journey from the Southside of Chicago to the Ivy League and Beyond” by Craig Robinson; “God Is Not One: What We Need to Know about the World’s Faiths and Why Their Differences Matter” by Stephen Prothero; “Lucid Intervals (Stone Barrington Series No. 18)” by Stuart Woods; “Meeting the Family: One Man’s Journey Through His Human Ancestry” by Donovan Webster; “Parrot and Olivier in America” by Peter Carey; “Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things” by Randy Frost; “The Third Rail” by Michael Harvey; and “This Body of Death (Inspector Lynley Series No. 15)” by Elizabeth George.