THE LIST: DVDs, CDs and books hitting stores week of Dec. 8

DVDS
  “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” (PG): Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) enters his sixth year of wizard training — and discovers an old book that helps him delve into the dark past of the villainous Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes).
  Meryl Streep and Amy Adams, meanwhile, split the title roles in “Julie & Julia” (PG-13), as Streep’s Julia Child discovers French cuisine in post-World War II Paris and Adams’ frustrated writer Julie Powell cooks her way through Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” in post-Sept. 11 New York. Johnny Depp goes gangster in “Public Enemies” (R), playing Depression-era hood John Dillinger to Christian Bale’s G-man Melvin Purvis. And Robin Williams takes on the title role in “World’s Greatest Dad” (R), an edgy comedy from writer-director Bobcat Goldthwait (which played CineVegas in June) about a sad-sack high school English teacher whose literary ambitions take off when fate presents him with a life-altering offer he can’t refuse.
  The award-winning documentary “The Cove” (PG-13) follows undercover operatives on a high-risk secret mission: to expose the ongoing dolphin slaughter near a Japanese fishing village. Other documentaries arriving today (all unrated): “Beautiful Losers,” another CineVegas title, about ’90s art-world outsiders; “Knut and Friends,” about the title polar bear cub; “Brick City,” which focuses on efforts to improve life in embattled Newark, N.J.; and “The Battle of Chile,” which chronicles the 1973 military coup that toppled Salvador Allende.
  Also in our welcome to Las Vegas file: Amy Adams in the romantic “Moonlight Serenade” (PG-13); the comedic “The Marc Pease Experience” (PG-13), with Jason Schwartzman as a frustrated musician still craving the approval of his high school drama teacher (Ben Stiller) and the comedy “Humble Pie” (PG-13), about a Midwestern nerd (Hubbel Palmer) who enrolls in an acting class taught by a pompous Z-lister (William Baldwin). Leading the golden oldies parade: James Mason in the crackerjack 1952 spy thriller “Five Fingers” (not rated) and the Criterion Collection’s “AK 100: 25 Films of Akira Kurosawa” (not rated), which includes such all-time classics as “Rashomon,” “Seven Samurai” and “The Hidden Fortress” — movies that have influenced everything from “The Magnificent Seven” to “Star Wars.”
  Topping today’s TV transfers: the holiday-themed “The Dog Who Saved Christmas” (PG) and “The National Tree” (not rated); “Johnny Mercer: The Dream’s on Me,” (not rated), a documentary tribute to the lyricist behind such classics as “One for My Baby,” “Moon River” and “Come Rain or Come Shine”; “Leonard Bernstein: Omnibus — The Historic TV Broadcasts” (not rated); and Catherine Zeta-Jones in the 1994 “Masterpiece Theatre” miniseries “The Cinder Path” (not rated), plus the series (all unrated) “The Fugitive: Season Three, Vol. Two,” “Perry Mason: Season Four, Vol. Two,” “Lost: The Complete Fifth Season” and “Rescue Me: Season Five, Vol. Two.”

CDS
  Chris Brown, “Graffiti”: The first single is called “I Can Transform Ya,” and you gotta wonder if it’s not self-directed.
  We all know about the damage that R&B-inflected popster Chris Brown has done to his public image after getting nailed for domestic abuse charges against then-girlfriend Rihanna earlier in the year.
  But is it irreparable?
  “Graffiti” will go a long way to answering this question, with more spit-shined soul lite with your teen sister directly in its longhairs.
  If he wants his career to be long, Brown had better hope memories are short. 
  Also in stores: Animal Collective, “Fall Be Kind (EP)”; Jimmy Buffett, “Buffet Hotel”; The Clipse, “Til the Casket Drops”; Gucci Mane, “The State vs. Radric Davis”; The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, “Pin Points and Gin Joints”; Puddle of Mudd, “Vol. 4 Songs in the Key of Love and Hate”; Snoop Dogg, “Malice N Wonderland”; Thirty Seconds to Mars, “This Is War”; Timbaland, “Timbaland Presents Shock Value 2”; and Westlife, “Where We Are.”

BOOKS
  “Divine Misdemeanors” by Laurell K. Hamilton: Meredith Gentry is back in the eighth novel in the series featuring the princess private eye.
  The saga continues following “Swallowing Darkness” as Merry, pregnant with twins, runs to Los Angeles with her bodyguards after refusing the faerie throne in an effort to protect her unborn children.
  Also expected out this week is a new novel from the author of “The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency” series.
  In Alexander McCall Smith’s “La’s Orchestra Saves the World,” Lavender, also known as La, flees WWII London to escape German bombs and memories of her husband’s infidelity.
  La finds solace in a small town, but as the war drags on she seeks to boost the towns morale by starting an orchestra, recruiting amateur musicians including a Polish refugee who stirs feelings in her broken heart.
  Also hitting shelves: “Alone” by Loren D. Estleman; “Burning Shadows” by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro; “The Disciple” by Stephen Coonts; “Faces of the Gone” by Brad Parks; “Fallen” by Lauren Kate; “Footnotes in Gaza” by Joe Sacco; “The Good Son” by Russel D. McLean; “The Hundred-Year Christmas” by David Morrell; “Luck of the Draw” by Anthony J. Cardieri; “Muse and Reverie” by Charles de Lint; “Puttering About in a Small Land” by Philip K. Dick; “Star Wars Darth Bane No. 3: Dynasty of Evil” by Drew Karpyshyn; and “Wormwood, Nevada” by David Oppegaard.