THE LIST: DVDs, CDs and books hitting stores week of March 24

DVDS
  “Quantum of Solace” (PG-13): After a slam-bang reboot in 2006’s “Casino Royale,” the James Bond franchise suffers definite sophomore slump while a vengeful Bond (Daniel Craig, icy as ever) globe-trots in pursuit of an enigmatic eco-entrepreneur — and his own inner demons.
  Elsewhere on the hero front, the computer-animated “Bolt” (PG) focuses on a coddled canine TV star (voiced by John Travolta) discovers he’s not quite the super-dog he plays on TV when he’s forced to deal with the real world on an accidental New York-to-Hollywood trek.
  In the ever-popular “Welcome to Las Vegas” portion of our show, movies making their local debuts on DVD range from the Rob Schneider comedy “Big Stan” (not rated) to the Val Kilmer-Marg Helgenberger heist drama “Columbus Day” (R).
  Mary Stuart Masterson directs “Frozen River” Oscar nominee Melissa Leo, “Twilight’s” Kristin Stewart, Bruce Dern, Elizabeth Ashley and Jesse L. Martin in the small-town drama “The Cake Eaters” (R). In “Fling” (not rated), a young couple’s open relationship reaches the breaking point when both partners (Brandon Routh, Courtney Ford) fall for others. Tom Arnold plays a child abductor in “Gardens of the Night” (not rated), which co-stars John Malkovich and Jeremy Sisto. And in “Ready? OK!” (not rated) a single mom (“Duplicity’s” Carrie Preston) struggles to understand her son, who wants to join his school’s cheerleading squad rather than the wrestling team.
  On the documentary front, the award-winning “Praying With Lior” (not rated), part of January’s Las Vegas Jewish Film Festival, profiles a 12-year-old with Down syndrome who’s approaching his bar mitzvah.
  Topping this week’s vintage titles: a third “Forbidden Hollywood” collection of racy ’30s talkies (all unrated) directed by William Wellman, including the Depression saga “Wild Boys of the Road,” Barbara Stanwyck in “The Purchase Price,” 1931’s “Other Men’s Women” (featuring future stars James Cagney and Joan Blondell) and 1933’s “Midnight Mary,” with Loretta Young as a mob moll on trial.
  For the kids, 1967’s “Jules Verne’s Rocket to the Moon” (not rated) finds P.T. Barnum (Burl Ives) financing outlandish lunar flight attempts, while “Secrets of the Furious Five” (not rated) continues the animated adventures of the “Kung Fu Panda” gang and “Happily N’Ever After 2: Snow White” (not rated) serves up a sequel to the 2007 big-screen cartoon.
  Portraits of two historical figures lead today’s TV-to-DVD lineup: Ingrid Bergman, in her final performance, plays Golda Meir in 1982’s “A Woman Called Golda” (not rated), while David Strathairn stars as nuclear scientist (and Red Scare suspect) J. Robert Oppenheimer in PBS “American Experience” docudrama “The Trials of J. Robert Oppenheimer” (not rated).
  Just in time for its second season on HBO, “In Treatment” (not rated) features Gabriel Byrne as a psychiatrist who reveals his insecurities only to his own therapist (Dianne Wiest). Stephen Collins headlines the Hallmark Channel movie “Every Second Counts” (PG), about a gifted rodeo rider torn between attending college or pursuing a world championship. And the 1984 miniseries “Master of the Game” (not rated) casts Dyan Cannon and Harry Hamlin, among others, in a multigenerational saga based on Sidney Sheldon’s best-seller.
  TV series turning up on DVD, meanwhile, include “Room 222: Season One” (G), the animated “Star Wars: The Clone Wars — A Galaxy Divided” (not rated), “Andy Richter Controls the Universe: The Complete Series” (not rated), “Runaway: The Complete Series” (not rated), color episodes of “Laramie” (not rated) and “Taggart: Set 1” (not rated).

CDS
  Mastodon, “Crack the Skye”: It’s only March, but the album of the year may already be upon us.
  Whether or not this proves to be the case, it’ll be tough for anyone to top Mastodon’s epic, enveloping “Crack the Skye.”
  Working with producer Brendan O’ Brien, who’s hit the studio with everyone from Bruce Springsteen to Pearl Jam, the band greatly hones its melodic sensibilities on “Crack the Skye,” merging their technical metal fireworks with a heightened tunefulness never heard before from this bunch.
  The songs are elaborate as ever and your wrists get sore just listening to these dudes work their way through such knotty, progressive tunes, but it’s all underlain with enough hardened hooks to make this disc as catchy as it is concussive.  
  Seriously, the “Skye” is the limit for this bunch.
  Also in stores: Blue October, “Approaching Normal”; Miley Cyrus, “Hannah Montana: The Movie”; The Decemberists, “The Hazards of Love”; Peter Doherty, “Grace/Wastelands”; Keri Hilson, “In a Perfect World ...”; Jim Jones, “Pray IV Reign”; KMFDM, “BLITZ”; Martina McBride, “Shine”; MONO, “Hymn to the Immortal Wind”; MxPx, “On the Cover II”; Papa Roach, “Metamorphosis”; Röyksopp, “Junior”; Various Artists, “NOW That’s What I Call Music! 30”; and Yanni, “Yanni Voices.”    

BOOKS
  “True Detectives” by Jonathan Kellerman: The latest in best-selling author Jonathan Kellerman’s “Alex Delaware” series centers not so much around Delaware but Detective Moses Reed and private eye Aaron Fox, half brothers at odds who are forced to work together after the disappearance of a young woman.
  Author Walter Mosley launches a new mystery series this week with “The Long Fall,” which introduces Leonid McGill, a former boxer turned New York City private investigator struggling to move beyond his shady past.
  Also hitting shelves this week: “City of Glass (The Mortal Instruments Series No. 3)” by Cassandra Clare; “Don’t Cry” by Mary Gaitskill; “Happens Every Day: An All-Too-True Story” by Isabel Gillies; “In the Courts of the Sun” by Brian D’Amato; “Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto” by Mark R. Levin; “Pursuit” by Karen Robards; “Safe at Home: Confessions of a Baseball Fanatic” by Alyssa Milano; “Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi Vol. 1” by Aaron Allston; “Secrets to Happiness” by Sarah Dunn; “Bridge of Sand” by Janet Burroway; “Anything But Typical” by Nora Raleigh Baskin; “Toby Alone” by Timothée De Fombelle; “Oh, Johnny” by Jim Lehrer; “Still Life” by Joy Fielding; “Secrets of the Dragon Sanctuary (Fablehaven, Book 4)” by Brandon Mull; and “This Is Not a Game” by Walter Jon Williams.