Six Picks: Recommendations from the Monitor staff

Norah Jones' latest CD, Pixar's 'Up' on DVD, illustrated 'Kitchen Knife Skills' book for the cook in your family, and more.

Norah's season

In support of her newest album, singer/songwriter Norah Jones will be TV hopping this week. "The Fall," a collection of bluesy new songs that is getting hot critical attention, arrives Nov. 17 from EMI Bluenote Records and you can catch the performer on any of the following dates: Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report" (Nov. 18), ABC 's "Good Morning America" (Nov. 16), and ABC's "The View" (Nov. 23).

Anatomy of an attack

On Nov. 26, 2008, Pakistani gunmen began a terrorist attack in Mumbai (Bombay), India that would soon come to be seen as the worst since 9/11 in the United States. In the hour-long documentary, "Terror in Mumbai," airing on HBO Nov. 19, narrator Fareed Zakaria calls it the "first 360 degree" depiction of a terrorist attack. The film, which is extremely graphic, includes conversations between the young men and their handler back in Pakistan as well as interviews with survivors and law enforcement officials who struggled to quell the rampage as the group took over the city's two top hotels, the Trident and the Taj Mahal.

Buoyantly 'Up'

"Up" is Pixar's gracefully told story of a retired widower and a young stowaway who venture into the wilds of South America. His mission is to touch down in Venezuela's remote Paradise Falls, the place where Ellie, his wife, always dreamed of visiting. A charming, gentle family film now out on DVD.

Slicing and dicing

With the season of family feasting around the corner "Kitchen Knife Skills" ($24.95, Firefly Books) might be just the guide for tackling those mountains of vegetables, tricky roasts, and endless fruit salads. The step-by-step illustrations will help you refine your technique even if you're not planning on sculpting swans out of your crudités.

Draw one, get one

For inveterate doodlers, sketchswap.com gives you a way to share your scribbles and get a drawing in return. Using the on-screen tablet and pen, you turn out your masterpiece and hit the "submit" button. Your drawing is approved before it is shared to keep the site child-friendly.

Beatles in a box

Had enough Beatles lately? If the answer is "No, tell me more!" then have we got something extrafab for you. The Beatles Box of Vision is a 13-by-13-by-3-inch black, linen-covered box designed to house the Fab Four's newly remastered CDs and their digipak sleeves. In addition, the elegant box contains a 200-page coffee-table book of full-size reproductions of every Beatles album cover and gatefold artwork, including snazzy photo-collages from the Cirque du Soleil Beatles extravaganza, Love. Available at store.boxofvision.com