Two handsome new books for different age groups take on the formidable challenge of telling the story of Muhammad Ali?s epic life.

A ?family encyclopedia of ecology? and the first book by ?the MySpace community? spell out environmental threats and suggest action to help.

Sequels to the popular children?s books ?Not a Box,? ?Zen Shorts? and ?Little Pea? ? plus the latest in Mo Willems?s ?Pigeon? series.

In the ?Fog Mound? series, the story unfolds in alternating chapters of prose and comics ? a major advance in tricking children into reading.

The girls in ?After Tupac and D Foster? and ?The Wild Girls? encourage one another to tramp through the woods, or take a secret train trip to the big city and back.

With his first English-language film, beloved Hong Kong director Wong Kar-wai's touch loses none of the seductive luster and magic that made his Chinese films so popular. MY BLUEBERRY NIGHTS follows the fortunes of Elizabeth (Norah Jones), who after having been left by her boyfriend, sets out across America to find herself and recover. She makes a stop in Memphis, where she pulls double-duty at a diner by day and a bar at night, and watches the disintegration of another pair of troubled lovers (David Strathairn and Rachel Weisz). She moves on to Nevada where she befriends a vivacious card player and smalltime hustler (a delightfully saucy Natalie Portman) who challenges her notions of contentment. However, it is New York City and the arms of an English café owner (Jude Law) for which Elizabeth's heart truly longs and ultimately returns.

While MY BLUEBERRY NIGHTS isn't Wong's best film--as it suffers from some clunky, heavy-handed dialogue and some frustratingly broad performances--it still contains all of the hallmarks of his aesthetic, and is therefore hard not to fall for. The film is undeniably beautiful, and features the director's trademark visual sense: shimmering neons, lush chiaroscuro, and swirling slow-motion images. It makes for a seductive view of America, one populated by swaggering, yet deeply melancholic drifters that listen to Otis Redding and Ruth Brown, drink too much, and love even more. The sadness and tears that emerge from America's taverns in the wee hours are as breathtakingly alluring as its natural landscapes. In Wong's hands, everything is cast in the light of joy-life and death, suffering and happiness-and the same goes for his understanding of America. Whether this America ever existed is wholly irrelevant; for when you watch a Wong movie, you happily enter his country, wherever that may be. (1 hr. 30 min.)

This amusing sex farce updates age-old concepts about love, sex, and hot lesbians. A new supercomputer (with vague ties to the afterlife) spits out random e-mails that tell when people will die, or in the case of suave, affluent groom-to-be Roderick Blank (Simon Baker), a list of all the girls he ever slept with and ever will sleep with. There's 70 he's never even met, and he's due to be married in 11 days! Naturally his wedding is off and Roderick goes gallivanting around the city, crossing off names and gradually realizing the pitfalls of empty one-nighters. Meanwhile the mysterious "Death Nell" (Winona Ryder) is seducing and destroying a stream of deserving louts, spray painting anguished poetry on their walls and creating a media sensation. These two are bound to cross paths, and when they finally do, comeuppance is in the cards, with a bloody vengeance. Director-screenwriter Daniel Waters (HEATHERS) delivers laughs from brows both low and high, with Baker revealing a flair for sophisticated comedy beneath his mellow scruff. The slew of actresses comprising "the list" turn in uniformly fine work, with Julie Bowen a standout as the hot but "just friends" gal pal. Still, it's all stolen in the ninth inning by the radiantly off-her-rocker Ryder as the girl men fall for, permanently; with her big eyes, dark hair and myriad tics she shines like a crazy beautiful diamond. The spot-on score is by Rolfe Kent (SIDEWAYS, ABOUT SCHMIDT). (1 hr. 56 min.)

Jake Busey stars in this thriller as Jason, a man who is living a nightmare--and not just because he is a soldier in war-torn Iraq. Each day, the bombings take him back to the worst moment in his life when his son was killed in an explosion. When a scientist tells him about an engineered virus that creates suicide bombers, Jason begins to wonder if he has been a part of the experiment all along.