Read it!

The Moviegoer's Companion - A Think Book
Rhianon Guy
Raincoast Books $23.95

This fun little reference book of all things cinematic offers answers to a slightly wacky range of movie-related questions, including: How many times has James Bond been told he is going to die? Which director gave his audiences an extra fright by making their chairs vibrate? Sections such as "poster taglines," "film firsts," "signs that you go to the movies too often" and "film jobs you've never understood" offer entertaining reading-and a few new facts-for almost any film fan.

 

Jane Fonda - My Life So Far
 Jane Fonda
Random House $33.95

Jane Fonda's autobiography has been referred to by at least one critic as being as beguiling and as maddening as the actress herself. A member of one of the world's best-known figures a Hollywood familial dynasty, Fonda reveals shocking facts about relationship betrayals, eating disorders brought on by her father telling her she was too fat, breast implants and wild sexual escapades. She also strips down to give a personal account on how she discovered the truth about her mother's gruesome suicide. The book gives remarkable insight into a life that Fonda depicts as being anything but ordinary.

Play it!

CSI: Miami The Board Game
SBG Games $29.99

Can't get enough of that snappy forensic banter in the CSI series? Then the new CSI Miami board game is for you. Using their powers of deduction and knowledge of forensics (gained from watching those late-night back-to-back episodes of CSI, no doubt), players race against each other to prove means, motive and opportunity, using cards to gather and analyze the evidence and solve the crime. Bonus feature: a forensic glossary for cheater notes on all those high-tech crime solving tools and nifty medical lingo.


Hear it!

 Diary of a Mad Black Woman
(Universal)
Playwright Tyler Perry's Diary Of A Mad Black Woman was a surprise hit in theaters this spring. Eight weeks after the film's release comes the soundtrack, and it's worth waiting for. Superstar producer Dallas blends some major starpower with a lesser-known voice or two. In the "starpower" category, there's Motown's India.Arie who delivers the disc's gorgeous first single, "Purify Me." There are also undeniable hits from the always soulful Angie Stone, Natalie Cole and the legendary Patti LaBelle.

House of Wax
(Maverick)
The soundtrack to the re-imagining of the 1953 horror classic, House of Wax, features music that befits the story of a bunch of teens who get lost on the way to a football game and fall prey to a serial murderer. That is to say, don't expect a whole lot of soft, folkie stuff on the soundtrack. Instead, the intricate punk beats of The Prodigy's "Spitfire" is right at home in this collection. As is the powerful, raw emotion of "I Never told You What I Do for a Living" by My Chemical Romance and The Deftones' "Minerva." Also included are Marilyn Manson and The Stooges.

A Lot Like Love
(Sony BMG)
A Lot Like Love follows the turbulent romance of Oliver and Emily from the late '90s to present day. The soundtrack, too, follows the timeline and echoes the shifts in the star-crossed pair's relationship. Aqualung (the creation of British musical phenom Matt Hales) provides the soundrack's first single, the lush ballad "Brighter Than Sunshine." Also folded into the mix is the haunting, "Breathe (2 AM)," a melodic examination of the uncertainties of love by singer-songwriter Anna Nalick. The Beatles-influenced Jet provides another of the album's singles, "Look What You've Done." The rest of the album is filled with the danceable and the familiar: Smash Mouth's "Walkin' On the Sun," and The Cure's "Mint Car."

- Melissa Campeau