In a Toronto alley police officers find a female rape victim with her attacker lying dead nearby. The only clue that they have as to the person or persons who killed the attacker is a clump of Crisco shortening on the victim's body. In a nearby medical school, Jasper Glass dissects a cadaver with precision as practice for his future as a doctor with his partner, the irresistable Valerie Anderson. Robert Moreno, a parabolist from Mexico, becomes the substitute teacher for a group of medical students taking a poetry class. Marnie Kennedy, an engaged medical student, decides that she is looking for one last fling before she marries her successful yet boring fiance. All of these story lines converge in family physician Nicholas Ruddick's debut novel, "The Parabolist".

Ruddick has written a novel that is part mystery, part medical drama, and part literary novel that will keep you riveted all the way to the shocking conclusion. The seemingly unrelated storylines converge in a way reminiscient of Colum McCann's "Let The Great World Spin".

With his cast of colourful characters, Ruddick effortlessly draws you into the world of 1975 Toronto. I, for one, was specifically drawn to the eclectic group of people who made up Robert Moreno's poetry class. Although I don't read a lot of mysteries, the mystery aspect of this novel was subtle, yet interesting enough that it will appeal to a broad audience. This one will definitely leave you with something to think about, and I actually went back and read the ending a couple of times to make sure that I took in all of the important details.

As a fan of The Sims from the beginning, I was excited to play The Sims 3. I was impressed with the majority of the improvements. The gameplay is a lot of fun, and having mini-challenges pop up throughout the game depending on what your skills are adds a new level of fun to the game as well. For those not willing to use cheats the money often comes in fast and furious once your Sim has a job and works a little on his/her skills. I like that you can get promotions even if your skills are not at 100% of the requirement- it allows for quicker promotions and less frustration from working on the same skills constantly. The houses that you can move in to are beautiful and easily customizable, and this game is suitable for teens as well as adults. If you want to make the game a little harder, just add to the family and suddenly you'll be scrambling to keep up with everyone. I like that you can control how fast your Sim ages. Collecting things is also a fun addition to the game.

There are drawbacks. I miss the seasons that Sims 2 has (with expansion pack purchased) and I especially miss being able to send your Sims to University. I would love for an expansion pack to come out that incorporates both of these elements because TS3 takes up a LOT of hard drive space compared to other games and also requires newer components (make sure that you meet ALL minimum requirements before you buy this one- I had to upgrade my RAM before this would work for me). Also, when your Sims sleep it takes forever, and it is often boring to wait for them to wake up. There are not a ton of outfits and hairstyles, but if you're only playing one family at a time it shouldn't bother you too much. I also wish that there was more of a variety of jobs. The ones offered are fun, but get boring when you're controlling your sixth generation of Sims.

Despite the drawbacks I would still recommend this game. I'll take a break for a month or two from it, and then go back, start a new family, and start all over again. The fact that this game never ends, and is never exactly the same, makes it a worthy addition to your game collection.

Julie Powell, author of the bestseller "Julie and Julia" is back, and this time she's trying her hand at.....butchering? After writing her book and changing her life path, Julie identifies a yearning within herself to try her hand at becoming a butcher and sets out to find somewhere that will hire her on as an unpaid apprentice. She finds Fleisher's, a small butcher shop that feels like home and quickly sets to work learning her new trade. As she learns how to make headcheese and cut racks of ribs, she deals with the affairs of her heart. You see, she's torn between wanting to be with her sweet, reliable husband, Eric, and with her exciting lover, D. (who, by the way, Eric is aware of). Julie spends the book learning about meat and trying to make sense of the path that her romantic life has taken.

I just did not love Cleaving. I tried, I honestly did, and I continued to read this long after I wanted to stop. Right away the tone of the book came off as indulgent to me, it was all "Julie this", and "Julie that". Of course, this book is a memoir, so it had to be about Julie, but she just struck me as being so selfish all of the time!

Let me try to explain why I felt this way, as I'm not in the habit of cutting up books without some reasoning to back me up. First of all, the fact that this book was about raw meat did not turn me off at all, although I'm sure that it would be too much for some. I grew up on a large chicken farm, and the chickens were being raised and killed expressly to provide the raw chicken that you see in the grocery store. This was how I was raised- certain animals are raised solely to provide meat for human consumption, and that is just the way that is. As a teenager I worked at a local butcher shop. Although I did not butcher the meat myself, it was done on premises, so again, no squeamishness for me. I suppose the reason that I really did not like this book was because in no way could I identify with the author. She's married to a pretty great guy, who loves her and encourages her and puts up with her hissy fits, and she risks it all to have wild sex with D., someone that they both knew in college. Eric finds out about it. They try to seperate for a bit, but end up living under the same roof again. Eric takes his own lover. Julie breaks up with hers, but never stops wanting him. She proceeds to go out and have sex with strangers just to try to feel closer to D. Although they discuss seperation or marriage counselling, neither Julie nor Eric seem to try to work on their marriage, yet they see little reason to offically divorce. I can tell you right now that this kind of thing would not work for me, nor could I relate to how she felt. It just seemed so farcical to me, like "you can have your cake and eat it too".

There were a few positive bits of the book for me. Fleisher's, the butcher shop where Julie apprentices seems like a pretty great place, and the people who work there appear to be warm and caring. Also, Julie's trips at the end of the book to learn more about meat are interesting for an armchair traveller such as myself. Other than those brief shining parts, I would give this book a miss. I'm not sure why I was initially so determined to read this one, but now I wish that I would have given it a miss and focused instead on reading something that I would have enjoyed more.

In the village of Walvern there exists a legend: There is a spirit trapped in the Magurvey River. The only way that a spirit can escape from the river is if it lures another child down to the river to take its place. If a child is lured down to the river and looks the spirit in its eyes, the child will be trapped and the spirit will live on in the child's body. A river child causes untold damage among the village that it is unleashed upon, and the only way that a river child can be identified is by its pale, colourless eyes.

It is 1914 and young Peg, with her flaming red hair, is believed to be a river child. Even her father believes this, and her mother is the only one who firmly holds to the belief that her daughter is not a trapped spirit from the nearby river. When Peg's mother suddenly passes away on the day that World War I is declared it feeds the townspeople's belief that Peg is a river child and that she will only bring bad luck to those around her. Peg and her flighty older sister Sarah must learn to fend for themselves as their father frequently retreats inside himself. Sarah marries a local boy, who eventually heads off to war with some of the other young men from their village, including the only boy that has ever befriended Peg, determined to fight for their country. When Peg and Sarah's father passes away and Peg also discovers a secret that Sarah has been hiding from her, she must brush off the suspicion that follows her and she must fight for her future.

I jumped at the chance to read "The Last River Child", the debut novel by Canadian author Lori Ann Bloomfield. Bloomfield captured my attention from the beginning as she introduced the endearing character of Peg. Despite the fact that Peg is kept on the outskirts of her community she continues to fight for her place in the village, refusing to leave simply because of the ignorance aound her. Her unwavering determination is one of the reasons that this book was so hard to put down.

I also appreciated how war was described from a Canadian perpective. When Sarah's husband decides to leave to fight in the war, Peg starts up a friendly correspondance with him and his letters almost broke my heart. Bloomfield does a wonderful job of conveying the homesickness that these boys felt, not to mention the horrors that they witness, as every boy who returns from the war is changed in a distinctive way. It was wonderful to gain a better understanding of that period of great uncertainty, and to see that it was a period of not only uncertainty, but of incredible love and a sense of community.

Have you ever wanted to read someone else's e-mails? (Come on, you know that you want to!) Holly's Inbox is a collection of e-mails between the fictional Holly Denham and her collection of friends, co-workers, family members, and yes, even enemies. Despite the fact that the entire book is in e-mail form, we get a good grasp of who Holly is, and what she's been up to. We read e-mails as she starts a new job as a receptionist in a banking firm in London, falls in love, fights with her mother and more- all in the span of 723 delcious pages.

The only way that I can describe this book is to compare it to a box of chocolates, the really good kind. You eat one, then another, and then another and you swear that you'll stop after this one, but the next thing you know the entire box is empty. In other words, this book is extremely addictive! I warn you against starting to read this book of you have anything of a pressing nature that needs to be done, as chances are once you've started, you won't be able to stop.

I thoroughly enjoyed Holly's Inbox! I quickly got caught up in the life of Holly Denham and her absolutely charming best friend, Jason, her new friend and co-worker, Trish, her interfering mother (who really only means well) and her frenemy, Jennie. The e-mails came through fast and furious, and not once was I bored while reading this. This one screams chick-lit all the way through, and I can't wait for the follow-up, coming in August 2010!

27-year-old image consultant Poppy Ross discovers that her husband, Parker, has been having an affair on the same day that he conveniently is struck by lightning and develops amnesia. Parker remembers Poppy, and that they are married, but the details of the last three months of his life are completely gone and he doesn't remember that he's had an affair. When Poppy discovers that her husband's lover is in the same hospital that he is, having received a little of the lightning current that passed through Parker, Poppy comes up with a fake name and cover story and sets out to meet her. Sienna is nothing like Poppy. Sleek, gorgeous, the owner of plump lips and even plumper breasts, Poppy is shocked that her husband would go for someone like her. Convinced that Parker's amnesia has provided her marriage with a second chance, Poppy sets out to turn herself into someone reselmbling Sienna in the hopes of holding on to her husband. Her efforts often have disastrous (and hilarious) results, but will Poppy manage to lose an important part of herself in the process?

This fun book from Canadian author Chantel Simmons kept me laughing until the end! Poppy's attempts to turn herself into something that she's not made for entertaining material, and Parker's abrupt personality change certainly helped to keep things interesting. At times I wanted to yell at Poppy and Parker as they stubbornly refused to communicate with one another, but that was definitely part of the underlying theme of Love Struck: marriages without communication are bound to have problems. Poppy was endearing as a confused wife willing to do anything to save her marriage, and Parker was entertaining as a man who almost lost his life and was determined to live his life to the fullest, given this second chance. I really enjoyed this charming book, and loved that just underneath the surface there was a great lesson to be learned.

"Bioshock 2" is certainly a worthy follow-up to the original version. The story remains similar, but interesting nonetheless. This game has the ability to hold my attention for hours. I find it challenging, yet not so hard that it is impossible to clear the levels. The game continues to be rather eerie, made all the more so with the enemies jumping out from unexpected places, the old-fashioned music, and the background.

My only complaint would be that the graphics are a little basic compared to the outstanding ones that I've seen in recently released games.

Overall, a fun, challenging, exciting game, well worth adding to your collection.

Toby Menard is a rising television star; he has his own show on television about how to be a gentleman, his girlfriend is one of the hottest TV presenters around, and his face is on billboards all over town. Then one night everything changes for him. After he rescues his father from a suspiciously burning car, and then goes to see his girlfriend and finds out that she's been cheating on him with his boss, he is unable to sleep and messes up a interview with a local politician- big time. All of the sudden Toby has no job and no prospects for getting one, and he has to sell his house and his car. Toby moves back into his parent's house and starts helping out at their failing hot dog restaurant. When he meets single mother Catherine, Toby thinks that they are both after the same thing: a night of no-strings-attached sex. It turns out that she's looking for more than that and abandons her son Hugo with Toby as she goes off in search of her birth father. Toby knows nothing about being a parent, since up until this point in his life he has been rather selfish, but he and 2-year-old Hugo quickly bond and Toby really starts learning how to become a man.

Todd Babiak has written a novel that captures the beauty of Montreal, where the book takes place, with his scenes full of decriptions of streets and homes and people. He also offers witty social commentary on what happens when you make a mistake and everyone that you thought was your friend, abandons you. Toby: A Man is about parenting, true friends, aging parents, illness, love, and above all, what it means to be a man. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The characters were endearing, especially Hugo and Toby's father, and I would have loved to be able to have them over for dinner. Toby's search for manhood is so raw and real that I rooted for him the entire way through. The ending wasn't at all what I expected, yet it certainly ended in the way that made the most sense. I plan to read Babiak's earlier novels because I enjoyed the freshness of his literary voice; he has a quality that I don't see often enough.

Kat is a Jersey girl at heart. She shops, and shops, and then shops some more. When she gets home she hides how much her purchases cost from her husband, Griff, a professor at the local University. She loves her job as an interior designer, but she doesn't love her manipulative boss. When Kat begins to suspect that Griff is cheating on her she finds that he has both a secret bank account and a secret Mastercard. After a consultation with a lawyer she discovers that she does not even have close to enough to pay for divorce, not to mention the ensuing life on her own. Kat joins "The Penny Pincher's Club", a group that meets in the basement of the local library made up of people who are experts on money management. Kat hope that in time she will be able to not only pay for her divorce, but be able to live on her own in the future.

I'll admit that I didn't like Kat at the beginning of The Penny Pincher's Club- not even a little! She seemed selfish and obsessed with shopping, something that I'm not. For that reason alone I had a hard time relating to her in the beginning, but luckily she began changing shortly into the book and as she changed I started warming up to her.

I ended up loving this book, despite the fact that Kat's shopping habits initially made me wary of the whole thing. Strohmeyer kept me guessing as to how the whole thing would end, and I liked that. I love chick-lit, but I don't always want to know how it ends right away. It's nice when an author can keep me guessing througout. Bravo to her! It really was a satisfying read with characters that I could relate to (and root for!) and an ending that kept me guessing. Highly recommended to both chick-lit fans and those looking for a light (yet satisfying) read!

A realtor tries to sell a home with a real-life sex dungeon set up in the basement. A popular dishwasher brand has a brand new cycle available: the KILL cycle. A man can't help but notice that his son looks an awful lot like his wife's old boyfriend. A woman sees an image of Jesus in a piece of burnt toast. Kidnappers are advised how to overcome their "empty-nest syndrome" once their kidnapee has been returned home. Yup- these are all in Patrick Wensick's book of short stories "Sex Dungeon For Sale!".

Full of dark humour and bizarre scenarios, "Sex Dungeon For Sale!" is perfect for those who enjoy their fiction with a healthy dose of off-the-wall. These bite-sized stories are perfect for our brevity-obsessed Twitter generation, as most are only a few pages long yet leave the reader with a lot to think about when the last sentence has been read.

I found myself enjoying these unique, well-written stories, although I enjoyed some more than others. While I loved "Jesus Toast", "My Son Thinks He's French", and "Clean Bill of Health", I didn't enjoy "Wash, Rinse, Repeat" or "Pandemic Jones" as much: the themes were just a little too dark for me personally, but are sure to appeal to anyone who likes their humour black. I'm glad that I had the chance to experience stories that are different from what I usually read- it allowed me to "read outside of the box" for a bit.