This weeks giveaway is not one, not two, but three signed copies of Jim Bartley's Drina Bridge - you lucky things.

Jim is the first-fiction reviewer for the Globe and Mail - and this is his first fiction. Nice how that works out, eh?

Interestingly, there's a Nobel Prize winning author who published a novel with a similar title. (The Bridge on the Drina, as it translates). A fine tradition to aim for, certainly. (Don't worry, the premise is totally different).

So, the first three people to email me and tell me where Drina Bridge (the actual object) can be found shall win. Katherine at blogTO.com, as always.

When the cold weather rolls in (and I know it's balmy for late December, but it's not exactly warm), I become increasingly tempted by the promise of various hot, steamy, coffee and chocolate beverages offered by the chains.

Yesterday, I found myself walking along University en route to work, when I passed a Timothy's and found I could not resist the promise of a delicious sounding Dark Chocolate Caramel Latte Bene.

It sounded like the perfect thing for a cool, blustry and gray day.

I should have known better. There was no rich smooth chocolate flavour, nor the creamy caramel I was hoping for. Just the bitterness of the espresso and the blandness of underheated 2% milk.

It didn't even have the chocolate sprinkles on top as the poster suggests. And frankly, under chocolate sprinkles, and maybe some whipped cream, I probably wouldn't have noticed.

I got a small. Total waste of 4$.

The sad thing is, a couple weeks ago I had a Gingerbread Latte at Starbucks and was also struck by the blandness of the beverage.

Is there no hope for winter? I haven't dared Tim's hot smoothees yet, they kind of scare me.

Just a heads up - I'm changing up Book Scene a little - rather than listing a whole boodle of events, I'll pick a tidbit or two to focus on - an event, an article, a little something something. It's way more interesting.

Eye has a short interview with Julie Wilson - of seereading.blogspot.com - a TO writer watching you reading on the TTC. So all the 'reading is dead, aaaaah' article-writers need to relax already.

Speaking of - Is poetry dead? The Globe and Mail says so - oh, poetry is being published, but no one's actually buying it. What do you guys think? Is the audience moving to spoken word? Rap? Did it ever exist in the first place? (think Julie Wilson's caught anyone with verse?)

This week's giveaway is Giller winner Vincent Lam's Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures.

(It's been selling like mad - and you'll want to jump on this because it's gone into a second print run, which means it'll be out of stock most places for a little while.)

This is Lam's first fiction book, but there's another non-fiction title with his name emblazoned on the cover.

If you're the first person to tell me the title, you win! The email, like always, is Katherine at blogTO.com.

OJ's book is out, and local booksellers are picking sides - to shelve or not to shelve, that is the question. According to a recent poll on abe.com readers and booksellers find it distasteful, so hopefully it won't be an issue for long - books that don't sell are a waste of space. Much like OJ.

In the US, the out-of-left-field National Book Award nominees and winners mirrored the small publishers coup here for the Gillers and GGs. So don't feel bad if your novels doesn't attract a big name publisher - the little guys are so now.

Events this week -

Thursday, the 23rd TINARS presents Homas Homer-Dixon, author of The Upside of Down, lecturing on "Catastrophe, Creativity and the Renewal of Civilization" Innis Town Hall, 730-10p, 5$ (tickets at Pages).

This Sunday, Coach House Books launches The State of the Arts: Living With Culture in Toronto, volume two of the uTOpia series.

The event should be pretty sweet - it's at the Gladstone Hotel and will feature talks on 'official' and 'unofficial' art, craftiness, and music performances from More or Les, The Phonemes, and Scarborough A/V. 2-11p, 5$.

Why review two books at once? Well, I read them both one right after the other, and the same thing struck me in both - these intelligent, interesting, conflicted female protagonists sure have crap boyfriends.

Alison Pick's The Sweet Edge is about Ellen and her bf Adam - summer's coming up and they hit a strange place in their relationship, Adam is freaking and wants space, Ellen's assuming they'll continue on the monogamy route to marriage.

The book switches between their points of view as they spend the summer apart - Ellen working in a gallery and getting roped into a social life, and Adam on a solitary canoe trip through the unforgiving wilds of Northern Ontario.

Tanya Chapman's King stays with our girl Hazel, who lives in a trailer park with the titular King - a legend in his own mind, and hers - and works in the local thrift shop.

Hazel's story is about her relationship with King, and how that changes as she learns more about his past, and as they progress (if that's what you can call it).