Don't Miss:

• Get 10% off your order at Akhassa.com. Use code girlawhirl at checkout through November 30, 2006.

• Save $5 at FabulousStationary.com when you enter code girlawhirl at checkout.

• Girlawhirl readers design their own handbags and receive a special 20% discount  at freddyandma.com. Act now, discount ends Nov. 15.

• A special 20% discount exclusively for Girlawhirl readers at Underglam.com!

 

In theaters this Friday:

• Fast Food Nation—R—A comedy-drama based on the best selling non-fiction book about the damage fast food does to our bodies and the impact it has on the environment and society.

• Casino Royale—PG-13—Bond, James Bond is back. The latest 007 movie goes back to the beginning before Bond had his license to kill.

• For Your Consideration—PG-13—From the same director and improv actors that did Best in Show, Waiting for Guffman and A Mighty Wind; this time they play actors in a small film called “Home for Purim” that begins to generate award season buzz.

• Bobby—R—Directed by Emilio Estevez, this drama tells the story of the night Senator Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in Los Angeles. It focuses on 22 people, played by an all-star cast including Anthony Hopkins, Heather Graham, William H. Macy, Lindsay Lohan, and Laurence Fishburne, who were at the Ambassador Hotel that night.

• Happy Feet—PG—Animated tap-dancing Penguins! Robin Williams and Hugh Jackman lend their voices to the story of a penguin who can't sing—a definite disadvantage in a world where singing gets you a mate—but he can dance like nobody's business.

New DVD releases:

• Friends: The Complete Series— all of the antics of America's favorite Friends—Chandler, Joey, Monica, Phoebe, Rachel and Ross—come to DVD this week with the release of the complete series box set.

• Six Feet Under: The Complete Series— the complete HBO original series centered on the lives of a family living and working in the family business, which just happens to be a funeral home, hits store this week.

• The Da Vinci Code – Ron Howard directs Tom Hanks in the big screen adaptation of Dan Brown's best-selling novel. Symbolism expert Robert Langdon (Hanks) is called in to the Louvre when one of the curators is found dead with mysterious symbols carved into his body. He joins forces with Sophie Neveu (Audrey Tautou), a cryptographer with the Paris Police Department, and the two follow the symbols and discover a mysterious group that has been hiding a secret for 2,000 years.

• Don't miss all of your favorite TV shows released on DVD this week:

     Season 2: NCIS, That Girl

     Season 4: Lois & Clark

     Season 5: Home Improvement, Northern Exposure, Quantum Leap

     Season 6: 3^rd Rock from the Sun, CSI, Golden Girls

 

For more information on the new movies coming out on DVD plus what's playing on Pay Per View and Video On Demand, Girlawhirl checks out ReelzChannel.com.

New CD releases:

• Real Live Roadrunning—Mark Knopfler & Emmylou Harris—recorded at a sold-out live performance by the former Dire Straits lead guitarist and vocalist and the country legend. The CD comes with a DVD of concert footage.

•Pretty Little Stranger—Joan Osborne—a country album from a singer know for soul and R&B. This is Osborne's first foray into the country genre and she goes with an understated style. She also wrote six of the songs on the CD.

•9—Damien Rice—the sophomore album from the Irish singer whose debut, “O”, in 2002 went platinum.

In book stores:

• Balenciaga and His Legacy: Haute Couture from the Texas Fashion Collection by Myra Walker — illustrated book featuring nearly 70 Balenciaga creations for day and evening, and 25 hats, from the Texas Fashion Collection archives of the University of North Texas. The book also includes photographs from Vogue magazine and Harper's Bazaar, and essays on the designer.

• Cross by James Patterson — another installment in the Alex Cross series of novels from Patterson. Cross was an up and coming detective in the Washington D.C. police department when his wife was gunned down. Years later, still haunted by his wife's unsolved murder, Cross is finally free of the police department until a call from his ex-partner draws him back in. And when the case turns out to have a connection to his wife's murder, Cross is in for a frightening ride.

• Santa Cruise: A Holiday Mystery at Sea by Mary Higgins Clark and Carol Higgins Clark — The day after Christmas, Regan Reilly—known from Hitched and Burned—and Alvirah Meehan—from The Lottery Winner—set sail from Miami with their husbands as specially selected guests on the “Santa Cruise,” the maiden voyage of the Royal Mermaid. When the host Commodore Randolph Weed's nephew also sneaks two escaped criminals onboard, Alvirah and Regan follow the clues and help see the ship through some very “troubled waters.”

• The Deception of the Emerald Ring by Lauren Willig—romance, history, and intrigue meet in this latest edition in Willig's Pink Carnation novel series. Tensions are high between France and England in 1803 and Napoleon decides to crush England once and for all by backing Irish rebels. France sends its most deadly spy, The Black Tulip, to Ireland, but England's secret weapon, The Pink Carnation, is there, too, working to stop the rebels. Back in England, Letty Alsworthy tries to stop her sister from making a big mistake by eloping with Geoffrey Pinchingdale-Snipe but ends up in a midnight carriage ride with him instead. Having been “compromised” the two must marry, much to each other's horror. When Geoffrey leaves for Ireland to stop the rebels, Letty—thinking she's been abandoned—is not the woman to stay at home, so she too heads for the Emerald Isle.

• The Long Night of Winchell Dear by Robert James Waller —the 10^th novel from the author of The Bridges of Madison County. Winchell Dear is an aging, honest gambler living on his ranch “Two Pair,” named for the poker hand that won him the land. He knows something evil is coming, even if he doesn't know quite what that is yet. Forty minutes away, two men in a Lincoln Continental head straight for the ranch: professionals, from Los Angeles, looking for Winchell's housekeeper.

 

Girlawhirl found all of the new CD, DVD and book releases in her online shopping mall at barnesandnoble.com

 

And as always Girlawhirl has great things to share in this week's Girlawhirl Giveaway!

 

This week's Girlawhirl Giveaway includes the following:

• Sane Fitness

• Peanut Butter & Co. Chocolate Peanut Butter

• You Go Girl stylish earphones

• Icy Beauty Ice Source System

• David Burke Flavor Spray

• Mrs. Meyers Cleaning Day cleaning products

• Revolution TeaT-Mini travel tin

• Hint Essence Water

• King Arthur Flour coupons

• Living Life Game

 

And free for everyone, The Financial Organizer from Frankford.Financial.com

 

Girlawhirl has even more great stuff to share in her Special Monthly Giveaway Drawing!

 

This month's Girlawhirl Giveaway includes:

• Bodum double walled glasses

• O Olive Oil

• Bongenre picnic plates

• Alligators, Old Min & New Money: One Woman's Adventures in Vintage Clothing by Alison and Melissa Houtte

• Kelly L. Moore's CUBEchic

• Hint Essence Water

• King Arthur Flour coupons