Best Bets: "Amazing Race," "Cougar Town" and a new Anne Rice novel
(CBS) Valentine's Day comes loaded with goodies this year, but not of the flowers and chocolate variety.
The holiday falls on a Tuesday, which means new music, new DVDs and new books.
Nicki Minaj's "Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded" release, which had been scheduled for Tuesday, was pushed back to April, but we'll still see new releases from Amos Lee ("As The Crow Flies") and Tennis ("Young & Old").
Jeff Nichol's thriller "Take Shelter," which was overlooked by Oscar but not by critics, is being released Tuesday on DVD. The lavishly praised dark drama stars Michael Shannon and Jessica Chastain and shows that few of life's horrors come from ogres and monsters.
Also scheduled for release that day is Johnny Depp's "The Rum Diary," Rowan Atkinson's comedy "Johnny English Reborn" and the thriller "Paranormal Activity 3."
Author Anne Rice, whose "Vampire Chronicles" and "Lives of the Mayfair Witches" have entranced readers for decades, is back with a new tale of werewolves. Set in modern-day San Francisco (the vampire and witch books were set in New Orleans), "The Wolf Gift" looks at a young reporter who is becoming a werewolf. The question is, will Rice make being a werewolf as cool as she made the lives of witches and vampires?
Tatiana de Rosnay, author of the best seller "Sarah's Key," tackles another era in Paris history - the time of Napoleon III - with "The House I Loved," to be published on Tuesday by St. Martin's Press.
Also due out Tuesday is mystery writer Michael Palmer's "Oath of Office" and Paul Garrison's "Robert Ludlum's The Janson Command."
On Monday, a new thriller from James Patterson, that prolific author of bestsellers, will be released by Little, Brown. "Private Games" is written with Mark Sullivan.
"Cougar Town" returns to TV Tuesday with the premiere of the third season of the Courteney Cox comedy about a 40-something Florida divorcee and her extended family. It was set to air in the fall but then ABC made room for new shows by pushing its premiere back to 2012.
Also premiering this week are new seasons of "Survivor" and "Amazing Race." "Survivor: One World" premieres on Wednesday at 8 and "The Amazing Race 20" opens on Sunday at 8. Both are CBS broadcasts.
On the big screen this weekend, look for Amy Poehler, Reese Witherspoon, Nicolas Cage, Greg Kinnear and Billy Crudup. Poehler and husband Will Arnett both voice characters in the animated movie "The Secret World of Arrietty," about the four-inch-high Clock family. Saoirse Ronan voices the title character.
Cage, an Oscar winner, is back as Johnny Blaze in "Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance," a sequel to his 2007 fantasy thriller.
Witherspoon, another Oscar winner, teams with Chris Pine and Tom Hardy in "This Means War," a romantic comedy about CIA operatives dating the same woman.
Kinnear and Crudup star with Alan Arkin in "Thin Ice," a crime drama set in the frozen tundra of a Wisconsin winter.
In spite of these new offerings, the big box office draws may be the Oscar contenders still in theaters in advance of the Feb. 26 awards ceremony.