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Left foot in the stirrup, hop into the saddle — just a tap of the heel and away we go.

POWELLS.COM INTERVIEWS: JUDY BLUNT
Offered in marriage by her father to a neighbor twelve years her senior, Judy Blunt spent the first thirty years of her life circumscribed by traditions and responsibilities handed down by generations of homesteaders who worked the land before her. "Mine was the first generation of women that grew up able to think about themselves as separate from their families and their ranches," she explained at Powell's. "To say 'I must do this for myself' was a tremendously arrogant and frowned upon venture." In the evocative prose of Breaking Clean, we encounter a life alternately brutal and breathtaking, a woman torn between the responsibilities of motherhood on an isolated family ranch and the contradictory desire for self-expression.
 

SIGNED FIRST EDITIONS: BREAKING CLEAN
"No biographical sketch of Blunt can convey the depth of this literary achievement," Kirkus Reviews concluded. "To shoehorn this into mere category of classification is to insult its power." The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, National Geographic Adventure... Breaking Clean is the most acclaimed debut of the season. Order signed first editions while they last.

INTO THE USED AISLES
The Used Books aisle in our Literature section today contains more than 112,000 books: Corelli's Mandolin, Vox, and Charming Billy, alongside novels by Jane Smiley, Barbara Kingsolver, and Anne Tyler. Or try another section: Cooking (25,000 books including Weber's Art of the Grill and Back to the Table: The Reunion of Food and Family), Biology (Stephen Jay Gould, Carl Sagan, Jane Goodall), Humor (Gary Larson, Dave Barry, Matt Groening, Scott Adams)... more than a 180 used-only aisles in all. Head straight for low prices. Save up to 70%.

WIN FREE BOOKS FOR YOURSELF AND A FRIEND
Enter now for a chance to win the best book ever written — or some others that aren't quite as good. You could find yourself in possession of a Powell's Card worth $200 and another worth $100 for a friend.

POWELLSBOOKS.newsFLASH!
"Too big for its britches," some readers are saying about the best book ever written. Polls suggest that public sentiment remains sharply divided between loyal fans of the text and those who've tired of the book's recent immodest displays, interminably reciting itself to agitated audiences throughout the county.

COMPUTER, PHYSICS, STATS BOOKS ON SALE
Save up to 50% on nearly 200 featured titles from respected publisher Springer-Verlag, now in our Technical aisles.

G.D.
Louise Erdrich's seventh novel, The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse, is a stunning achievement. Upon its publication, Kirkus raved, "Comparisons to Willa Cather as well as Faulkner now seem perfectly just. That's how good Erdrich has become." Also new to the Great Deals shelves: From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life, 1500 to the Present by distinguished historian and social critic Jacques Barzun ("peerless," asserts the New York Times Book Review) and Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason — "that rare thing," the San Francisco Chronicle applauded, "a sequel that outshines its predecessor." Save up to 80% on these and seventeen more hand-picked staff favorites.

GARDENING SALE HAIKU
Magnolias in bloom, plum petals on the sidewalk... Garden books on sale.

The newsletter pauses momentarily as we trot carefully through the flowerbeds.

eBOOKS
Now featured in all three eBook formats, two-for-one bundled deals from Sci-Fi and Fantasy favorites Piers Anthony, Alice Borchardt, and Alan Dean Foster; also, The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker (free to Gemstar eBook owners and only $2.50 for download to Microsoft Reader and Adobe eBook), The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse by Louise Erdrich, Soul Mountain by Gao Xingjian, and more.

CALENDAR
Julia Butterfly Hill visits tonight (Wednesday, April 3), offering advice on how to promote change and improve the health of the planet. On Saturday the 13th, we welcome with gushing praise Norton Juster, author of the children's classic The Phantom Tollbooth. Guest novelists include Bharti Mukherjee, Michael Connelly, Ben Marcus, and Nicole Mones. April also brings James Carroll (Constantine's Sword), Mark Jude Poirier (Unsung Heroes of American Industry), and dozens more days and nights of book culture. Check the calendar and make your plans today.

FUP. STORE CAT.
Fup returned from the store cat convention energized by the passion of her colleagues but jet-lagged and worn out from long, heated debates that lasted late into each night.

She explained to Bear: "For every bookstore cat, approximately fifteen more cats are on the outside looking in. Too many cats, not enough bookstores. Seminar after seminar addressed identifying growth sectors in the store cat market."

"Retirement homes?" Bear guesses.

"Coffeeshops," Fup tells him. "In May, we'll vote whether or not to fund a coordinated push to situate five thousand cats nationwide over the next two years. If we don't take advantage now, supporters say, small dogs could capture valuable store-pet market share — just look at how they've monopolized t.v. sitcom roles. Cats have been practically nonexistent in prime time for years."

Bear gets glassy-eyed, remembering something.

He concedes, "You forget how easy it was to catch on with a store when we were young. The summer I was three I spent so much time sunning myself on Henderson's porch swing I became store cat by default. Just persistence was all it was."

"The shop in Ann Arbor?"

"Before that. My first gig, in Lansing."

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CITY OF BOOKS TOP TEN
1. Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser (American Studies)
2. A Painted House by John Grisham (Mystery)
3. Stupid White Men by Michael Moore (Current Affairs)
4. Stage Fright on a Summer Night (Magic Tree House Series #25) by Mary Pope Osborne (Children's)
5. Founding Brothers by Joseph J. Ellis (US History)
6. Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris (Literature)
7. The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien (Science Fiction and Fantasy)
8. Death in Holy Orders by P. D. James (Mystery)
9. Brunelleschi's Dome by Ross King (Architecture)
10. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien (Science Fiction and Fantasy)

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"Snowbanks drawing back from the barn leave shadows on the boards. A short distance from there an Angus bull, a recent purchase and nearly full grown, lies on a knoll, forefeet tucked under his brisket. The way his features merge in the sunshine, black on black, he might have passed for a hole in the scenery. Only the silhouette gives him away: sloping face, neck humped a size wider than the head, one smooth line drawn around a ton of black bull. Still, a bull soaking up the sun, even a large one, was no novelty in our barnyard. What draws my mother's eyes to this one is Gail, three years old and all of thirty pounds, rolling on the ground in front of him..."
— Judy Blunt, from Breaking Clean

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