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STATE OF SHORT WORDS
Fifty-nine percent of English words fewer than six letters long say their quality of life has improved "substantially" since their parents' generation. But that includes more than a few four-letter words entirely unwelcome in civilized society just a few decades ago.

TEXTBOOKS, USED AND READY TO BE USED AGAIN
This week we added twenty thousand more used textbooks to our inventory. You probably don't need so many — in fact most of those books wouldn't interest you in the least. But why should you be the only one to save a fortune this semester? Visit our Textbooks and Schooling section for reference books, style guides, Powell's Cards, and more.

DEALS
Heading our current list of Great Deals — each hand picked, each 50-80% off — is Traveling Mercies by Anne Lamott, whose "refreshing sense of humanity," the New Yorker explained, "has you guffawing on one page and bawling on the next." Right behind you'll find Susan Orlean's bestselling account of wonderfully weird John Laroche, The Orchid Thief; William Vollman's "most accomplished work to date," The Royal Family; and poet-undertaker Thomas Lynch's latest, Bodies in Motion and at Rest, which Nicholas Delbanco described as "a luminous work of words." These and sixteen more.

POWELLS.COM INTERVIEWS: BEN MARCUS
"How can one word from Ben Marcus's rotten, filthy heart be trusted?" Ben's father asks early in Marcus's second novel, Notable American Women. If the novel is twisted, sad, and sometimes challenging — and certainly it is all of these things — then it must also be said that the book is wildly playful, visionary, and often times just plain laugh-out-loud funny. Padgett Powell proposes, "Notable American Women is a weird nougat of a book that suggests Coetzee, Kafka, Beckett, Barthelme, O'Brien, Orwell, Paley, Borges — and none of them exactly." Read the interview at Powells.com.

MEET EDGAR MINT
The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint is "extraordinary," Newsweek exclaimed. "Edgar Mint is nobody's Everyman," the Los Angeles Times confided, "but he is the hope and the pain of a child looking for, and eventually finding, a home." Edgar's creator, celebrated first-time novelist Brady Udall, would like to introduce himself — and Edgar — to you. Read Udall's short essay, "Meet Edgar Mint," exclusively at Powells.com.

The words scheduled to fill this space between newsletter segments called in sick today. We apologize for the inconvenience of scrolling just a bit further to continue.

WIN FREE BOOKS TILL SCHOOL IS OUT FOR SUMMER
Whether you're enrolled academically or matriculating in the ever-popular school of life, visit now and enter to win free books through May of 2003.

SO MANY VOICES (AT POWELLS.COM)
The Writer magazine profiles Elizabeth Berg, author of Open House (among a handful of bestselling novels). According to the Atlantic Monthly, experts say forget "foolproof" technology; we need systems designed to fail smartly. MediaChannel.org presents television journalist April Oliver's top ten tips for a journalist's survival. Blue Ear community member Chuck Gregory shares his views on The Incredible Voyage by Tristan Jones. And Rob Brezsny's Free Will Astrology offers your weekly horoscope. All this and more from our section hosts today.

BIBLIOLATRY
Carlisle's all fired up about Cobb County, Georgia, where the local school board recently decided to add creationism to the school curriculum, or something like that. Carlisle thinks he's found the perfect place to live, but please don't say anything. We don't want to discourage him from moving to Georgia. You might, though, want to check out our short list of books about science and mythology and the sometimes uneasy, sometimes fruitful relationship between the two.

Anxious nouns in the newsletter audience head for the exits and into the streets, hoping to catch a verb home before the inevitable, post-newsletter chaos.

eBOOKS
Tired of waiting for a new Harry Potter novel? Pick up Coraline, the new gem from Neil Gaiman in which the title character finds a secret passage that leads her to a living nightmare. It's scary (but not too scary), a little creepy, and very funny. And the electronic edition contains a half dozen extras not available in the standard print version, including facsimile pages of the author's notebook and additional illustrations by Dave McKean. Find this new title and thousands more discounted at least 20%.

EVENTS CALENDAR
Linda Greenlaw brings The Lobster Chronicles to Powell's on Friday, August 30th. In the next two weeks we'll also welcome The Mekons (singing in store to introduce a collection of illustrated lyrics), Stefan Fatsis (Word Freak), Tony DiCicco (head coach of the U.S. Women's National Soccer Team), authors John Daniel, David Barsamian, Michelle Tea, and a discussion about The New Economy of Nature. Plus, spend First Thursday in our Pearl Room with artist John L. Ryczek. Check the calendar for details.

FUP. STORE CAT.
[In the previous edition, a kitten asked Fup, "Tell us the story you're bringing to the trees, the one about your parents." Addressing the crowd of young cats, dogs, birds, and fish gathered in the pet store, Fup began, "My parents met in the woods, in Maine, during an ice storm that knocked out power across six counties for a week. Dad's legs were nearly frostbitten when Mom heard his coughing under the shed and went out with her brother to investigate. They found my father shivering in a hole he'd dug in the dirt."]

Fup continued, "My uncle looked under the shed and recognized the freezing cat as Bruno, the youngest of three brothers who had been stealing chickens and otherwise driving their household crazy for years. My mother hunched at the edge of the shed. Bruno hissed when the two appeared.

"Maybe Bruno wasn't so cold and sick as he'd seemed or maybe he was just frightened," Fup told the residents of the pet store, "but before Penny knew what was happening my uncle had led her back to the house. That was that, apparently. Their troublesome neighbor would have to make it home on his own.

"He only lived on the land bordering ours, Penny's brother explained; he could get home if he needed help. But Penny had already thought of that. What she wanted to know, and yet somehow didn't want to know, was why hadn't Bruno gone home already? Why had he parked himself under the shed?"

One of Cesar's nieces interrupted. "Fup," she said, "most of these kids have never seen snow or ice. Maybe you could back up a little and explain."

So Fup told them all about winters in Maine: wet, heavy snow and dangerous freezing rain; the long succession of days staring out at the snowed-over laketop, the woods all around gone absolutely still — no birdsong or squirrel chatter for months, and after a storm sometimes no tracks in the fresh snow for days except the boots of locals who each morning cut holes in the ice and pulled fish out of the water with wire.

The young fish shuddered in their tanks.

"My mother told me once, 'Fup, I waited months for the thaw, wondering if Bruno had survived....'"

Up at the front of the pet store the security gate suddenly began to slide open along its track. "Oh dear," Cesar's younger niece mumbled, "the cleaning service is early." She shouted, "Everyone back to your cages and cubes! Back to your cages and cubes!"

TOP TEN
1. Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser (American Studies)
2. Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling (Young Adult)
3. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold (Literature)
4. Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich (American Studies)
5. How to Be Good by Nick Hornby (Literature)
6. Heavier Than Heaven: A Biography of Kurt Cobain by Charles R. Cross (Art)
7. The Two Towers by J. R. R. Tolkien (Science Fiction and Fantasy)
8. 9-11 by Noam Chomsky (Politics)
9. The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan (Gardening)
10. Empire Falls by Richard Russo (Literature)

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Comments, suggestions, anniversary wishes for Merv and Rosemary (my parents), send them to newsletter@powells.com

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by Dave