Here at Powells.com, we like to enact our own awards ceremony during the Oscars. We keep the speeches short and the awards even shorter. Since we hate to see anyone lose, all the nominees win... and the categories run the gamut from "Most Gracious Nominee" to "Best Supporting Nominee in a Nominated Category." We're pleased to announce that, for the fifth year running, every single person won every single award.

POWELLS.COM INTERVIEWS: MELISSA BANK
In her second novel, Melissa Bank returns to familiar territory: after college, a young woman from the suburbs moves to New York City and finds a job in publishing. But, whereas in The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing career advancement drove Jane, in The Wonder Spot, Sophie directs her attention to brothers and parents. Bank explains, "I was interested in how a family grows up, and how it reconfigures as each person's life changes." On the Powells.com blog, Dave recently called Bank's latest "one of the more perceptive novels about family and relationships that I've read in years." Critics agree. The Chicago Sun-Times led the chorus, proclaiming, "Forget sophomore slump, this book proves that the second time's a charm." Save 30% on The Wonder Spot and read the interview in which Bank discusses Oprah, depth without density, and what she learned in advertising.

INK Q&A: TIM FLANNERY
"The Weather Makers is about the history and future impact of climate change," says the author, Tim Flannery, who offers a bevy of savory answers to our INK Q&A questions. Find out his favorite sentence from another writer, how he found the last good book he read, where he had the best breakfast of his life, and save 30% on The Weather Makers.

PREORDER SIGNED FIRST EDITIONS: THE WEATHER MAKERS
Tim Flannery's The Weather Makers is both an urgent warning and a call to arms, outlining the history of climate change, how it will unfold over the next century, and what we can do to prevent a cataclysmic future. Georgie of Powells.com raves, "Flannery writes beautifully, clearly examining every angle of the debate surrounding our environment." In its starred review, Kirkus calls The Weather Makers "a powerful and persuasive book, sure to provoke strong reaction." Advance praise and strong word-of-mouth suggest The Weather Makers will become a cultural touchstone. Preorder your signed first editions now!

ORIGINAL ESSAY: JON FASMAN
Jon Fasman admits he's torn a copy of his book, The Geographer's Library, clean in half... though he doesn't remember why. In this essay for Powells.com, Fasman writes about "the central fact that allowed me to write this book, the most important single shift in my life that changed me from someone who thought about, dreamed about, talked about writing fiction to someone who actually did it. I'm talking about my own illiteracy." Read the essay and save 30% on The Geographer's Library now.

INK Q&A: MARK KURLANSKY
Mark Kurlansky, author of Salt and Cod, describes his latest book, The Big Oyster, as "the story of a city" — namely, New York. In this revealing Q&A, Kurlansky shares his favorite breakfast in Jamaica, explains why he writes, and reveals which painters have influenced him. Read the Q&A and save 30% on The Big Oyster for a limited time.

INK Q&A: BILL GASTON
Bill Gaston's latest novel, Sointula, "involves three people who undertake three separate but related adventures." Gaston's Q&A reveals his deepest, darkest secrets, including what makes writers the best liars of all, what writers talk about when they're playing poker, and why writers are wilder on tour than rock stars. Read the Q&A and buy Sointula at 30% off the publisher's price.

This year's opening musical montage was truly spectacular. It began with Ann belting out a rousing Dolly Parton medley, followed by Jill and Farley dancing to the serene "Fup Waltz" that Dave played on his accordion, and culminated with Georgie, glittering in her sequined gown, soaring above the cheering crowd while performing a breathy torch-song revue to Darin's bongo drumbeat.

THE MORNING NEWS: TOURNAMENT OF BOOKS
Co-sponsored by Powells.com, the Morning News presents its second annual Tournament of Books, a battle of literary titans to determine which author will take home the coveted Rooster. The tournament officially begins on March 20... so you'd better hurry if you want to catch up with the judges and read all the nominees. Save 30% on all nominated titles at Powells.com.

GUEST BLOGGERS: KEVIN BAKER AND ROB WALKER
Paradise Alley and Dreamland author Kevin Baker ("one of America's best new writers," according to the Boston Herald) is presently burning up the Powells.com blog as our guest blogger of the week. Next week finds Rob Walker (Letters from New Orleans) taking the reins. If you haven't checked out our blog, you're missing some of the most interesting commentary, esoteric observations, and generally irreverent news on the Internet. Perhaps in the entire universe! Or perhaps not. But it's worth a look, anyway.

NEW IN STORES
New to Powells.com: bestselling author Jodi Picoult's The Tenth Circle probes the unbreakable bond between parent and child and the dangerous repercussions of trying to play God. In Field Notes from a Catastrophe, recent Powells.com guest blogger Elizabeth Kolbert presents an argument for the urgent danger of global warming that is sure to be as influential as Rachel Carson's Silent Spring. And in What Jesus Meant, bestselling author and eminent scholar Garry Wills explores the meaning of Jesus's teachings.

DVDs
An Oscar bonanza comes to DVD! Directed and co-written by George Clooney, Good Night, and Good Luck depicts the historic clash between legendary journalist Edward R. Murrow and Senator Joseph McCarthy during the height of the blacklist. Walk the Line stars Joaquin Phoenix as Johnny Cash and Reese Witherspoon as June Carter Cash. And if you missed it in theaters, catch up with Crash, winner of the 2006 Best Motion Picture Academy Award. As always, all DVDs ship for free!

In our next edition:
INK Q&As with Julia Alvarez (Saving the World) and Christopher Moore (A Dirty Job); guest blogger Danielle Trussoni (Falling through the Earth); and introducing our signed firsts preorder program.

eBOOKS
Celebrate the Academy Award winners on eBook! George Clooney won Best Supporting Actor for Syriana, which is based on Robert Baer's See No Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA's War on Terrorism. Truman Capote's In Cold Blood is the book whose writing inspired Best Actor winner Philip Seymour Hoffman's portrayal in Capote. And Arthur Golden's beloved novel, Memoirs of a Geisha, was the basis of the film that won Oscars for Best Cinematography, Costume Design, and Art Direction.

CALENDAR OF EVENTS
Make Powell's part of your spring cleaning! Every Saturday this spring, Powell's is opening our northwest warehouse to buy your books. We buy books every day at our area stores, but we're making it easy for you to unload your boxes at 2720 NW 29th, our convenient warehouse location. In Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert pens an irresistible, candid, and eloquent account of her pursuit of worldly pleasure, spiritual devotion, and what she really wanted out of life. With The Blight Way, bestselling author Patrick McManus kicks off a rousing new mystery series set in the rarefied air of the Rockies. In The Pleasure's All Mine, Joan Kelly takes readers through her exploits as a professional submissive, as her fantasy becomes a career — and she wonders how a woman who considers herself a feminist reconciles being sexually submissive. Suzanne Matson's The Tree-Sitter is a passionate and tensely pitched tale of first love and idealism set in the Oregon forest. Check out our calendar for more events.

FUP. STORE CAT.
Bear's house is preternaturally quiet. Clock-tick quiet. This afternoon Oreo and Bagheera, and who knows how many others, will come over. The front porch will be teeming with cats. Since Stripes went home, though, it's just been Fup on the couch, Bear in the easy chair; Fup and Bear in the basement; Fup pushing ping pong balls off the top step to Bear, twelve stairs down.

"Where's Zooey again?" Fup needs to be reminded.

"Colorado."

Ages it's been since she and Bear crammed into the pitch-black nook behind where Dave keeps his socks in a plastic milk crate. She'd forgotten just how dark it gets.

"Doing what?"

"Hiking," Bear says. "Taking in the smells." Zooey came back last time raving about cactus in bloom. The cut on his snout took weeks to fully heal. "Enjoying open spaces."

"Open spaces freak me out." When Fup focuses, she can make out Bear's pulse against her hip.

"Me, too," he says.

POWELLS.COM BESTSELLERS (UPDATED HOURLY)

1. Vegetable Soups from Deborah Madison's Kitchen by Deborah Madison (Cooking and Food) 2. Arthur and George by Julian Barnes (Literature) 3. Home by Design by Sarah Susanka (Home Construction) 4. God's Politics by Jim Wallis (Politics) 5. The Art of Looking Sideways by Alan Fletcher (Art) 6. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary (11th Edition) by Merriam-Webster (Reference) 7. Before the Frost by Henning Mankell (Mystery) 8. The New Best Recipe by Cook's Illustrated (Cooking and Food) 9. On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee (Cooking and Food) 10. The Last Will and Testament of a Very Distinguished Dog by Eugene O'Neill (Pets)