We're late with our spring cleaning this year. Ann has a tendency to spring clean all year round (check out her three-year-old Chuck Taylors that look newer than new), but the rest of us tend to wait until the dustballs lurking between the stacks of books atop our desks threaten to develop sentient intelligence and rise up to slay their human masters. A little sweeping, dusting, and Pledging seems to have quelled the revolution — for now.

POWELLS.COM INTERVIEWS: SEBASTIAN JUNGER
In A Death in Belmont, Sebastian Junger returns with the same nuanced journalism and detail that he brought to the fate of the Andrea Gail in the bestselling A Perfect Storm as well as to his war reporting from Afghanistan. A Death in Belmont is a compact book that focuses on one murder, but it is surprisingly far-reaching, touching on the American justice system, psychology, and Southern history. Junger spoke with us about his new book, journalism, the death penalty, and our responsibility as voting citizens.

SIGNED FIRST EDITIONS: A DEATH IN BELMONT
In this spare, powerful narrative, Sebastian Junger chronicles three lives that collide — and ultimately are destroyed — in the vortex of one of the first and most controversial serial murder cases in America. In its starred review, Publishers Weekly wrote that Junger is "a hell of a storyteller," while Kirkus Reviews hails it as a "ripping, highly readable drama." Order your signed first editions of the controversial, unforgettable A Death in Belmont now.

ORIGINAL ESSAY: JIM LYNCH
"When I was writing The Highest Tide it didn't occur to me that I was creating a time capsule," Jim Lynch writes in this original essay for Powells.com. "I didn't dwell on how unusual it would be for a modern teenager to not only be obsessed with nature but to have the freedom to explore it. Yet readers soon let me know it rarely happens anymore, which made me realize that despite setting the novel near the present day, my child star, Miles, is a throwback." Read the rest of the essay and save 30% when you buy The Highest Tide for a limited time.

INK Q&A: A. M. HOMES
Will A. M. Homes's new novel, This Book Will Save Your Life, really save your life? We make no promises, but we're pretty sure this A. M. Homes Q&A will make your newly saved life a little more interesting. Find out which fictional character Homes has had a crush on for years, and save 30% when you buy This Book Will Save Your Life.

INK Q&A: DEBBIE STOLLER
Writes Debbie Stoller, "Stitch 'n' Bitch Crochet: The Happy Hooker is an introduction to the ways of the hook. Crocheting has been treated like the red-haired stepchild of knitting for too long, and I wanted to try and help change that." In this INK Q&A, Stoller shares her favorite passage from another writer, the best breakfast she's ever had, and a gaggle of other fascinating tidbits. Read the Q&A and take 30% off Stitch 'n' Bitch Crochet.

INK Q&A: HEATHER MCGOWAN
In Heather McGowan's own words, her latest novel, Duchess of Nothing, is "the story of a woman living in Rome with her boyfriend, Edmund, and his seven-year-old half-brother. During Edmund's absences the narrator educates the boy in life, love, sunglasses, and marriage." Read about Heather's favorite breakfast and her obsession with HBO's brilliant series The Wire in this INK Q&A. For a limited time, save 30% when you buy Duchess of Nothing.

Why should published authors have all the fun? Answer any three of the following questions from our beloved INK Q&A and send your responses to newsletter@powells.com. We want to hear what you have to say!

1. If someone were to write your biography, what would be the title and subtitle?
2. How did the last good book you read end up in your hands and why did you read it?
3. Describe the best breakfast of your life.
4. What is your favorite indulgence, either wicked or benign?
5. What fictional character would you like to date, and why?

GUEST BLOGGERS: KELLY TYLER-LEWIS AND MOLLY O'NEILL
Our current guest blogger is Kelly Tyler-Lewis, author of The Lost Men, the harrowing account of the Ross Sea Party, the other side of Shackleton's Endurance expedition. Next week we welcome Molly O'Neill, author of Mostly True: A Memoir of Family, Food, and Baseball, who joins such illustrious company as Adam Gopnik, Susan Orlean, and Barry Yourgrau as guests on our blog.

NEW IN STORES
New to our shelves: Bestselling author Michael Connelly, whose most recent paperback release was The Closers, is best known for his terrific Harry Bosch mysteries, but he got his start as an investigative reporter for the Los Angeles Times. Crime Beat collects the best and most riveting of Connelly's true-crime writing. If that doesn't slake your thirst for thrills, ex-military cop Jack Reacher (star of the bestsellers One Shot and Persuader) returns in Lee Child's latest two-fisted tale, The Hard Way.

DVDs
New to DVD: Steven Spielberg's controversial Oscar-nominated Munich dramatically depicts Israel's bloody retaliation for the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre, with a screenplay by Tony Kushner (Angels in America). The New World is legendary director Terrence Malick's (Badlands, The Thin Red Line) portrayal of the tortured love affair between Captain John Smith (Colin Ferrell) and Pocahontas (Q'Orianka Kilcher). As always, all DVDs ship for free from Powells.com!

eBOOKS
New in eBook... or maybe not completely new, but worth mentioning again since we're only days away from the release of the film: Dan Brown's colossal bestseller The Da Vinci Code is in eBook format! In the tradition of Malcolm Gladwell's Blink, Daniel Gilbert's Stumbling on Happiness is a smart and funny examination of why we're so lousy at predicting what will make us happy — and what we can do about it. And if you just can't wait for this summer's movie, pick up the novelization of X-Men 3: The Last Stand, by the very writer who remade the X-Men into a smash success in the '80s, Chris Claremont!

In our next edition:
An interview with Michael Pollan and signed first editions of The Omnivore's Dilemma; signed first editions of David James Duncan's God Laughs and Plays; and an INK Q&A from Ivan Doig (The Whistling Season).

CALENDAR OF EVENTS
In Rough Crossings: Britain, the Slaves, and the American Revolution, Simon Schama, author of the monumental History of Britain series, follows the odyssey of tens of thousands of African Americans who escaped from farms, plantations, and cities to serve the British who promised emancipation in return for military service. The Booker Prize-winning author of Vernon God Little, DBC Pierre, returns with Ludmila's Broken English, the wild and brilliant tale of a round-the-clock world churning with opportunity, rowdy with the chatter of freedom, self-empowerment, and sex. From Gary Shteyngart, the critically acclaimed author of The Russian Debutante's Handbook, comes Absurdistan, the uproarious and poignant story of one very fat man and one very small country. In The Girls Who Went Away, Ann Fessler tells the captivating stories of young, single women who were forced or coerced into surrendering their babies for adoption between the end of World War II and the establishment of Roe v. Wade in 1973.

FUP. STORE CAT.
Fup didn't come home last night.

On the sidewalk in front of the store, a cigarette burns in Collier's hand. Smoke signals. He waits until a pedestrian rounds the corner onto Couch before calling to an otherwise empty block: "Here, Fup, Fup, Fup, Fup, Fup. Time for breakfast, troublemaker."

In August, Collier wouldn't think twice. But it's May, and since when does the thermometer hit ninety in May? Who ever heard of balmy nights this time of year?

"Here, Fupster. Here, Fuppernutter. Time for eatin', Fupperware. Fee-Fi-Fo-Fup."

Five more minutes, that's all Fup needs. Insects have arrived, full-force; birds are everywhere, chirping, begging to be flushed from low branches; all signs promise another glorious day. If not for the parade of dogs straining at joggers' leashes, this might well be her Shangri-la. Freeze the moment for all time, the North Park Blocks on an unseasonable, unreasonably warm spring morning.

"Miss Fupperoni. Breakfast-time."

POWELLS.COM BESTSELLERS (UPDATED HOURLY)

1. 50 Simple Things You Can Do to Fight the Right by Earthworks Press (Politics) 2. Katrina Project Book Pledge (Special) 3. The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan (Sociology) 4. How Would a Patriot Act? by Glenn Greenwald (Politics) 5. Sunset Western Garden Book by Sunset (Nature Studies) 6. Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert (Self Help) 7. Fun Home by Alison Bechdel (Graphic Novels) 8. March by Geraldine Brooks (Literature) 9. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown (Popular Fiction) 10. The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson (True Crime)