This year, in honor of Independence Day and the Craig Thompson/Alison Bechdel interview, we were inspired to save some money and keep the air a little cleaner. Rather than light up the usual fireworks from Washington (Oregon sparklers? C'mon!), we're going to sit around in a big group, sketch pads balanced on knees, and draw our fireworks displays. Join us on July 4th — and bring your own crayons or colored pencils!

POWELLS.COM INTERVIEWS: ALISON BECHDEL AND CRAIG THOMPSON
Consider this: The most acclaimed book of 2006 is an illustrated memoir. Alison Bechdel's Fun Home has been showered with starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, and Booklist, and breathless raves from Entertainment Weekly ("Grade: A"), Salon.com, and the New York Times Book Review besides. When a coworker called it "easily the best original graphic novel since Craig Thompson's Blankets," a bright bulb suddenly lit up our office. What if we brought the two groundbreaking artists together for a conversation? They started talking shop before we'd even turned on the recorder.

SIGNED FIRST EDITIONS: FUN HOME
Fun Home is "a graphic narrative of uncommon richness, depth, literary resonance and psychological complexity" (Kirkus), "a pioneering work" (New York Times Book Review), "brilliantly conceived and fearlessly executed" (Oregonian). Order signed first editions while they last -- and while you're at it, save 30% on Thompson's award-winning Blankets in paperback.

POWELLS.COM INTERVIEWS: ANTHONY BOURDAIN
Since Anthony Bourdain last sat down with Dave (in January of 2002), the chef has published "a rude, unpretentious, utilitarian field manual to classic French bistro cooking," a crime novel, and now The Nasty Bits, a book of previously uncollected essays. And all the while he's been globetrotting from the Kalahari to Quebec, documenting culinary culture for the Travel Channel. During a recent Oregon stopover, Bourdain discussed culture shock, maple bacon donuts, how to read restaurant menus, and more.

SIGNED FIRST EDITIONS: THE NASTY BITS
The Nasty Bits is "the kind of book you read in one sitting, then rush about annoying your coworkers by declaiming whole passages" (USA Today), "an entertaining feast" (Publishers Weekly), "fantastic: as lip-smackingly seductive as a bowl of fat chips and aioli" (Daily Telegraph). Order signed copies before they disappear.

ORIGINAL ESSAY: JAY WEINSTEIN
"We're all concerned about global warming," notes Jay Weinstein. "But how many of us see transatlantic shipping of water as a related problem?" In this original essay for Powells.com, the author of The Ethical Gourmet weighs in on the issue of preserving the right to free water. Read the essay and save 30% on The Ethical Gourmet.

INK Q&As: CAROLYN PARKHURST AND AMY EPHRON
Carolyn Parkhurst's novel Lost and Found "deserves to be as big a hit as the reality shows it genially pokes fun at," according to Booklist. Amy Ephron's One Sunday Morning is a "Whartonesque novel of manners" (Kirkus) that reads like "a Jazz Age take on Sex and the City" (Entertainment Weekly). Read both INK Q&As and save 30% when you purchase Lost and Found or One Sunday Morning, for a limited time.

For many, summer begins the first time they hear that familiar, tinkling tune from the ice cream truck. However, we get fired up for plastic pools and indoor barbecues at the first sound of the Whistling Punctuation Man. Every summer the Punctuation Man comes a-boppin' down the street, just a-whistlin' his tune, passing out semi-colons, brackets, ellipses, and (our personal favorites) em-dashes to all the good Powells.com employees. As a matter of fact, we think we hear him now...

REVIEW-A-DAY: VIRGINIA QUARTERLY REVIEW
Winner of the 2006 National Magazine Awards for General Excellence and for Fiction, the Virginia Quarterly Review is reimagining the literary journal for the twenty-first century. Powells.com is proud to welcome the VQR as our latest Review-a-Day partner. Read the review of Come Together, Fall Apart by Cristina Henriquez — as well as two reviews by renowned author Floyd Skloot: Roger Angell's Let Me Finish and John McGahern's All Will Be Well. While you're at it, sign up to receive our daily Review-a-Day email so you don't miss a single one!

STAFF PICKS: SHANNON B.
Beloved artist and Powell's employee, Shannon shares some of her favorite books. Her eclectic picks include graphic novels like Adrian Tomine's Summer Blonde and Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis 2, Liz McQuiston's "shocking, honest, and sassy" Suffragettes to She-Devils, and The Bake Shop Ghost by Jacqueline K. Ogburn: "Two very exciting things in this world are tiramisu and spiritual beings, and The Bake Shop Ghost has both."

SPRINGER PHYSICS AND STATISTICS SALE
Well, all good things must come to an end, and we're coming into the home stretch of yet another Springer Physics and Statistics Sale. You have until June 30 to save on lots of great titles on physics, statistics, and everything in-between. Hurry — the days are ticking away!

GUEST BLOGGER: RICHARD BROOKHISER (WITH FREE T-SHIRT!)
Just in time for Independence Day, Richard Brookhiser's What Would the Founders Do? is a lively, timely, and surprising exploration of how America's founding fathers would handle the most controversial issues facing the nation today. Next week we're pleased to welcome Brookhiser as our guest blogger, and we're even happier to offer a one-of-a-kind T-shirt with the purchase of every copy of What Would the Founders Do? while supplies last.

NEW IN STORES
New to our shelves: The life of a vampire hunter is never an easy one — but in Danse Macabre, Laurell K. Hamilton's venerable Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, has a problem even worse than werewolves or vampires: she might be pregnant. Just out in paperback, Michael Connelly's national bestseller The Lincoln Lawyer is full of "heart-stopping twists and topflight storytelling" (Publishers Weekly, starred review). David McCullough's 1776, now available in trade paperback, is "a gripping read" (New York Times) and another landmark in the literature of American history.

DVDs
New to DVD: George Clooney won an Oscar for his role in Stephen Gaghan's complex, captivating Syriana, co-starring Matt Damon and Jeffrey Wright. Robert Downey, Jr., and Val Kilmer spoof the hell out of the action-buddy genre in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. Steve Martin's fantastical, romantic modern take on A Midsummer Night's Dream, L.A. Story, is out now in a fifteenth-anniversary edition featuring deleted scenes, outtakes, and more.

eBOOKS
If our free excerpt last time whetted your appetite, gorge yourself on bestselling author Julia Quinn's latest, On the Way to the Wedding. Meanwhile, here's another free excerpt, exclusively on eBook, this time for Swashbuckling Fantasy: Ten Thrilling Tales of Magical Adventure, featuring such masters of young adult fantasy as Holly Black, D. J. MacHale, and Scott Westerfeld. Before you catch it on the big screen, in the film starring Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway, make sure you read The Devil Wears Prada!

In our next edition:
An interview with Helen Thomas and signed first editions of Watchdogs of Democracy; original essays from Terri Jentz (Strange Piece of Paradise) and Wendy Jaffe (The Divorce Lawyers' Guide to Staying Married); and INK Q&As from Julia Glass (The Whole World Over) and Clare Sambrook (Hide and Seek).

CALENDAR OF EVENTS
Best of Tin House celebrates six years of the Portland-based magazine and wonderful storytelling; the event will include stories read by Aimee Bender, Deborah Eisenberg, Denis Johnson, Anthony Swofford, and others. From Julia Glass, the author of the beloved novel Three Junes, comes The Whole World Over, a "rich, subtle novel" (Publishers Weekly, starred review) about the accidents, both grand and small, that determine our choices in love and marriage. Monica Ali, the bestselling author of Brick Lane, returns with Alentejo Blue, the story of a picturesque village and the people who populate it. In A Fistful of Charms, Kim Harrison continues the supernatural adventures of a witch bounty hunter. Tom Lutz's Doing Nothing is a witty, wide-ranging cultural history of our attitudes toward work — and getting out of it. And don't forget, you can order signed editions from visiting authors of upcoming events.

FUP. STORE CAT.
It's so hot on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday that Fup spends the daylight hours trying to rid her brain of thought. A simple one arises, something about the week ahead, for example, and quickly it spawns questions, like the fumigation at Bear's house — scheduled for Wednesday, or is it Thursday? — and next thing her head is a stuffy, sweating attic of jostling ideas, she's gasping for air, for a breeze, for relief.

Of all weekends to entertain guests from out of town.

Barleycorn has mellowed in middle age — there's consolation in his independence, at least. Where two years ago he'd have been peppering her for the story behind this statue or that fountain or the downtown block where according to legend Mel Blanc took in the stray that years later he used as inspiration for the voice of Sylvester — how do these rumors propagate? (there she goes, thinking again) — now Barleycorn is content to digest city sights uncaptioned. If nothing else, Fup consoles herself, she need not speak. Every little bit helps.

Because to speak she'd have to think, and it's much too hot for that. One hundred and two Fahrenheit degrees.

POWELLS.COM BESTSELLERS (UPDATED HOURLY)

1. The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan (Cooking and Food) 2. Bats at the Beach by Brian Lies (Children's) 3. 1776 by David McCullough (U.S. History) 4. Fun Home by Alison Bechdel (Graphic Novels) 5. Theft: A Love Story by Peter Carey (Literature) 6. The One Percent Doctrine by Ron Suskind (Politics) 7. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown (Popular Fiction) 8. Grub: Ideas for an Urban Organic Kitchen by Lappe and Terry (Cooking and Food) 9. How Would a Patriot Act? by Glenn Greenwald (Politics) 10. Eleven on Top by Janet Evanovich (Mystery)