On Bestsellers, with a Side Note About Scrambling for Mother's Day Cards.

It's unusual when Easter is right on top of Mother's Day. We were so used to holding our Mother's Day cards until after Easter that we let them go a few extra weeks.  And then I forgot to get in enough card designs, but one line of ours came to the rescue and got our order to us in less than a week.  I usually buy cards in 6's, but we sell Seattle designer Misha Zadeh (Graham)'s beautiful designs so well that we went with some 12's.  Hey, big time!

So that's my gift update for the week.  What did you buy your mom for Mother's Day*?  Here's what our customers have been contemplating.

Hardcover fiction
1. The Pale King, by David Foster Wallace
2. The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, by Stieg Larsson
3. The Invisible Bridge, by Julie Orringer (see below)
4. Wise Man's Fear, by Patrick Rothfuss
5. The Tragedy of Arthur, by Arthur Phillips.
6. The Paris Wife, by Paula McLain
7. Murder in Passy, by Clara Black
8. Great Night, by Chris Adrian
9. Started Early, Took by Dog, by Kate Atkinson
10. Drawing Conclusions, by Donna Leon

Phillips has the front-page of The New York Times Book Review. That's two in a row for him, I think.  And in addition to our sales, The Paris Wife continues to come up in a lot of conversations.  And Jason loved it.  So maybe it's my next late read.

Hardcover Nonfiction
1. The Thank You Economy, by Gary Vaynerchuk
2. Bossypants, by Tina Fey
3. 1861, by Adam Goodheart
4. The Social Animal, by David Brooks
5. The Nature Principle, by Richard Louv (coming to UEC May 18!)
6. Apollo's Angels, by Jennifer Homans
7. Cleopatra, by Stacy Schiff
8. Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand
9. The Divinity of Doubt, by Vincent Bugliosi
10. My Germany, by Lev Raphael

Richard Louv is appearing at the Urban Ecology Center on May 18.  Admission is $5.   Call to register (414) 964-8505.  More UEC events here.

Paperback fiction:
1. The Invisible Bridge, by Julie Orringer
2 A Visit from the Goon Squad, by Jennifer Egan
3. How to Breathe Underwater, by Julie Orringer
4. A Qustion of Belief, by Donna Leon
5. The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, by David Mitchell
6. The Help, by Kathryn Stockett
7. People of the Book, by Geraldine Brooks (at Boswell May 12!)
8. The Solitude of Prime Numbers, by Paolo Giorano
9. Separate Kingdoms, by Valerie Laken
10. The Empress, by Sa Shan

We'll be discussing Geraldine Brooks and David Mitchell at upcoming in-store book club discussions, People of the Book on May 2 and The Thousand Autumns on June 6.  Several of the titles this week were mentioned at our book club talk on Friday.  And Stacie just put The Empress on our staff shelf.

Paperback Nonfiction
1. Heaven is for Real, by Todd Burpo
2. Born to Run, by Chris McDougall
3. The Last Stand, by Nathaniel Philbrick (at Boswell Friday May 6!)
4. Just Kids, by Patti Smith
5. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot

While some of the hot titles from the Christian market have not really gotten traction at  Boswell, Todd Burpo's witnessing account is at phenomenon levels.  For trade phenomenons, you can't do much better than the long-lasting-in-hardcover Born to Run.  Should have a nice run in paper too; it's on our book club table and will likely wind up on our Father's Day assortment, when we get it up next week.

Kid Books
1. The Danger Box, by Blue Balliett
2. Chasing Vermeer, by Blue Balliet
3. The Wright 3, by Blue Balliett
4. The Calder Game, by Blue Balliett
5. Hawksmaid, by Kathryn Lansky
6. I am a Bunny, by Ole Rissom
7 Ladybug Girl and the Bug Squad, by David Soman and Jacky Davis
8. The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak
9. Diary of a Wimpy Kid Do it Yourself Book, by Jeff Kinney
10. The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins

Guess who we hosted this week?  If you guessed Blue Balliett, give yourself a hand.  And we've got some signed stock of many of the authors who visited.  If you'd like to buy one of these books, here's a handy link to our website. Or stop by.  Or call us at (414) 332-1181.

*It's not too late.  And we just got a nice assortment of those popular New Yorker Magazine jigsaw puzzles, that work for moms and dads and vacation cottages and who knows what else?