May 10 New Yorker Bound to Please

The May 10 issue of the New Yorker, on sale May 3, will once again include a special insert featuring Book Sense and great gift book recommendations from independent booksellers. "Bound to Please" suggests appropriate titles for Mother's Day, Father's Day, and graduation gifts and notes that books " can both commemorate a special moment and later, offer the pleasure of rediscovery -- something few gifts can do."

The insert continues, "Of course, matching books to the distinctive traits and passions of friends and loved ones can be a challenge, and keeping abreast of the seemingly infinite inventory of new titles that arrives in bookstores every year can be daunting. But informed suggestions of independent booksellers coast to coast provide welcomed ballast. Intriguing new books are identified in the Book Sense Picks list, a monthly compendium that gathers the collective wisdom of independent booksellers nationwide and offers suggestions geared to please everyone on your list."

Booksellers and the titles they recommend include:

• The Gardens of Emily Dickinson by Judith Farr with Louise Carter (Harvard University Press) -- recommended by Terri Merz of Chapters: A Literary Bookstore in Washington, D.C.
  

• The Well of Lost Plots by Jasper Fforde (Viking) -- recommended by Mimi Barrett of Coffee Buy the Book in Roswell, Georgia
  

• Cooking for Harry: A Low Carbohydrate Novel by Kay-Marie James (Shaye Areheart Books) -- recommended by Tara O'Donnell of Paperbacks Plus in the Bronx, New York

• Bobby Fischer Goes to War: How the Soviets Lost the Most Extraordinary Chess Match of All Time by David Edmonds and John Eidinow (Ecco) -- recommended by Lisa Moore of Twenty-Third Avenue Books in Portland, Oregon
  

• Ramblin’ Man: The Life and Times of Woody Guthrie by Ed Cray (Norton) -- recommended by Scott Wannberg of Dutton's Brentwood Books, Los Angeles
  

• Working Fire: The Making of an Accidental Fireman by Zac Unger (The Penguin Press) -- recommended by Andra Tracy of Out Word Bound in Indianapolis, Indiana
  

• You Are Here: A Memoir of Arrival by Wesley Gibson (Back Bay Books) -- recommended by Kelly Justice of The Fountain Bookstore in Richmond, Virginia

• In Praise of Slowness: How a Worldwide Movement Is Challenging the Cult of Speed by Carl Honore (HarperSanFrancisco) -- recommended by Patricia E. Raley of Readers' Books in Sonoma, California
  

• Rats: Observations on the History & Habitat of the City's Most Unwanted Inhabitants by Robert Sullivan (Bloomsbury) -- recommended by Dana Harper of Brystone Children's Books, Fort Worth, Texas
  

• Who Needs Donuts? by Mark Alan Stamaty (Knopf) -- recommended by Susan Avery of Ariel Booksellers in New Paltz, New York
  

Also featured is Book Sense bestseller Duck for President (S&S Books for Young Readers) and a sidebar of publishers' picks.