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Published October 18, 2019

Book Covers of Note, October 2019

Oh hey, it’s October, AKA the best month of the year, so this is the last of my monthly cover round-ups for 2019. My look back at the year will be coming soon, so if I have shamefully overlooked your work for the past 10 months, or you want to share a cover design for a book that is coming out in November or December, now would be a really great time to drop me a line! High resolution images are always appreciated. This goes double if you design or illustrate YA covers. 1

All This Could Be Yours by Jami Attenberg; design by Catherine Casalino (Hougton Mifflin / October 2019)

Big Bang by David Bowman; design by Jamie Keenan (Corsair / August 2019)

This makes me think of the décollage art of folks like Mimmo Rotella.

The cover of the US edition published by Little, Brown was designed by Gregg Kulick and takes a different pop art approach…

Dead Astronauts by Jeff Vandermeer; design Rodrigo Corral (MCD / December 2019)

The cover of the UK edition, out in January 2020 from Fourth Estate, was designed by Jo Walker with an illustration by Alycia Rainaud.

Driving in Cars with Homeless Men by Kate Wisel; design Catherine Casalino (University of Pittsburgh Press / October 2019)

The Factory by Hiroko Oyamada; design by Janet Hansen; photography by Arthur Woodcroft (New Directions / October 2019)

Feminist City: A Field Guide by Leslie Kern; design by Ingrid Paulson (Between the Lines / October 2019)

The flaps are fun…

Geometry of Shadows by Giorgio di Chirico; design by Atelier Bingo (Public Space Books / October 2019)

Ghosts of Berlin by Rudolph Herzog; design by Marina Drukman (Melville House / October 2019)

Gorgeous War by Tim Blackmore; design Michel Vrana (Wilfred Laurier University Press / October 2019)

The Grace Year by Kim Liggett; design by Kerri Resnick; illustration Hsiao Ron Cheng (Wednesday Books / October 2019)

Humiliation by Paulina Flores; design by Nicole Caputo (Catapult / November 2019)

I Hope You Get This Message by Farah Naz Rishi; design by Erin Fitzsimmons; illustration by Adams Carvalho (HarperTeen / October 2019)

This makes a nice pair with the Adams Carvalho illustration on the cover of We Are the Lost and Found  mentioned last month…

Nightmareland by Lex “Lonehood” Nover; design by Linet Huamán Velásquez (TarcherPerigee / October 2019)

Nothing To See Here by Kevin Wilson; design by Allison Saltzman; art by Christian Northeast (Ecco / October 2019)

Not Me by Marianne Dissard; design by Jamie Keenan (October 2019)

One of the more disturbing covers of the year I think…

One Day by Gene Weingarten; design by David Litman (Blue Rider / October 2019)

Sonnets to Orpheus by Rainer Maria Rilke; design by Anne Jordan & Mitch Goldstein (Open Letter Books / December 2019)

Space Struck by Paige Lewis; design by Alban Fischer (Sarabande Books / October 2019)

Suspect Communities by Nicole Nguyen; design by Matt Avery (University of Minnesota Press / October 2019)

Redaction on covers is most definitely in…

The Topeka School by Ben Lerner; design by Rodrigo Corral (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / October 2019)

What Happened? by Hanif Kureishi; design Jonny Pelham (Faber & Faber / October 2019)

Are we seeing the beginnings of a psychedelia revival? There are a couple of covers coming in 2020 in addition to these three that make me think we might be…

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Published September 25, 2019

Book Covers of Note, September 2019

OK, this is super-late even by my standards of lateness, so let’s just get on with it because we’ve all got stuff to do…

Arctic Smoke by Randy Nikkel Schroeder; design by Michel Vrana (NeWest Press / September 2019)

Aeneis by Vergilius; design by Gray318 (Jaguar / 2019)

Jon will surely not thank me for mentioning this, but the Aeneid cover reminds me of the brilliant 2007 Penguin Modern Classics editions of Kafka designed by Mother and Jim Stoddart (featuring photographs by Gary Card and Jacob Sutton), and I can’t pass up the opportunity to post them here. They still look extraordinary…

(And in the process of looking for images, I cam across a nice essay from a couple of years ago by designer Clare Skeats discussing the Kafka covers at Grafik)

The Dutch House by Ann Patchet; design by Robin Bilardello; painting by Noah Saterstrom (HarperCollins / September 2019)

The Enlightenment of Bees by Rachel Linden; design by Kimberly Glyder (Thomas Nelson / July 2019)

Frankly in Love by David Yoon; design by Owen Gildersleeve (G. P. Putnam / September 2019)

From the Shadows by Juan José Millás; design by Tree Abraham (Bellevue Literary Press / August 2019)

In Her Feminine Sign by Dunya Mikhail; design by Janet Hansen (New Directions / July 2019)

High School by Tegan & Sara; design by Na Kim (MCD / September 2019)

The cover of the Canadian edition published by Simon & Schuster Canada (left) was designed by Emy Storey. The cover of the UK edition published by Virago (right) was adapted from the Canadian design by Nico Taylor.

Inland by Téa Obrecht; design by Jaya Miceli; art by Tamara Ruiz (Random House / August 2019)

The Innocents by Michael Crummey; design by Emily Mahon; art by Diana Dabinett (Doubleday / August 2019)

Listening to the Wind by Tim Robinson; design by Mary Austin Speaker (Milkweed / September 2019)

De New York Trilogie by Paul Auster; design by Moker Ontwerp (De Bezige Bij / August 2019)

This reminded me of Evan Gaffney‘s 2012 ‘film noir’ covers for the Vintage paperbacks of James M. Cain.

Permanent Record by Mary H. K. Choi; design by Lizzy Bromley; illustration by gg (Simon & Schuster / September 2019)

This reminded me of the panels of Tony Abruzzo romance comics that Roy Lichtenstein liked to lift from.

gg also illustrated the cover of Mary H. K. Choi’s previous novel Emergency Contact.

Oh and Koyama Press is publishing a new book by gg called Constantly in January 2020. It looks beautiful.

Quichotte by Salman Rushdie; design by Gray318 (Jonathan Cape / August 2019)

Rail by Miranda Pearson; design David Drummond (McGill-Queen’s University Press / September 2019)

Safe Houses I Have Known by Steve Healey; design by Alban Fischer (Coffee House Press / September 2019)

One to add to the redacted covers list.

Shame On Me by Tessa McWatt; design by Allison Colpoys (Scribe / August 2019)

This has some nice Alvin Lustig / New Directions vibes.

Someone Who Will Love You in All Your Damaged Glory by Raphael Bob-Waksberg; design by Tyler Comrie; illustration Justin Metz (Knopf / June)

For some reason this made me think of the 2015 cover for I Am Sorry to Think I Raised a Timid Son by Kent Russell designed by Peter Mendelsund (with hand lettering by Janet Hansen and photography by George Baier IV)

Sontag by Benjamin Moser; design by Tom Etherington; photograph by Richard Avedon (Allen Lane / September)

The cover of the US edition published by Ecco was designed by Allison Saltzman. Title only appears on the spine (which, if my social media is anything to go by, gets big high fives from book designers everywhere).

To The Island of Tides by Alistair Moffat; Art by Andy Lovell; art direction Gill Heeley (Canongate / August 2019)

It’s lovely to see contemporary landscape art featuring prominently on book covers of late…

The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates; design Greg Mollica; art Calida Garcia Rawles (One World / September 2019)

The New York Times ran a short article about the genesis of this cover earlier this year.

For the font-curious, the typeface is Alias Harbour according to the folks at Fonts In Use. Another calligraphic type alternative to the ubiquitous Lydian perhaps?

We Are the Lost and Found by Helene Dunbar; design Nicole Hower; illustration by Adams Carvalho (Sourcebooks / September 2019)

The World Doesn’t Require You by Rion Amilcar Scott; design by Laywan Kwan; art by Fahamu Pecou (Liveright / August 2019)

And I am definitely here for the contemporary figure painting on book covers trend…

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Published July 23, 2019

Book Covers of Note, July 2019

Oof, I am very late with this month’s covers post. I think it’s quite a good one though as these things go…? 


Categorically Famous by Guy Davidson; design by Michel Vrana (Stanford University Press / June 2019)

Swishy retro fonts are definitely a ‘thing’ now. In this instance I believe the font is Cabernet JF — an unofficial revival of Benguiat Caslon — which has been mentioned here before. The sans is Futura of course. I rather rashly went on record not so long ago saying Futura is a little overused on university press covers (much to the chagrin of Robert Bringhurst!), but I think it works here.     


Come Closer and Listen by Charles Simic; design by Allison Saltzman; art by Jessica Brilli (Ecco / July 2019)


Cruising by Alex Espinoza; design by Robert Bieselen (Unnamed Press / June 2019)

More swishy-swishiness. The positioning of the first “i” in “Cruising” does some work here.  


Cults by Herb Lester Associates; design and illustration Brian Rau (Herb Lester Associates / July 2019)


The Dry Heart by Natalia Ginzburg; design by Pablo Delcan (New Directions / July 2019)

Pablo also designed the cover of Ginzburg’s Happiness, as Such, also out this month from New Directions.


Expectation by Anna Hope; design by Jo Thomson (Doubleday / July 2019)


Feel Free by Nick Laird; design by Yang Kim (W.W. Norton / July 2019)


The Fell by Robert Jenkins; design by Jason Anscomb (RedDoor Press / July 2019)


The Great American Cheese War by Paul Flower; design by Dan Mogford (Farrago / June 2019)

(There is probably a post to be had of covers that feature ‘guns’ made of other things. Although I’m struggling to think of any other examples off the top of my head, so maybe I’m thinking of artworks and/or magazine covers? Or just imagining it?)


A Half-Baked Idea by Olivia Potts; design by Helen Crawford-White (Fig Tree / July 2019)


Harbart by Nabarun Bhattacharya; design by Oliver Munday (New Directions / June 2019) 


Maggie Brown & Others by Peter Orner; design by Lucy Kim (Little, Brown & Co. / July 2019)


The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead; design by Oliver Munday (Doubleday / July 2019)


Novacene by James Lovelock; design by Tom Etherington (Allen Lane / July 2019)


Radical Ritual by Neil Shister; design by Sarah Brody (Counterpoint / July 2019)


Say Say Say by Lila Savage; design by Jennifer Carrow (Knopf / July 2019)


The Travelers by Regina Porter; design by Suzanne Dean (Jonathan Cape / July 2019)

The cover of the US edition published by Hogarth last month was designed by Michael Morris.

I would have have a hard time telling you which country these covers came from if I didn’t already know. Using the US spelling “Travelers” on the UK cover confuses the issue, but I don’t think either cover looks particularly American, which is kind of interesting. Michael Morris recently discussed his version with Spine. 


Turbulence by David Szalay; design by Lauren Peters-Collaer (Scribner / July 2019)

The cover of the UK edition of Turbulence, published at the end of last year by Jonathan Cape, reminded me of Anne Twomey’s 2015 cover for Munich Airport by Greg Baxter…

Interestingly, the barcode on the front of the UK edition actually works. You can read an interview from earlier this year with designer Rosie Palmer about the UK cover over at Spine. 


Very Nice by Marcy Dermansky; design by Janet Hansen; ice rendered by Justin Metz (Knopf / July 2019)


The Weil Conjectures by Karen Olsson; design by Emma Ewbank (Bloomsbury / July 2019)

The cover of the US edition published by FSG this month was designed by Alison Forner and Thomas Colligan, with art by Jessica Halonen.


We Went to the Woods by Caite Dolan-Leach; design by Jaya Miceli (Random House / July 2019)

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Published April 15, 2019

Book Covers of Note, April 2019

Well, if the sun’s turned cold and the sky’s got black, it must be April!1 Here are this month’s book cover selections… 


The Affairs of the Falcóns by Melissa Rivero; design Allison Saltzman; lettering Boyoun Kim (Ecco / April 2019)


All Ships Follow Me by Mieke Eerkens; design Henry Sene Yee (Picador USA / April 2019)

Another cover for the Lydian file. (I posted a link to this on Twitter, but I don’t think I’ve mentioned it here — Kaitlyn Tiffany recently wrote a piece on the Lydian phenomenon for Vox if you want to read a bit more about it) 


Feast Your Eyes by Myla Goldberg; design Lauren Peters-Collaer (Scribner / April 2019)


The Flip by Jeffery J. Kripal; design by Tree Abraham (Bellevue Literary Press / March 2019)


Four Words for Friend by Marek Kohn; design by Clare Skeats (Yale University Press / April 2019)

Some lovely type there… Can anyone tell me what the title typeface is please? It seems like a good alternative for our old friend Lydian there…

The Lady from the Black Lagoon by Mallory O’Meara; design by Erin Craig; art by Matt Buck (Hanover Square / March 2019)

Is this the first Harlequin book cover to feature on the site? Possibly… 


Never a Lovely So Real by Colin Asher; design by Jonathan Bush (W. W. Norton / April 2019)

A couple of bold design decisions here — neither the author name or the subtitle (“The Life and Work of Nelson Algren”) are on the front cover.


The New Me by Halle Butler; design by Rachel Willey (Penguin / March 2019)


Notes from a Young Black Chef by Kwame Onwuachi with Joshua David Stein; design by Stephanie Ross; photograph Matt McClain (Knopf / April 2019)


The Other Americans by Laila Lalami; design by Janet Hansen (Pantheon Books / March 2019)


The Mountain that Eats Men by Ander Izagirre; design by Steve Leard (Zed Books / April 2019)


Swift by David Baker; design by Sarahmay Wilkinson (W.W. Norton / April 2019)


The Volunteer by Salvatore Scibona; design by Rachel Willey (Penguin / March 2019)


What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker by Damon Young; design by Sarah Huny Young (Ecco / April 2019)


You Are What You Read by Jodie Jackson; design by Steve Leard (Unbound / April 2019)

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Published January 27, 2019

Book Covers of Note January 2019

Here are this month’s book covers of note. Better late than never I suppose! (And so much for that New Year’s Resolution to better at blogging in 2019!). I’ll be starting on February’s post next week…


Cusp by Josephine Wilson; design by Alissa Dinallo (UWA Publishing / August 2018)

Starting my first 2019 covers post with a book from 2018 is not ideal, is it? Ah well… Take a look at some of the rejected covers on Alissa’s Instagram.   


The Dreamers by Karen Thompson Walker; design by Anna Kochman (Random House / January 2019)


Holy Lands by Amanda Sthers; design by Tree Abraham (Bloomsbury / January 2019)


Joy Enough by Sarah McColl; design by Catherine Casalino (Liveright / January 2019)


Maid by Stephanie Land; design by Amanda Kain (Hachette / January 2019)

You guys are weird… 

Pretend I’m Dead by Jen Beagin; design by Alex Merto (Scribner / May 2018)

The cover of the UK edition of Maid, published by Trapeze, also features rubber gloves FWIW. Sadly I don’t know who designed it.  


McGlue by Ottessa Moshfegh; design by Ben Denzer (Penguin / January 2019)


Mouthful of Birds by Samanta Schweblin; design by Stephen Brayda (Riverhead / January 2019)


No! by Charles Nemeth; design by James Paul Jones (Atlantic Books / January 2019)


Not Working by Josh Cohen; design by Matthew Young (Granta / January 2019)

I saw this in a bookstore on a recent visit to the UK. It stood out in a display of new nonfiction. I think it was the doodle-like looseness of the approach that initially caught my eye, but I also like that it feels like a parody of the contemporary nonfiction cover template. 


Old Newgate Road by Keith Scribner; design by Janet Hansen (Knopf / January 2019)


An Orchestra of Minorities by Chigozie Obioma; design by Gray318 (Little, Brown & Company / January 2019)

Jon also designed the cover of Chigozie Obioma’s previous novel The Fishermen:

The Fishermen by Chigozie Obioma; design by Gray318 (Pushkin Press / February 2015)

The cover of the UK edition of An Orchestra of Minorities, published by Little, Brown, was designed by Nico Taylor.

Also in the UK, Pushkin Press have a new edition of The Fishermen with a cover by Anna Morrison:

The Fishermen by Chigozie Obioma; design by Anna Morrison (Pushkin Press / January 2019)
The Fishermen by Chigozie Obioma; design by Gray318 (Pushkin Press / February 2015)


Salt On Your Tongue by Charlotte Runcie; design by Gray318 (Canongate / January 2019)


Savage Frontier by Matthew Carr; design by Dan Mogford (Hurst / November 2018)


The Soprano Sessions by Matt Zoller Seitz and Alan Sepinwall; design by Mike McQuade (Abrams / January 2019)


To the River by Don Gillmor; design by Five Seventeen (Random House Canada / December 2018)


The Wall by John Lanchester; design by Alex Kirby (Faber & Faber / January 2019)


The Weight of a Piano by Chris Cander; design by Kelly Blair (Knopf / January 2019)

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Published December 11, 2018

Book Covers of Note 2018

This has been an exhausting year for oh so, so many reasons, but book covers remained a bright spot for me in 2018. 

As always, my end-of-year list collects together the covers that I found interesting or noteworthy in some way or another in the past 12 months. It is organized alphabetically by title and grouped by designer (because that makes sense to me when I’m compiling the list). 

In terms of trends, there were a lot of hot orange book covers this year. Stark black, white and red covers were popular for non-fiction. Stars and stripes featured heavily too (I refuse to do a post about this!). Snakes seemed to be a thing!

Typographically, big white sans serifs are still a go-to. And hand-lettering and handwriting are still going strong. But retro typefaces, particularly big serifs with swishy swashes, are making a comeback. 

Thanks as always to everyone who has supported the blog this year, especially the folks who have taken the time to help with cover images and design credits. I’m sorry for the many, many the emails I have not replied to this year, and for all the covers, designers, and publishers I have overlooked. 


Aetherial Worlds by Tatyana Tolstaya; design by Stephanie Ross (Knopf / March 2018)

Stephanie Ross’s cover for Ruth Bader Ginsberg by Jane Sherron De Hart, published by Knopf in October, also caught my eye this year. 


Agrippina: Empress, Exile, Hustler, Whore by Emma Southon; design by Mark Ecob (Unbound / August 2018)


America is Not the Heart by Elaine Castillo; design by Gray318 (Atlantic Books / May 2018)

Also designed by Gray318:

Something Great and Beautiful by Enrico Pellegrini; design by Gray318 (Other Press / September 2018)
Me Mum. Me Dad. Me. by Malcolm Duffy; design Gray318 (Head of Zeus / April 2018)
Feel Free by Zadie Smith; design by Gray318 (Hamish Hamilton / February 2018)

(I got to visit Jon in his studio this summer, which was nice.)


Austerlitz by W.G. Sebald; design David Pearson (Penguin / June 2018)

Also designed by David Pearson:

Staying Power by Peter Fryer; design by David Pearson; illustration by Adam Busby (Pluto Press / September 2018)
Mad, Bad, Dangerous to Know by Colm Tóibín; design David Pearson (Viking / October 2018)
England’s Discontents by Mike Wayne; design by David Pearson (Pluto Press / November 2018)


The Book of Joan by Lidia Yuknavitch; design by Rafi Romaya; illustration by Florian Schommer (Canongate / January 2018)


Born To Be Posthumous by Mark Dery; design by Jim Tierney; photograph by Richard Corman (Little Brown & Co. / November 2018)

Congratulations to Jim and Sara on the birth of their baby last month! 


Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber; design by David Litman (Simon & Schuster / May 2018)


Cherry by Nico Walker; design by Janet Hansen (Knopf / August 2018)

Also designed by Janet Hansen:

Immigrant, Montana by Amitava Kumar; design Janet Hansen (Knopf / July 2018)
Provocations by Camille Paglia; design Janet Hansen (Pantheon / October 2018)


Circe by Madeline Miller; design by Will Staehle (Little Brown & Co / April 2018)

Also designed by Will Staehle:

The Outsider by Stephen King; design by Will Staehle (Scribner / May 2018)
The Infinite Future by Tim Wirkus; design by Will Staehle (Prentice Hall / January 2018)


Codex 1962 by Sjón; design by Rodrigo Corral (MCD / September 2018)

The cover of the UK edition of Codex 1962 published by Sceptre, which features art by Owen Gent, is also beautiful.

Also designed by Rodrigo Corral Studio: 

Severance by Ling Ma; design Rodrigo Corral (FSG / August 2018)
The End of the End of the Earth by Jonathan Franzen; design by Rodrigo Corral; photo by Jeroen Mantel (FSG / November 2018)
The Linden Tree by Cesar Aira; design by Rodrigo Corral (New Directions / May 2018)


The Comedown by Rebekah Frumkin; design by Rachel Willey (Henry Holt / April 2018)

Also designed by Rachel Willey:

Heartbreaker by Claudia Dey; design by Rachel Willey (Random House / August 2018)
The Pisces by Melissa Broder; design by Rachel Willey (Bloomsbury / May 2018)


The Doctor Stories by William Carlos Williams; design by Joan Wong (New Directions / September 2018)


Educated by Tara Westover; illustration by Patrik Svensson (Random House / March 2018)

Probably the most ubiquitous nonfiction book of the year (if not, in the end, the bestselling). Canada and the UK went with photographic covers. This was more memorable I thought. 


Evening in Paradise by Lucia Berlin; design by Na Kim (Farrar, Straus and Giroux / November 2018)

Also designed by Na Kim:

Welcome Home by Lucia Berlin; design by Na Kim (Farrar, Straus and Giroux / November 2018)
Heavy by Kiese Laymon; design by Na Kim (Scribner / October 2018)
Certain American States by Catherine Lacey; design by Na Kim (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / August 2018)


he Fed and Lehman Brothers by Laurence M. Ball; design by Catherine Casalino (University of Cambridge Press / June 2018)

Also designed by Catherine Casalino:

The Age of Caesar by Plutarch; translation by Pamela Mensch; design by Catherine Casalino (W.W. Norton / January 2018)
Here Kitty Kitty by Jardine Libaire; design Catherine Casalino (Hogarth / June 2018)


The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer; design by Ben Denzer (Riverhead Books / April 2018)

I also really liked Ben Denzer’s typographic cover for A Short Film About Disappointment by Joshua Mattson (Penguin Press / August 2018).


Feminasty by Erin Gibson; design by Anne Twomey; photograph by Ricky Middlesworth (Grand Central / September 2018)


The Feral Detective by Jonathan Lethem; design Allison Saltzman; photograph Kate Bellm (Ecco Press / November 2018)


Fox 8 by George Saunders; design by Greg Heinimann (Bloomsbury / November 2018)


Gin: Distilled by Gin Foundry; design by James Paul Jones (Ebury Press / October 2018)


Gun Love by Jennifer Clement; design by Michael Morris (Hogarth / March 2018)

Also designed by Michael Morris:

My German Brother by Chico Buarque; design by Michael Morris (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / June 2018)
Woman No. 17 by Edan Lepucki; design by Michael Morris; illustration by Oliver Wilson (Crown / February 2018)


Hippie by Paulo Coelho; design by Tyler Comrie (Knopf / September 2018)

Also designed by Tyler Comrie:

Ponti by Sharlene Teo; design by Tyler Comrie (Simon & Schuster / September 2018)
Bitwise: A Life in Code by David Auerbach; design by Tyler Comrie (Pantheon / August 2018)
There There by Tommy Orange; design by Tyler Comrie (Knopf / June 2018)


The Hole by José Revueltas; design by John Gall (New Directions / November 2018)

Also designed by John Gall:

The Frolic of the Beasts by Yukio Mishima; design John Gall (Vintage / November 2018)
Emissary by Yuko Tawada; design by John Gall (New Directions / April 2018)

(Don’t forget about the new book collecting 10 years of John Gall’s collages!)


The House of Impossible Beauties by Joseph Cassara; design by Sara Wood (Ecco / February 2018)

You can read about the design of this cover on Literary Hub. 


The Infinite Blacktop by Sara Gran; design by Alex Merto (Atria Books / September 2018)

Also designed by Alex Merto:

Pretend I’m Dead by Jen Beagin; design by Alex Merto (Scribner / May 2018)
Let It Bang by RJ Young; design by Alex Merto (HMH / November 2018)
Awayland by Ramona Ausubel; design by Alex Merto (Riverhead / March 2018)


In the Distance by Hernan Diaz; design by Luke Bird (Daunt Books / June 2018)

I read the US edition of In the Distance (Coffee House Press / 2017) earlier this year. It is quite extraordinary and not what I expected — a western, but not really. I was really pleased that Daunt decided to publish it in the UK. 

Also designed by Luke Bird:

Patient X by David Peace; design by Luke Bird (Faber & Faber / April 2018)
Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata; design by Luke Bird (Portobello Books / July 2018)


The Island That Disappeared by Tom Feiling; design by Marina Drukman (Melville House / March 2018)


The Italian Teacher by Tom Rachman; design by Jaya Miceli (Viking / March 2018)

Also designed by Jaya Miceli:

An American Marriage by Tayari Jones; design by Jaya Miceli (Algonquin Books / February 2018)
The Incendiaries by R.O. Kwon; design Jaya Miceli (Riverhead / July 2018)
Wasteland by W. Scott Poole; design by Jaya Miceli (Counterpoint / November 2018)


A Ladder to the Sky by John Boyne; design by Jo Thomson (Doubleday / August 2018)


Liveblog by Megan Boyle; design by Nicole Caputo (Tyrant Books / September 2018)

Also designed by Nicole Caputo:

It Needs To Look Like We Tried by Todd Robert Petersen; design by Nicole Caputo (Counterpoint / May 2019)
Tomb of the Unknown Racist by Blanche McCrary Boyd; design by Nicole Caputo (Counterpoint / May 2019)
The Gunners by Rebecca Kauffman; design by Nicole Caputo (Counterpoint / March 2018)

The Gunners — a novel about a group of misfit friends reuniting at a funeral — was a favourite in my office this year. 


The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner; design by Peter Mendelsund; photograph by Nan Goldin (Scribner / May 2018)

Also designed by Peter Mendelsund:

Notes from the Fog by Ben Marcus; design Peter Mendelsund (Knopf / August 2018)
Calypso by David Sedaris; design by Peter Mendelsund (Little, Brown & Co. / May 2018)
Tell Them of Battles, Kings, and Elephants by Mathias Énard; design by Peter Mendelsund (New Directions / November 2018)


My Cat Yugoslavia by Pajtim Statovci; design by Anna Morrison (Pushkin Press / April 2018)

I thought this was a nice contrast to the cover of the US edition designed by Oliver Munday (Pantheon / April 2017). It’s interesting that only the cat’s ear makes an appearance, and the snake (a boa constrictor in the story I think?) is more prominent.  

Also designed by Anna Morrison:

Odessa Stories by Isaac Babel; design by Anna Morrison (Puhskin Press / November 2018)
All the Beautiful Girls by Elizabeth J. Church, designed by Anna Morrison (Fourth Estate / March 2018)
Women by Chloe Caldwell; design by Anna Morrison (Fourth Estate / March 2018)


No Country Woman by Zoya Patel; design by Astred Hicks (Hachette Australia / August 2018)


Notes from the Fog by Ben Marcus; design by Jamie Keenan (Granta / September 2018)

Also designed by Jamie Keenan:

Perfidious Albion by Sam Byers; design Jamie Keenan; art by Emily Allchurch (Faber & Faber / August 2018)
Rock and Roll is Life by D.J. Taylor; design by Jamie Keenan (Constable / May 2018)
Impossible Owls by Brian Phillips; design Jamie Keenan (FSG / October 2018)


On Gravity by A. Zee; design by Jason Alejandro (Princeton University Press / May 2018)


Packing My Library by Alberto Manguel; design by Tom Starr (Yale University Press / March 2018)


The Perfect Nanny by Leila Slimani; design by Julianna Lee (Penguin / January 2018)


The Reservoir Tapes by Jon McGregor; design by Strick&Williams (Catapult / August 2018)


She Wants It by Jill Soloway; design by Elena Giavaldi (Crown / October 2018)


The Son of Black Thursday by Alejandro Jodorowsky; design by Richard Ljoenes (Restless Books / November 2018)

Richard Ljoenes recently talked about designing covers for Alejandro Jodorowsky — the cover of Where the Bird Sings Best was on my 2016 notable list — with Spine Magazine. 


The Stars Now Unclaimed by Drew Williams; design by Jack Smyth (Simon & Schuster / August 2018)

Also designed by Jack Smyth:

The Life and Rhymes of Benjamin Zephaniah; design by Jack Smyth (Simon & Schuster / May 2018) 
Yeti by Graham Hoyland; design by Jack Smyth (William Collins / May 2018)
A Station on the Path to Somewhere Better by Benjamin Wood; design by Jack Smyth (Scribner UK / June 2018)


A Superior Spectre by Angela Meyer; design by Design by Committee (Ventura / August 2018)


Swan Song by Kelleigh Greenberg-Jephcott; design by Lauren Wakefield (Hutchinson / June 2018)


Tell Me Lies by Carola Lovering; design Donna Cheng (Simon & Schuster / July 2018)

Crossing out is a thing.


Ten Arguments For Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now by Jaron Lanier; design Dan Mogford (The Bodley Head / June 2018)

Also designed by Dan Mogford:

Homeland by Walter Kempowski; design by Dan Mogford (Granta / November 2018)
A Very British Coup by Chris Mullin; design by Dan Mogford (Serpent’s Tail / 2018)
Portraits Without Frames by Lev Ozerov; design by Dan Mogford (Granta / November 2018)


There There by Tommy Orange; design by Suzanne Dean; art by Bryn Perrott (Harvill Secker / July 2018)

You can read about the design of this cover at Spine Magazine.

Also designed by Suzanne Dean:

The Largess of the Sea Maiden by Denis Johnson; design by Suzanne Dean (Jonathan Cape / February 2018)
Nervous States by William Davies; design by Suzanne Dean (Jonathan Cape / September 2018)
The Only Story by Julian Barnes; design by Suzanne Dean (Jonathan Cape / February 2018)


This Mournable Body by Tsitsi Dangarembga; design Kimberly Glyder (Graywolf / August 2018)

Also designed by Kimberly Glyder:

The Last of the Stanfields by Marc Levy; design by Kimberly Glyder (AmazonCrossing / December 2018)
Waiting for Tomorrow by Nathacha Appanah; design by Kimberly Glyder (Graywolf / April 2018)
The Music Shop by Rachel Joyce; design by Kimberly Glyder (Random House / January 2018)

Tin Man by Sarah Winman; design by Grace Han ( G.P. Putnam’s Sons / May 2018)

Everyone should read Tin Man btw. It is sad and lovely.

Also designed by Grace Han:

The Line Becomes a River by Francisco Cantú; design by Grace Han (Riverhead / February 2018)
There Will Be No Miracles Here by Casey Gerald; design by Grace Han (Riverhead Books / October 2018)
Florida by Lauren Groff; design by Grace Han (Riverhead / June 2018)


Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver; design by Ami Smithson (Faber & Faber / October 2018)

This has rather fancy edges (and endpapers I believe):


The Woman in the Window by A. J. Finn; design by Elsie Lyons (William Morrow / January 2018)

I also really liked Elisie Lyons’ glamorously noir cover for Sunburn by Laura Lippman (William Morrow / February 2018).

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Published October 24, 2018

Cross It Out

I’ve been thinking about covers that feature one form of redacted text or another for a while, but this post has been sitting in my drafts folder gestating for far too long so I’m publishing now, as-is, because otherwise it is unlikely to ever see the light of day! 

The covers of Censoring an Iranian Love Story, designed by Peter Mendelsund, and Nineteen Eighty-Four, designed by David Pearson, are classics of the genre:

Censoring an Iranian Love Story by Shahriar Mandanipour; design Peter Mendelsund (Knopf / May 2009)
Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell; design by David Pearson (Penguin / January 2013)

I thought that this kind of bar redaction (is there a technical term for it?) might be a relatively new — post-The 9-11 Commission Report — phenomena, but (friend of the blog) Richard Weston, AKA Acejet170, recently posted this 1974 Penguin cover for Academic Freedom by Anthony Arblaster, designed by Omnific, on Instagram:

In a lovely design touch, the redacted words appear on the back cover:

Related to bar redaction is the strike-through. One of my favourite examples is Barnbrook‘s cover design for How to Run a Government by Michael Barber, published by Allen Lane. 

How to Run a Government by Michael Barber; design by Barnbrook (Allen Lane / March 2015)

I’ve been seeing the straight strike-through used a lot recently. It does a neat job of doing two things at once. It allows you to not say something, while also emphasizing that you are pointedly not saying it.   

That Perfectly Useless Concentration by Alan Shapiro; design by Isaac Tobin
Ten Myths About Israel by Ilan Pappe; design Isaac Tobin

I’ve seen it mostly used for nonfiction (as above), but Janet Hansen recently used the strike for the cover of Amitava Kumar’s novel Immigrant, Montana: 

Immigrant, Montana by Amitava Kumar; design Janet Hansen (Knopf / July 2018)

Black text on a white background with a red strike-through is its own sub-genre:

The Courage of Hopelessness by Slavoj Zizek; design by Richard Green (Allen Lane / May 2017)
Now You See It by Michael Bierut; design by

In fact, using red — be it more artistic blocks, strikeouts or scribbles — is a popular way to highlight what is being crossed out:

Trust Me, PR is Dead by Robert Phillips; design by Jamie Keenan (Unbound / June 2015)

Silence Once Begun by Jesse Ball; design by Peter Mendelsund (Pantheon / 2014)
A Book of Untruths by Miranda Doyle; design by Donna Payne (Faber & Faber / June 2017)

And generally the hand-drawn strike-through or scribble seems to be the most popular way to cross something out … 

Hope A Tragedy by Shalom Auslander; design by John Gall (Riverhead Books / January 2012)

Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Alderton; design Helen Crawford White (Fig Tree / March 2018)
Tell Me Lies by Carola Lovering; design Donna Cheng (Simon & Schuster / July 2018)

All Our Names by Dinaw Mengestu; design by Isabel Urbina Peña (Knopf / March 2014)

The Only Story by Julian Barnes; design by Suzanne Dean (Jonathan Cape / February 2018)
One Day We’ll All Be Dead and None of This Will Matter by Scaachi Koul; design by C.S. Richardson (Doubleday Canada / March 2017)

If you have (constructive) thoughts on the matter, and/or other examples, please leave them in the comments. 

The Last Word by Hanif Kureishi; design by Jaya Miceli (Scribner / March 2015)

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Published August 14, 2018

Book Covers of Note August 2018

Good grief! We’re halfway through August! I suppose I’d better post some book covers… 


Agrippina: Empress, Exile, Hustler, Whore by Emma Southon; design by Mark Ecob (Unbound / August 2018)


All these Beautiful Strangers by Elizabeth Klehfoth; design by Alicia Tatone (William Morrow / July 2018)


Certain American States by Catherine Lacey; design by Na Kim (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / August 2018)


Cherry by Nico Walker; design by Janet Hansen (Knopf / August 2018)

One for the skulls on book covers list. (I haven’t updated this list in a while, but there are a few more here.)


Fight Like a Girl by Clementine Ford; design by Steve Leard (Oneworld / August 2018)


Four by Andy Jones; design by Patrik Svensson (Hodder & Stoughton / July 2018)


Heretics Anonymous by Katie Henry; design by David Curtis (Katherine Tegen Books / August 2018)


Immigrant, Montana by Amitava Kumar; design Janet Hansen (Knopf / July 2018)


Jane Doe by Victoria Helen Stone; design by Derek Thornton/Faceout Studio (Lake Union / August 2018)

I’ve said it before and I will say it again, Amazon’s Lake Union imprint is doing a scarily good job with their genre covers. 


A Ladder to the Sky by John Boyne; design by Jo Thomson (Doubleday / August 2018)


The Line That Held Us by David Joy; design by Michael Morris (G.P. Putnam’s Sons / August 2018)


This Mournable Body by Tsitsi Dangarembga; design Kimberly Glyder (Graywolf / August 2018)


Notes from the Fog by Ben Marcus; design Peter Mendelsund (Knopf / August 2018)


Pretend I’m Dead by Jen Beagin; design by Alex Merto (Scribner / May 2018)

The cover of the UK edition was designed by Hayley Warnham. And apparently rubber glove covers are a thing now, you freakin’ weirdos… 

Pretend I’m Dead by Jen Beagin; design by Alex Merto (Scribner / May 2018)

The cover of The Trauma Cleaner was designed by W.H. Chong. 

The Reservoir Tapes by Jon McGregor; design by Strick&Williams (Catapult / August 2018)

This goes very nicely with the cover of the US edition of Reservoir 13 also designed by Strick&Williams:


Rust and Stardust by T. Greenwood; design by Olga Grlic (St. Martin’s Press / August 2018)


A Short Film About Disappointment by Joshua Mattson; design by Ben Denzer (Penguin Press / August 2018)


The Stars Now Unclaimed by Drew Williams; design by Jack Smyth (Simon & Schuster / August 2018)


A Superior Spectre by Angela Meyer; design by Design by Committee (Ventura / August 2018)

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Published July 19, 2018

Book Covers of Note, July 2018

Here are my book cover selections for July… 


Brooklyn Mom & Pop by Herb Lester Associates; design Amy Hood (Herb Lester Associates / July 2018)

Another very nice looking guide from the folks at Herb Lester. The question is, where are the guides to Canadian cities? 


Call Me American by Abdi Nor Iftin; design by Kelly Blair (Knopf / June 2018)


Charlotte Walsh Likes To Win by Jo Piazza; design by Zak Tebbal (Simon & Schuster / July 2018)  

In other news, hand-lettered covers aren’t going anywhere (and apparently underlining is a “thing”)…


Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata; design by Luke Bird (Portobello Books / July 2018)


Dear Mrs Bird by AJ Pearce; design by Kimberly Glyder (Scribner /. July 2018)

The cover of the UK edition, published earlier this year by Picador, was designed by Katie Tooke. You can read about the design process for the UK cover here.

Dear Mrs Bird by AJ Pearce; design by Kimberly Glyder (Scribner / July 2018)


Florida by Lauren Groff; design by Grace Han (Riverhead / June 2018)

The cover of Groff’s 2015 novel Fates and Furies (also published by Riverhead) was designed by Rodrigo Corral and Adalis Martinez:

Florida by Lauren Groff; design by Grace Han (Riverhead / June 2018)
Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff; design by Rodrigo Corral and Adalis Martinez (Riverhead / September 2015 )


The Girl You Thought I Was by Rebecca Phillips; design Michelle Taormina and Alison Klapthor; Photograph by Marta Bevaqua (Harpercollins / July 2018)

Besides using a beautiful photograph, I get the sense this cover is very much on trend, and not just for YA — I’ve seen the cover of a thriller coming out this fall that also uses a close-cropped image of a woman’s face, a similar sans-serif type, and a warm sepia colour palette. 


Good Trouble by Joseph O’Neill; design by Janet Hansen (Pantheon / June 2018)


Gorse No.10 edited by Christodoulos Makris; design by Niall McCormack (July 2018)

All of Niall’s covers for Gorse are great. No.9 was featured in my November 2017 post:

Also, yellow-orange covers are clearly “in” right now…

Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata; design by Luke Bird (Portobello Books / July 2018)
Dear Mrs Bird by AJ Pearce; design by Kimberly Glyder (Scribner / July 2018)
Good Trouble by Joseph O’Neill; design by Janet Hansen (Pantheon / June 2018)


A Honeybee Heart Has Five Openings by Helen Jukes; design Helen Crawford-White (Scribner / July 2018)


In the Distance by Hernan Diaz; design by Luke Bird (Daunt Books / June 2018)

One for the sideways covers list (I have kind of stop collecting these, but there are more here).

The cover of the US edition of In the Distance, published by Coffee House Press, features artwork by Jason Fulford.


I Will Be Complete by Glen David Gold; design by Tyler Comrie (Knopf / June 2018)


The Incendiaries by R.O. Kwon; design Jaya Miceli (Riverhead / July 2018)


Smile by Roddy Doyle; design and lettering by Nick Misani (Viking / October 2017)

OK, so I am very late to this one. I saw it last year and didn’t know who the designer was — I only found out this week when art director Jason Ramirez revealed that it was one of the TDC Communication Design Competition winners this year!


Sonic Youth Slept On My Floor by Dave Haslam; design Bekki Guyatt (Constable / May 2018)


Sweet Thames by Matthew Kneale; design by Alice Marwick (Atlantic Books / July 2018)


There There by Tommy Orange; design by Suzanne Dean; art by Bryn Perrott (Harvill Secker / July 2018)

The cover of the US edition, published by Knopf, is another Tyler Comrie design: 

There There by Tommy Orange; design by Tyler Comrie (Knopf / June 2018)

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Published March 16, 2018

Book Covers of Note March 2018

Lots to see this month, including several YA covers (which I know will please some regular readers), some ‘big’ literary fiction, and a couple of confrontational nonfiction covers to round it out. Enjoy!    


Aetherial Worlds by Tatyana Tolstaya; design by Stephanie Ross (Knopf / March 2018)


Beneath the Water by Sarah Painter; design by Emma Rogers (Lake Union / February 2018)

Although it pains me a little to say it, I think Amazon’s ‘book club’ imprint Lake Union are doing an impressive job commissioning appealing covers for their intended market. I would be interested to hear about the process from designers who’ve worked with them.   


The Birth of the RAF 1918 by Richard Overy; design by Richard Green (Allen Lane / March 2018)

The type on this cover is ace. 


The Bleeds by Dimitri Nasrallah; design by David Drummond (Esplanade Books / February 2018) 


Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi; design Richard Deas (Henry Holt / March 2018)


Don’t Call Me Princess by Peggy Orenstein; design Robin Bilardello (Harper / February 2018)


Emergency Contact by Mary H.K. Choi; design by Lizzy Bromley; illustration gg (Simon & Schuster / March 2018)


The End of American World Order by Amitav Acharya; design by David A. Gee (Polity / March 2018)

I feel like there are a lot of stars and stripes covers kicking around right now, but I like the ‘collapsing Venetian blind’ thing going on here.   


A Girl Like That by Tanaz Bhathena; design by Elizabeth H. Clark (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / March 2018)


Graffiti Palace by A.G. Lombardo; design Rodrigo Corral Studio (FSG x MCD / March 2018)


Gun Love by Jennifer Clement; design by Michael Morris (Hogarth / March 2018)

I like this cover very much–especially the type. The illustration and colour combination remind me of Matt Dorfman’s 2011 cover for The Pyschopath Test by Jon Ronson (Riverhead):


The Gunners by Rebecca Kauffman; design by Nicole Caputo (Counterpoint / March 2018)

I read The Gunners earlier this year and it’s very good. Recommended if you enjoyed The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer.  


The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin; design Yeti Lambregts (Tinder / March 2018)

It’s interesting to see the UK publisher go in such a different direction from the US cover (designed and illustrated by Sandra Chiu) which, as I noted back in January, seems very on trend internationally to me.


In Every Moment We Are Still Alive by Tom Malmquist; design Marina Drukman (Melville House / January 2018)


In Full Flight by John Heminway; design by Janet Hansen (Knopf / February 2018)


The Italian Teacher by Tom Rachman; design by Jaya Miceli (Viking / March 2018)

I felt like this cover might be a little too much when I first saw it online, but I bet it will look absolutely stunning in print and piled up on tables.    


I Wrote This Book Because I Love You by Tim Kreider; design by David Litman (Simon & Schuster / March 2018)

For reference, I have a pinboard of contemporary covers that make use of Lydian, the typeface used here. It was designed for American Type Founders by Warren Chappell in 1938, and it’s very distinctive (those ‘R’s!), so it’s interesting to me that it suddenly has this kind of cult popularity.   


The Largess of the Sea Maiden by Denis Johnson; design by Suzanne Dean (Jonathan Cape / February 2018)

The pencil shavings are delightful of course, but I did immediately think of Peter Mendelsund‘s covers for Leaving the Sea (2014) and The Flame Alphabet (2012) by Ben Marcus.  

The Largess of the Sea Maiden by Denis Johnson; design by Suzanne Dean (Jonathan Cape / February 2018)


The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo; design by Erin Fitzsimmons; illustration by Gabriel Moreno (Harper Teen / March 2018)

You can read about the design process for the Poet X cover on the Epic Reads blog.


Police: A Field Guide by David Correia and Tyler Wall; design by Matt Avery; illustration by Lauren Nassef (Verso / March 2018)

Can anyone tell me if there is a term for this kind of semi dust jacket? It seems like more than just a belly band. 

The upside-down ‘POLICE’ shield is an interesting decision. It gives the illustration a kind of authenticity (I assume it is based on an actual example), but it also subtly implies something about the contents of the book (as does the not so subtle decision to show a police officer in riot gear rather than more approachable attire!).      


The Sparsholt Affair by Alan Hollinghurst; design by Jenny Carrow (Knopf / March 2018)


Standpoints by Svend Brinkmann; design by David A. Gee (Polity / March 2018)

This is a bit like one Canadian designer called David doing an impression of the ‘other’ Canadian designer called David. Both of them are very idea-driven, and sometimes they do seem to think very alike! I believe they both worked in advertising before turning their attention to design. 


The Word for Woman is Wilderness by Abi Andrews; design by Steve Panton; illustration by Lizzy Stewart (Serpent’s Tail / February 2018)

Comments closed
Published December 8, 2017

Notable Book Covers of 2017

Since 2010, I’ve posted an annual survey of the year in book covers. The post has expanded and developed over the past 7 years, but essentially it is a collection of the covers published in the previous 12 months that I found interesting or noteworthy in some way. As with the previous couple of years, the 2017 list is organized by covers (alphabetical by title), and by designer so that I can show a greater variety of work, and no one designer or studio dominates. 

Thank you to everyone who has supported the blog this year, and special thanks to all the designers, art directors, authors, publishers, and fellow design enthusiasts who have helped me with covers and design credits. My sincere apologies to the designers and publishers not on this year’s list and whose covers I have overlooked in the past 12 months. 

A post looking back on the YA covers of 2017 is to follow.    


Adult Fantasy by Briohny Doyle design by Laura Thomas (Scribe / July 2017)


Age of Anger by Pankaj Mishra; design by Matthew Young (Allen Lane / February 2017)


The Age of Perpetual Light by Josh Weil; design by Nick Misani (Grove Press / September 2017)


All We Saw by Anne Michaels; design by Janet Hansen; photograph by Jouke Bos (Knopf / October 2017)

Also designed by Janet Hansen:

Stay with Me by Ayobami Adebayo; design by Janet Hansen (Knopf / August 2017)
A Selfie As Big As the Ritz by Lara Williams; design by Janet Hansen; art by Nathan Manire (Flat Iron Books / October 2017)


Always Happy Hour by Mary Miller; design by Elena Giavaldi; art by Lee Price (Liveright / January 2017)

Also designed by Elena Giavaldi:

White Fur by Jardine Libarie; design by Elena Giavaldi (Hogarth / May 2017)
The Leavers by Lisa Ko; design by Elena Giavaldi (Algonquin / May 2017)


The Angry Chef by Anthony Warner; design by Steven Leard (Oneworld / June 2017)


Black Moses by Alain Mabanckou; design by Gray318 (Serpent’s Tail / April 2017)

Also designed by Gray318:

The Blot by Jonathan Lethem; design by Gray318 (Jonathan Cape / February 2017)
The Beast by Alexander Starritt; design by Gray318 (Head of Zeus / September 2017)
Sympathy by Olivia Sudjic; design by Gray318 (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt / April 2017)


The Book of Disquiet by Fernando Pessoa; design by Peter Mendelsund (New Directions / August 2017)

Also designed by Peter Mendelsund:

A Life of Adventure and Delight by Akhil Sharma; design Peter Mendelsund (W.W. Norton / July 2017)
Civil Wars by David Armitage; design by Peter Mendelsund (Yale University Press / February 2017)
White Tears by Hari Kunzru; design by Peter Mendelsund (Knopf / March 2017)


The Cutaway by Christina Kovac; design by Laywan Kwan (Atria / March 2017)

Also designed by Laywan Kwan:

Unraveling Oliver by Liz Nugent; design by Laywan Kwan (Scout Press / August 2017)
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid; design by Laywan Kwan (Atria / June 2017)


Don’t Save Anything by Jame Salter; design by Zoe Norvell (Counterpoint / November 2017)


England Your England by George Orwell; design by David Pearson (Penguin Modern Classics / March 2017)

Also designed by David Pearson:

Politics and the English Language by George Orwell; design by David Pearson (Penguin / March 2017)
The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels; design David Pearson (Pluto Press / January 2017)
Black Skins, White Masks by Frantz Fanon; design by David Pearson (Pluto Press / May 2017)


English Uprising by Paul Stocker; design by Jamie Keenan (Melville House / September 2017)

Also designed by Jamie Keenan:

The Poems of Dylan Thomas; design by Jamie Keenan (New Directions / November 2017)
Everything You Want Me To Be by Mindy Mejia; design Jamie Keenan (Atria / October 2017)
The Nothing by Hanif Kureishi; design by Jamie Keenan (Faber & Faber / May 2017)


The Experiment by Eric Lee; design by David A. Gee (Zed Books / September 2017)

Also designed by David Gee:

Dick Cheney Shot Me in the Face by Timothy O’Leary; design by David A. Gee (Unsolicited Press / February 2017)
Storming Heaven by Steve Wright; design by David A. Gee (Pluto Press / July 2017)
I Am Not A Brain by Markus Gabriel; design by David A. Gee (Polity Press / September 2017)


The Fall of Lisa Bellow by Susan Perabo; design by Alison Forner (Simon & Schuster / March 2017)


The Futures by Anna Pitoniak; design by Lauren Harms (Lee Boudreaux Books / January 2017)

Also designed by Lauren Harms:

The Good People by Hannah Kent; design by Lauren Harms (Little, Brown & Co / September 2017)
The Futilitarians by Anne Gisleson; design by Lauren Harms (Little Brown & Co. / August 2017)


Ghachar Ghochar by Vivek Shanbhag; design by Luke Bird (Faber & Faber / April 2017)

Also designed by Luke Bird:

he Lucky Ones by Julianne Pachico; design by Luke Bird (Faber & Faber / February 2017)
The Rise The Fall The Rise by Brix Smith Start; design by Luke Bird; photography by Kevin Cummins (Faber & Faber / march 2017)


The Good People by Hannah Kent; design by Rachel Vale (Picador / February 2017)


The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood; art direction by Christopher Moisan; illustration by Patrik Svensson (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt / April 2017)

This HMH cover was my favourite of the new editions of The Handmaid’s Tales, but Noma Bar’s cover for Vintage UK was also nice.


The Hearts of Men by Nickolas Butler; design by Allison Saltzman (Ecco / March 2017)

Also designed by Allison Saltzman: 

Book of Longing by Leonard Cohen; design by Allison Saltzman (Ecco / October 2017)
Where the Past Begins by Amy Tan; design by Allison Saltzman (Ecco / October 2017)


Heating & Cooling by Beth Ann Fennelly; design by Alex Merto; photograph by Gregory Reid (W.W. Norton / December 2017)

Also designed by Alex Merto:

The Chicago Cubs: Story of a Curse by Rich Cohen; design by Alex Merto (FSG / October 2017)
The Ninth Hour by Alice McDermott; design by Alex Merto (FSG / September 2017)
Safe by Ryan Gattis; design by Alex Merto (MCD / August 2017)


Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado; design by Kimberly Glyder (Graywolf / October 2017)

Also designed by Kimberly Glyder:

Amanda Wakes Up by Alisyn Camerota; design by Kimberly Glyder (Viking / July 2017)
Wait Till You See Me Dance by Deb Olin Unferth; design by Kimberly Glyder (Graywolf / March 2017)
Marriage of a Thousand Lies by S J Sindu; design by Kimberly Glyder (Soho Press / June 2017)


Hollow by Owen Egerton; design by Matt Dorfman (Counterpoint / July 2017)

Also designed by Matt Dorfman:

Crossings by Jon Kerstetter; design by Matt Dorfman (Random House / September 2017)
The People Are Going to Rise Like the Waters Upon Your Shore by Jared Yates Sexton; design by Matt Dorfman (Counterpoint / August 2017)
Selection Day by Aravind Adiga; design by Matt Dorfman (Scribner / January 2017)


How Will I Know You? by Jessic Treadway; design by Catherine Casalino; illustration by Henrietta Harris (Grand Central Publishing / August 2017)


I Am, I Am, I Am by Maggie O’Farrell; design by Yeti Lambregts (Tinder Press / August 2017)

Also designed by Yeti Lambregts:

Gather the Daughters by Jennie Melamed; design by Yeti Lambregts (Tinder Press / July 2017)
What it Means when a Man Falls from the Sky by Lesley Nneka Arimah; design Yeti Lambregts; illustration: Willian Santiago (Tinder Press / August 2017)


The Idiot by Elif Batuman; design by Suzanne Dean; illustration by Aino-Maija Metsola (Jonathan Cape / June 2017)

Also designed by Suzanne Dean:

Men Without Women by Haruki Murakami; design by Suzanne Dean (Harvill Secker / May 2017)
Once Upon a Time in the East by Xiaolu Guo; design Suzanne Dean; photograph by Robin Friend (Chatto & Windus / January 2017)
A State of Freedom by Neel Mukherjee; design by Suzanne Dean (Chatto & Windus / September 2017)


The Idiot by Elif Batuman; design by Oliver Munday (Penguin / March 2017)

Also designed by Oliver Munday:

I Am the Brother of XX by Fleur Jaeggy; design by Oliver Munday (New Directions / July 2017)
To Die in Spring by Ralf Rothmann; design by Oliver Munday (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / August 2017)
Shark Drunk by Morten Strøksnes; design by Oliver Munday (Knopf / June 2017)


Insomniac Dreams: Experiments with Time by Vladimir Nabokov compiled and edited by Gennady Barabtarlo; design by Chris Ferrante (Princeton University Press / December 2017)

Also designed by Chris Ferrante:

The House of Government by Yuri Slezkine; design by Chris Ferrante; illustration by Francesco Bongiorni (Princeton University Press / August 2017)
Decolonization: A Short History by Jan C. Jansen & Jürgen Osterhammel; design by Chris Ferrante (Princeton University Press / February 2017)


Jerusalem Ablaze by Orlando Ortega-Medina; design by La Boca (Cloud Lodge Books / January 2017)

Also designed by La Boca: 

The Lawn Job by Chuck Caruso; design by La Boca (Cloud Lodge Books / July 2017)
Things We Lost in the Fire by Mariana Enriquez; design La Boca (Granta / April 2017)


Jerzy by Jerome Charyn; design by Alban Fischer (Bellevue Literary Press / March 2017)


Little Deaths by Emma Flint; design by Justine Anweiler (Picador / January 2017)

Also designed by Justine Anweiler:

Pages For You by Sylvia Brownrigg; design by Justine Anweiler (Picador / June 2017)
Pages For Her by Sylvia Brownrigg; design by Justine Anweiler (Picador / June 2017)


Lotus by Lijia Zhang; design by Adly Elewa (Henry Holt / January 2017)


Manly Health and Training by Walt Whitman; design by Richard Ljoenes (Regan Arts / February 2017)


Midlife: A Philosophical Guide by Kieran Setiya; design by Amanda Weiss (Princeton University Press / October 2017)


Narcissism for Beginners by Martine McDonagh; design by Tree Abraham (Unbound / March 2017)


Nicotine by Gregor Hens; design by John Gall (Other Press / January 2017)


One Day We’ll All Be Dead and None of This Will Matter by Scaachi Koul; design by C.S. Richardson (Doubleday Canada / March 2017)

Scott was also responsible for my favourite of the (many) Ninety Eighty-Four redesigns this season. 


The Parcel by Anosh Irani; design by Allison Colpoys (Scribe / September 2017)

Also designed by Allison Colpoys:

Things That Helped by Jessica Friedman; design by Allison Colpoys (Scribe / April 2017)
What a Plant Knows by Daniel Chamovitz; design Allison Colpoys (Scribe / November 2017)
The Quantum Astrologers Handbook by Michael Brooks; design by Allison Colpoys (Scribe / October 2017)


Priestdaddy by Patricia Lockwood; design by Rachel Willey (Riverhead / May 2017)

Also designed by Rachel Willey:

New People by Danzy Senna; design by Rachel Willey (Riverhead / August 2017)
X by Chuck Klosterman; design by Rachel Willey (Blue Rider Press / May 2017)
Exit West by Mohsin Hamid; design by Rachel Willey (Riverhead / March 2017)


A Separation by Katie Kitamura; design by Jaya Miceli (Riverhead / February 2017)

Also designed by Jaya Miceli:

Next Year for Sure by Zoey Leigh Peterson; design by Jaya Miceli; cover art by Jarek Puczel (Scribner / March 2017)
Mrs. Fletcher by Tom Perrotta; design by Jaya Miceli (Scribner / August 2017)
My Absolute Darling by Gabriel Tallent; design by Jaya Miceli (Riverhead / August 2017)


Sex & Rage by Eve Babitz; design by Kelly Winton (Counterpoint / July 2017)

Strange Heart Beating by Eli Goldstone; design by Jo Walker (Granta / May 2017)

Also designed by Jo Walker:

Bolshoi Confidential by Simon Morrison; design by Jo Walker (Fourth Estate / August 2017)
The Ice by Laline Paull; design by Jo Walker (Fourth Estate / April 2017)
My Absolute Darling by Gabriel Tallent; design Jo Walker


Swimmer Among the Stars by Kanishk Tharoor; design by Tyler Comrie (Farrar, Straus and Giroux / March 2017)

Also designed by Tyler Comrie:

The River at Night by Erica Ferencik; design by Tyler Comrie (Scout Press / January 2017)
Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore by Matthew Sullivan; design by Tyler Comrie (Scribner / June 2017)


The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See; design by Lauren Peters-Collaer (Scribner / March 2017)

Also designed by Lauren Peters-Collaer:

The Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman; design Lauren Peters-Collaer (Simon & Schuster / October 2017)
Why Time Flies by Alan Burdick; design by Lauren Peters-Collaer (Simon & Schuster / Janurary 2017)


Vengeance is Mine, All Others Pay Cash by Eka Kurniawan; design by Erik Carter (New Directions / August 2017)

Also designed by Erik Carter:

The Teeth of the Comb & Other Stories by Osama Alomar; design by Erik Carter (New Directions / April 2017)
Locus Solus by Raymond Roussel; design by Erik Carter (New Directions /March 2017)
Is That Kafka? by Reiner Stach; design by Erik Carter (New Directions / February 2017)


Virgin and Other Stories by April Ayers Lawson; design by James Paul Jones (Granta / January 2017)

Also designed by James Paul Jones: 

Democracy and Its Crisis by A.C. Grayling design James Paul Jones (Oneworld / September 2017)
Kompromat by Stanley Johnson; design by James Paul Jones (Oneworld / July 2017)
We Will Not Be Silenced edited by William I. Robinson & Maryam S. Griffin; design by James Paul Jones (Pluto Press / January 2017)


We All Love the Beautiful Girls by Joanne Proulx; design by Jennifer Griffiths (Viking / August 2017)

Also designed by Jennifer Griffiths:

The Dead Husband Project by Sarah Meehan Sirk; design by Jennifer Griffiths (Anchor Canada / August 2017)
The Change Room by Karen Connelly; design by Jennifer Griffiths (Random House Canada / April 2017)
Lost in September by Kathleen Winter; design by Jennifer Griffiths (Knopf Canada / September 2017)


Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge; design by Greg Heinimann (Bloomsbury / June 2017)

Also designed by Greg Heinimann:

Can’t Stand Up For Falling Down by Allan Jones; design by Greg Heinimann (Bloomsbury / August 2017)
Gravel Heart by Abdulrazak Gurnah; design by Greg Heinimann (Bloomsbury / May 2017)
Forest Dark by Nicole Krauss; design by Greg Heinimann (Bloomsbury / August 2017)


Why Poetry by Matthew Zapruder; design by Sara Wood (Ecco / August 2017)

Also designed by Sara Wood:

Twelve Mile Straight by Eleanor Henderson; design Sara Wood (Ecco / September 2017)
A Wife of Noble Character by Yvonne Georgina Puig; design by Sara Wood (St. Martin’s Griffin / August 2017)
No One is Coming to Save Us by Stephanie Watts; design Sara Wood; embroidery by Stephanie Kelly Clark (Ecco / April 2017)


Would Everybody Please Stop? by Jenny Allen; design by Na Kim (Sarah Crichton Books / June 2017)

Also designed by Na Kim:

Knots by Gunnhild Øyehaug; design Na Kim (FSG / July 2017)
Isadora by Amelia Gray; design by Na Kim (FSG / May 2017)


The World Goes On by László Krasznahorkai; design by Paul Sahre (New Directions / November 2017)

The cover of Sahre’s “graphic memoir” Two Dimensional Man is also great. 


Writing Not Writing by Tom Fisher; design by  Anne Jordan and Mitch Goldstein (University of Iowa Press / July 2017)(University of Iowa Press / July 2017)

Also designed by Anne Jordan and Mitch Goldstein:

Evolving Images edited by Nora Glickman &‎ Ariana Huberman; design by Anne Jordan and Mitch Goldstein (University of Texas Press / December 2017)
Limits of Whiteness by Neda Maghbouleh; design by Anne Jordan and Mitch Goldstein (Standford University Press / September 2017)
Humankind by Timothy Morton; design by Anne Jordan and Mitch Goldstein (Verso / August 2017)


The Zoo of the New edited by Nick Laird & Don Paterson; design by Richard Green (Particular Books / March 2017)

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Published October 20, 2017

Book Covers of Note, October 2017

I have steadily fallen further and further behind with my cover posts this year. There is some cracking work in this month’s round-up. But I can’t help feeling that there are some covers missing. Somehow it almost November, and I have run out of time. If I don’t post this now, I will never catch up! 


All We Saw by Anne Michaels; design by Janet Hansen; photograph by Jouke Bos (Knopf / October 2017)


Bloodprint by Ausma Zehanat Khan; design by Micaela Alcaino (Harpercollins / October 2017)


Crossings by Jon Kerstetter; design by Matt Dorfman (Random House / September 2017)


The Dead Husband Project by Sarah Meehan Sirk; design by Jennifer Griffiths (Anchor Canada / August 2017)


George & Lizzie by Nancy Pearl; design by Gray318 (Simon & Schuster / September 2017)

(Someone on Twitter recently asked about current book cover design trends. If I had to pick one out for 2017, it would be crossed-out words)


He Doesn’t Hurt People Anymore by Dane Swan; design by 13Jupiters (Dumagrad Books / October 2017)


Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado; design by Kimberly Glyder (Graywolf / October 2017)


I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sánchez; design by Connie Gabbert (Knopf / October 2017)


Ma’am Darling by Craig Brown; design by Anna Morrison (Fourth Estate / September 2017)


My Ariel by Sina Queyras; design by Ingrid Paulson (Coach House Books / September 2017)


The Naturalist by Andrew Mayne; design by M.S. Corley (Thomas & Mercer / October 2017)


The Nowhere Girls by Amy Reed; design by Alex Robbins (Simon Pulse / October 2017)


Russia: A Short History by Abraham Ascher; design by Kishan Rajani (Oneworld / October 2017)


A Selfie As Big As the Ritz by Lara Williams; design by Janet Hansen; art by Nathan Manire (Flat Iron Books / October 2017)

Such great image selection from Janet on both these covers… and I love the restraint of the type. Beautiful stuff. 

All We Saw by Anne Michaels; design by Janet Hansen; photograph by Jouke Bos (Knopf / October 2017)
A Selfie As Big As the Ritz by Lara Williams; design by Janet Hansen; art by Nathan Manire (Flat Iron Books / October 2017)


Spectatorship edited by Roxanne Samer and William Whittington; design by  Anne Jordan and Mitch Goldstein (University of Texas Press / October 2017)


Stephen Florida by Gabe Habash; design by Micaela Alcaino (Borough Press / September 2017)

The cover of the US edition of Stephen Florida, designed by Karl Engebretson with an illustration by George Boorujy, was included in my June round-up.


This Accident of Being Lost by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson; by design Alysia Shewchuk; photograph of ‘Mixed Blessing’ by Rebecca Belmore by Toni Hafkenshied (House of Anansi /  April 2017)


The Whole Beautiful World by Melissa Kuipers; design by Tree Abraham (Brindle & Glass / October 2017)

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