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Tag: book covers 2020

Published March 27, 2020

Book Covers of Note, March 2020

This feels a bit like blogging at the end of world, but I am taking my joy where I can get it these days. I hope you can find at least a couple of minutes respite from the stress by scrolling through a few nice book covers.

Normally I link titles to the Book Depository because they ship internationally, but I won’t be doing that this month. Please try — more than ever — to support your local independent bookstore instead. Amazon does not need your money.

In Canada, many independent stores are offering free local delivery. Some may still be offering curbside pick-up, although that no longer seems to be the case in Toronto and Montreal. If you are in the US, you can also check out bookshop.org, which allows you to order online and support local stores. LitHub posted some other tips on how to help (US) bookstores here. I know there are some fundraisers for booksellers doing the rounds too. If anyone has collected them together in one place or can point to other useful resources, please let me know — I’ll be more than happy to post the links.1

Stay safe. Read books.

Actress by Anne Enright; design by Evan Gaffney (W. W. Norton / March 2020)

The Age of Innocence and The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton; design by Tristan Offit (Scribner / January 2020)

Companions by Katie M. Flynn; design by Laywan Kwan (Scout Press / March 2020)

Days of Distraction by Alexandra Chang; design by Allison Saltzman; illustration by gg (Ecco / March 2020)

The Discomfort of the Evening by Marieke Lucas Rijneveld; design by Pete Adlington (Faber & Faber / March 2020)

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo; design by Richard Bravery; illustration by Karan Singh (Penguin / March 2020)

I believe Penguin are reissuing Bernardine Evaristo’s backlist with similarly bold covers.

The hardcover of Girl, Woman, Other, also designed by Richard Bravery, features an illustration by Ali Campbell:

Heavy by Dan Franklin; design by Luke Bird (Constable / March 2020)

Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor; design Jamie Keenan (New Directions / March 2020)

Inferno by Catherine Cho; design by Greg Heinimann (Bloomsbury / March 2020)

The Inland Sea by Madeleine Watts; design by Anna Morrison (Pushkin Press / March 2020)

I think this fits with the new psychedelia trend that I mentioned last year.

Ledger by Jane Hirshfield; design by John Gall (Knopf / March 2020)

My word, it’s good to have John Gall designing covers for Knopf again.

Michael Kohlhaas by Heinrich von Kleist; design by Paul Sahre (New Directions / March 2020)

Our Revolution by Honor Moore; design by Robin Bilardello (W. W. Norton / March 2020)

We Inherit What the Fires Left by William Evans; design by David Litman (Simon & Schuster / March 2020)

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Published February 26, 2020

Book Covers of Note, February 2020

Meh. February. At least it’s almost over (and the book covers are good).

The Bear by Andrew Krivak; design by Alban Fischer (Bellevue Literary Press / February 2020)

(I read an ARC of The Bear last year (full disclosure: the folks that pay me distribute Bellevue Literary Press in Canada), and haven’t really stopped talking about it since, so I may as well mention here too. It’s very sincere, and reminiscent of the kind of Cold War science fiction in which war and environmental catastrophe have led to the end of civilization. It is not dystopian though. It reads rather like beautiful melancholy fable. I liked it a lot.)

Black Sunday by Tola Rotimi Abraham; design Nicole Caputo (Catapult / February 2020

Losing Eden by Lucy Jones; design by Tom Etherington (Allen Lane / February 2020)

The Lost Book of Adana Moreau by Michael Zapata; design by John Gall (Hanover Square Press / February 2020)

One for the meta-covers list (and does the use of Lydian on the cover of a book on the cover of book count as ironic?)

The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave; design by Lucy Kim (Little Brown & Co / February 2020)

The cover of the UK edition published by Picador was designed by Katie Tooke I believe (and if anyone can tell me who the did the illustration — based on traditional Norwegian folk art rosemaling — I would be grateful!)

Minor Feelings by Cathy Park Hong; design by Na Kim (One World / February 2020)

The cover of UK edition, which Profile Books is publishing next month, was designed by Steve Panton:

Pallbearing Stories by Michael Melgaard; design by Alysia Shewchuk (House of Anansi / February 2020)

Rendang by Will Harris; design by David Pearson (Granta / February 2020)

A Tall History of Sugar by Curdella Forbes; design by Gill Heeley (Canongate / February 2020)

The cover of the US edition, published last year by Akashic Books, was designed by Christian Fuenfhausen…

This Brilliant Darkness by Jeff Sharlet; design by Sarahmay Wilkinson (W.W. Norton / February 2020)

Too Much by Rachel Vorona Cote; design by Jennifer Carrow (Grand Central / February 2020)

Verge by Lidia Yuknavitch; design by Rachel Willey (Riverhead / February 2020)

Whistleblower by Susan Fowler; design by Catherine Casalino (Viking / February 2020)

Nice type.

Weather by Jenny Offill; design by John Gall (Knopf / February 2020)

There haven’t been very many John Gall covers on the blog recently, so it’s a delight to post two in the same month. And this really is a most Gallian of John Gall covers.

The cover of the UK edition of Weather, published by Granta, was designed by Gray318…

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Published February 4, 2020

David Pearson’s Penguin John le Carré

It’s been a while since I did a post of David Pearson series design, so I am delighted to share his brilliant new covers for the Penguin UK editions of John le Carré’s George Smiley novels, available this month. The design is a collaboration with Nick Asbury who wrote the copy for the covers (I talked to Nick to ages ago about his Corpoetics book if you’re interested).

The small type is the lovely looking Gill Sans Nova, recently designed by George Ryan for Monotype as a contemporary digital typeface derived from Eric Gill’s original work. The large type is Stephenson Blake Condensed Sans, which is not available digitally and was pieced together from different sources by David himself. I’m sure it was a total pain in the ass to do, but it’s a pleasing contrast and well worth the effort, I think you’ll agree! Jim Stoddart was the clever AD here.

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Published January 31, 2020

Book Covers of Note, January 2020

A very quick post this month as it is almost next month (again)…

Agency by William Gibson; design by Gray318 (Berkley / January 2020)

Jon also designed the new cover for the Berkley reprint edition Gibson’s previous novel The Peripheral.

The cover of the UK edition of Agency, published by Viking this month, was designed by Chris Bentham:

The Art of War by Sun Tzu; design by Jaya Miceli (W. W. Norton / January 2020)

A Beautiful Crime by Christopher Bolen; design by Milan Bozic (HarperCollins / January 2020)

Cleanness by Garth Greenwell; design by Thomas Colligan; photograph by Jack Davison (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / January 2020)

As I mentioned in my 2019 round-up, the cover of the UK edition, published by Picador this month, was designed by Ami Smithson and features black and white photograph by Mark McKnight.

Dark Mother Earth by Kristian Novak; design by Kimberly Glyder (Amazon Crossing / January 2020)

Follow Me To Ground by Sue Rainsford; design by Jaya Miceli; collage by Toon Joosen (Scribner / January 2019)

The cover of the UK edition, published by Transworld last year, was designed by Beci Kelly.

The Hand on the Wall by Maureen Johnson; design by Leo Nickolls (Katherine Tegen Books / January 2020)

Leo also designed the covers to the previous books in the series…

Long Bright River by Liz Moore; design by Gregg Kulick (Riverhead / January 2020)

Oligarchy by Scarlett Thomas; design by Kelly Winton (Counterpoint / January 2020)

The cover of the UK edition, published by Canongate this month, was design by Gray318:

Small Days and Nights by Tishani Doshi; design by Sarahmay Wilkinson (W. W. Norton / January 2020)

Threshold by Rob Doyle; design by Greg Heinimann (Bloomsbury / January 2020)

Greg also designed the covers for This is the Ritual and Here Are the Young Men by Rob Doyle:

Uncanny Valley by Anna Wiener; design by Rodrigo Corral (MCD / January 2020)

Walk the Wild With Me by Rachel Atwood; design by Leo Nickolls (DAW / December 2019)

The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings; design by Kimberly Glyder (Scribner / January 2020)

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