Tag: Books

Book Covers of Note, September 2024

Published September 26, 2024

Book Covers of Note, September 2024

Hey, I hope you’re keeping safe and well wherever you are. Apart from the weird Toronto weather, it is definitely FALL here with the kids back in school and days of seemingly endless pre-sales calls and shortlists. It is also the time of year for “big” books of course, and there are more covers from the conglomerate publishers in this month’s post than I would generally like. My sense is that independent publishers try to avoid releasing their books in September if they can these days, but maybe I just haven’t seen the right ones? Anyway I guess we should be glad the big guys still care about fun covers, right?

Colored Television by Danzy Senna; design by Lauren Peters-Collaer (Riverhead / September 2024)

Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner; design by Suzanne Dean; illustration by Jennifer Dionisio (Vintage / September 2024)

The cover of the US edition of Creation Lake published Scribner this month was designed by Oliver Munday.

Dear Dickhead by Virginie Despentes; design by Luke Bird (Quercus / September 2024)

The cover of the US edition of Dear Dickhead published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux was designed by Alex Merto.

Defectors by Paola Ramos; design Chantal Jahchan (Pantheon / September 2024)

The Empusium by Olga Tokarczuk; design by Lauren Peters-Collaer (Riverhead / September 2024)

You wait months for a bonkers new cover from LPC to come along, then two arrive at once!

Entitlement by Rumaan Alam; design by Grace Han; illustration by Tishk Barzanji (Riverhead / September 2024)

I think this works quite well with the cover of Rumaan Alam previous novel Leave the World Behind designed by Sara Wood for Ecco.

The First Friend by Malcolm Knox; design by Josh Durham (Allen & Unwin / September 2024)

Hampton Heights by Dan Kois; design by Olivia McGiff (Harper Perennial / September 2024)

Health and Safety by Emily Witt; design by Linda Huang; photograph by Luis Nieto Dickens (Pantheon / September 2024)

Herscht 07769 by László Krasznahorkai; design by O.O.P. (New Directions / September 2024)

O.O.P also designed the covers of previous books by László Krasznahorkai including Baron Wenckheim’s Homecoming and The World Goes On.

In Our Likeness by Bryan Vandyke; design by Joanne O’Neill (Little A / September 2024)

Liontaming in America by Elizabeth Willis; design by Joan Wong (New Directions / September 2024)

Next Stop by Benjamin Resnick; design by Clay Smith (Avid Reader / September 2024)

On Freedom by Timothy Snyder; design by Suzanne Dean; art by Anton Logov (Vintage / September 2024)

One Day I’ll Grow Up and Be a Beautiful Woman by Abi Maxwell; design by Janet Hansen (Knopf / September 2024)

A Reason To See You Again by Jami Attenberg; design by Allison Saltzman (Ecco / September 2024)

Rejection by Tony Tulathimutte; design by Ploy Siripant (William Morrow & Co. / September 2024)

Sky Full of Elephants by Cebo Campbell; design by Tyler Comrie (Simon & Schuster / September 2024)

States of Emergency by Chris Knapp; design by Jaya Nicely (Unnamed Press / September 2024)

Talkin’ Greenwich Village by David Browne; design by Keith Brogdon (Hachette / September 2024)

I just like the type here a lot, but the whole thing is really nicely done.

Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout; design by Anna Kochman (Random House / September 2024)

This reminded me of the cover of Natural History by Carlos Fonseca designed by Pablo Delcan from a few years ago…

(And seeing this — and thinking of the cover of The Goldfinch designed by Keith Hayes too — reminded me that I did a post of bird themed covers a decade ago. Yikes)

Yr Dead by Sam Sax; design by Emma Ewbank (Daunt Books / August 2024)

(I wonder if there enough goat themed covers for a post??)

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Cari Vander Yacht National Book Awards Illustrations

Published September 13, 2024

Cari Vander Yacht National Book Awards Illustrations

The Cari Vander Yacht illustrations of people distracted by reading that accompany the New Yorker‘s announcement of the 2024 National Book Awards longlists are really lovely. The animated versions on the site are really nice too.

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Book Covers of Note, August 2024

Published August 27, 2024

Book Covers of Note, August 2024

Hey, I hope you’re keeping safe and well. I feel like I just finished July’s post and now it’s the end of August. There are a few more covers from earlier in the year in this month’s post. I’m still catching up. But there’s some Canadian content, a few covers from the UK, some indie presses, and a university press, which is always nice. Enjoy the last few weeks of summer!

1974 by Francine Prose; design by High Tide (Harper / June 2024)

Thanks to Robin Bilardello and AD Milan Bozic at Harper for their help on the credit for this one! :-)

Anyone’s Ghost by August Thompson; design by Keith Hayes (Penguin Press / July 2024)

This was published last month, but I had it in my August folder. If I had to guess it was because of the author’s name. I am easily confused.

The Buddha of Suburbia by Hanif Kureishi; design by Kishan Rajani (Faber / July? 2024)

I think this came out in July too, but it looks like Faber used the ISBN of the existing 2017 edition even though there is a new cover so I don’t know for sure when it was updated (publishers: don’t do this).

Burn by Peter Heller; design Kelly Blair; painting ‘Boat Building in Maine’ (detail) by Paul Dougherty (Knopf / August 2024)

Coexistence by Billy Ray Belcourt; design by Kelly Hill; photography by Steven Beckly (Hamish Hamilton Canada / May 2024)

Dogs and Monsters by Mark Haddon; design by Suzanne Dean; illustration by Neue Gestaltung (Vintage / August 2024)

Because I am of certain age (old and mouldering like an ancient vampire hiding from the sun of contemporary pop culture) this reminded me of the cabinet art for the original Space Invaders arcade game. Hilariously, if not surprisingly, there is a Fonts in Use post about the typography of the original promo materials and cabinet art of Space Invaders. If anyone knows of a good article about the artwork itself I would love to read it.

Everything and Nothing At All by Jenny Heijun Wills; design by Terri Nimmo (Knopf Canada / August 2024)

Feeding the Monster by Anna Bogutskaya; design by Henry Petrides (Faber / August 2025)

Speaking of all things retro, Henry has posted some photos of his Letraset experiments for this cover on Instagram.

Hair for Men by Michelle Williams; design by Greg Tabor (House of Anansi / August 2025)

There is something ‘early 2000s Canlit’ about this cover. If you’d told me this was designed for Anansi by Bill Douglas in like 2004 I would’ve believed you, and I mean that in the best way. (I appreciate that only the grizzled Canadian publishing folks like me will get this reference but hey…)

Layman’s Report by Eugene Marten; design by Kate Sinclair (McClelland & Stewart / August 2024)

Mammoth by Eva Baltasar; design by Anna Morrison (And Other Stories / August 2025)

Anna also designed the covers for two previous novels by Eva Baltasar published by AOS, including a pink special edition of Permafrost (which is possibly my favourite).

Mina’s Matchbox by Yoko Ogawa; design by Suzanne Dean; illustration by Gérard DuBois (Harvill Secker / August 2024)

The cover of the US edition published Pantheon this month by was designed by Tyler Comrie.

The Murmuration by Carlos Labbé; design by Anna Jordan (Open Letter / July 2024)

Mystery Lights by Lena Valencia; design by Beth Steidle (Tin House / August 2024)

Nicked by M. T. Anderson; design by Zak Tebbal (Pantheon / July 2024)

It might be time to update the now very old (10 years!) skulls post.

Nine Minds by Daniel Tammet; design by Louis Gabaldoni (Profile Books / July 2024)

I was trying to think what this reminded me of and I think it’s either Ed Emberley’s Great Thumbprint Drawing Book or possibly the current cover of Design as Art by Bruno Munari, which (IIRC) uses drawings of faces from inside the book (but no thumbprints!).

And, also designed by Louis…

On the Roof by Tom Allan; design by Louis Gabaldoni (Profile Books / August 2024)

This is really lovely…

Plastic by Scott Guild; design by Tyler Comrie (Pantheon / February 2024)

Oof. I’m very late to this one.

Plaything by Bea Setton; design by Beci Kelly (Transworld / June 2024)

I don’t know how you would describe this particular shade — salmon pink? Financial Times pink? (Are those variations of the same thing, actually?) — but it feels like a pink covers are still a bit of thing. (Did I mention pink covers already a couple of months ago? I think I did…? Sigh. I am repeating myself. It might be time to give this up)

Some White Folks by Jennifer Chudy; design by Elisha Zepeda / Faceout Studio (University of Chicago Press / July 2024)

I like this cover a lot, but is the disembodied hug also becoming a thing? I think I mentioned this a while back too! (Pictured: the cover The Nursery by by Szilvia Molnar designed by Hayley Warnham from May last year, and a poster by Vasilis Marmatakis for the 2015 movie The Lobster)

A Termination by Honor Moore; design by Janet Hansen (Public Space / August 2024)

Obviously the details of the designs and the approaches are quite different, but the cover of A Termination reminded me of the cover of Anxiety by Samir Chopra designed by Karl Spurzem for Princeton University Press from March this year. I think it’s an interesting compare and contrast?

The Wisdom of Sheep by Rosamund Young; design by Darren Haggar (Penguin Press / August 2024)

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Book Covers of Note, July 2024

Published July 26, 2024

Book Covers of Note, July 2024

I wonder what it is like to live in uninteresting — boring, even — times? It must be nice. While I continue to ponder that, here are this month’s book covers….

The Alternatives by Caoilinn Hughes; design by Lauren Peters-Collaer (Riverhead / April 2024)

Back to the Local by Maurice Gorham; design by Pete Adlington (Faber & Faber / June 2024)

Pete talks about the book and his process designing the cover for the Faber Journal.

Festival & Game of the Worlds by César Aira; design by Tyler Comrie (New Directions / July 2024)

The Horse by Willy Vlautin; design by Milan Božić (HarperCollins / July 2024)

Kicking Off Around the World by Ramon Usall; design by Steve Leard (Pluto Press / June 2024)

If I was good at blogging I would have posted this last month when the book was actually published and before the finals of Euros and Copa America, but here we are. Better late than never I guess, and politics never goes out of sport however much some people pretend they are unconnected. (I’m still thinking about doing a post of covers from books about sport, but haven’t got any further than that. Again, if I was actually smart and organized, I would have had it done in time for the Olympics. Cover suggestions still welcome by the way!).

Anyway… The author’s surname and the book’s subtitle were actually printed on to the shirt for the cover and Steve made or bought actual buttons to decorate it. He kindly sent over these shots of the work in progress…

Liars by Sarah Manguso; design by Cassie Gonzalez (Hogarth Press / July 2024)

(If anyone in the UK can tell me who designed the red and green cover of Liars for Pan Macmillan — and send me a hi-res cover image! — I would to love to include it next month’s list when it’s released)

Little Rot by Akwaeje Emezi; design by Kishan Rajani (Faber & Faber / July 2024)

Long Island Compromise by Taffy Brodesser-Akner; design by Tyler Comrie (Random House / July 2024)

The cover of Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s previous novel Fleishman is in Trouble was designed by Kelly Blair. I feel like these work together despite being quite different? Maybe it’s as simple as the combination of really big type for the title and handwriting of “a novel”?

Neu Klang by Christoph Dallach; design by Jack Smyth (Faber & Faber / May 2024)

This is out in the US/Canada next month.

Paul Celan and the Trans-Tibetan Angel by Yoko Tawada; design by Jamie Keenan (New Directions / July 2024)

Rangikura by Tayi Tibble; design by Linda Huang; illustration by Simone Noronha (Knopf / April 2024)

The same team created the cover of Tayi Tibble’s previous poetry collection Poūkahangatus, which was included way back in September 2022’s post.

The Road to the Salt Sea by Samuel Kọláwọlé; design Alicia Tatone (Amistad Books / July 2024)

(Thanks to Alicia and AD Stephen Brayda for sending over the cover)

Steak by Tim Hayward; design by Luke Bird (Quadrille / May 2024)

I am late to this one, but it is very good (in my defence, it only came out in the US/Canada last month).

They Dream in Gold by Mai Sennaar; design by Vivian Lopez Rowe (Zando / July 2024)

Tripping on Utopia by Benjamin Breen; design by Tyler Comrie (Grand Central / January 2024)

I don’t who decided July is Tyler Comrie month (me, apparently), but it seems that way…

Trouble in Censorville by Nadine M. Kalin and Rebekah Modrak; design by Ben Denzer (Disobedience Press / July 2024)

Whoever You Are, Honey by Olivia Gatwood; design by Jaya Miceli; art by Steven Wilson (Dial Press / July 2024)

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Published July 18, 2024

Best Books for Summer by Tom Gauld

Tom Gauld for The Guardian.

This is pretty much me whenever we go on vacation, although I usually bring more anxiety to the mix.

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Published July 16, 2024

Write What You Know

This is pretty much why I don’t write anything I don’t have to.

Asher Perlman’s book of cartoons, Well, This is Me, is available now.

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Book Covers of Note, June 2024

Published June 27, 2024

Book Covers of Note, June 2024

Hey everyone. I hope you keeping well. It’s another big post this month. There are lots of new covers, but also quite a few that I missed (or didn’t have the design credit for!) from earlier this year too. I expect that’ll keep happening over the next couple of posts as I try to catch up over the summer, so feel free to send me stuff I might have overlooked. Now is the time!

The Abyss by Fernando Vallejo; design by Janet Hansen (New Directions / June 2024)

Ask Me Again by Clare Sestanovich; design by Janet Hansen (Knopf / June 2024)

A Janet Hansen one-two to open proceedings…

Blessings by Chukwuebuka Ibeh; design by John Fontana; painting by Tosin Olusegun Kalejaye (Doubleday / June 2024)

The cover of the UK edition published by Penguin earlier this year, designed by Richard Bravery (I think?), uses the same painting by Tosin Kalejaye but it’s interesting to see the differences in the approach side by side.

The Borrowed Hills by Scott Preston; design by Jaya Miceli (Scribner / June 2024)

Another example of the US and the UK cover sharing the same image but with differing approaches. I like the type and the retro poster vibe of the UK cover a lot. I don’t have the design credit though so please drop me a note if you know whose work it is and I’ll add it in!

Brat by Gabriel Smith; design by Stephanie Ross (Penguin Press / June 2024)

Cue the Sun by Emily Nussbaum; design by Michael Morris (Random House / June 2024)

An Excellent Host by Chelsea G. Summers; design by Jaya Nicely (Unnamed Press / April 2024)

I’m a bit late to this. An Excellent Host, a short story by Chelsea G. Summers author of the cult hit A Certain Hunger, was originally printed exclusively for Independent Bookstore Day back in April. Signed copies are still currently available from the publisher. Jaya Nicely also designed the cover of A Certain Hunger of course…

Fire Exit by Morgan Talty; design by Beth Steidle (Tin House / June 2024)

The Friday Afternoon Club by Griffin Dunne; design by Evan Gaffney; photograph by Camilla McGrath (Penguin Press / June 2024)

Nice swooshy type here, and that photo.

Girls by Kirsty Capes; design by Dan Jackson; art by Tracey Sylvester Harris (Orion / May 2024)

Gub by Scott McKendry; design by Anna Morrison (Little, Brown / February 2024)

In Tongues by Thomas Grattan; design by Alex Merto (MCD / May 2024)

The Mark by Fríða Ísberg; design by Robbie Porter (Faber & Faber / June 2024)

Ominous blobs are back!

MILF by Paloma Faith; design by Jack Smyth (Ebury / June 2024)

This reminded me of Darren Haggar’s cover for the W.W. Norton edition of Crime by Irvine Welsh from the distant days of 2009.

Monstrilio by Gerardo Sámano Córdova; design by Tom Etherington (Cinder House / June 2024)

The cover of the US edition of Monstrilio, published by Zando in March last year, was designed by Alex Merto. I was a little late to it, but it was included in my September round-up.

Overstaying by Ariane Koch; design by Jonathan Pelham (Pushkin Press / April 2024)

A Perfect Day to Be Alone by Nanae Aoyama; design by Jack Smyth (Quercus / May 2024)

Please Stop Trying to Leave Me by Alana Saab; design by Mark Abrams; painting by Jennifer Allnut (Knopf / June 2024)

There are shades of Italian Renaissance painter Giuseppe Arcimboldo about this cover.

The Sons of El Rey by Alex Espinoza; design by David Litman (Simon & Schuster / June 2024)

Supplication by Nour Abi-Nakhoul; design by Luke Bird (Influx Press / June 2024)

I’m not much of a horror fan so my frame of reference is very dated, but this cover immediately made me thing of the 1998 Japanese movie Ringu (and the end of The Blair Witch Project).

The Canadian cover of Supplication designed by Emma Dolan for PRH Canada was featured in last month’s list.

(Thanks to Jack Smyth for the UK cover credit. Cheers Jack)

The Survivors of the Clotilda by Hannah Durkin; design by Mike McQuade (Amistad Press / January 2024)

Technology is Not the Problem by Timandra Harkness; design by Steve Leard (HQ / May 2024)

Eye, eye…

When Women Ran Fifth Avenue by Julie Satow; design by Emily Mahon (Doubleday / June 2024)

This makes a nice pair with the cover of The Upstairs Delicatessen by Dwight Garner designed by June Park and published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux in October last year.

Worry by Alexandra Tanner; design by Alicia Tatone; painting by Shannon Cartier Lucy (Scribner / March 2024)

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Published June 18, 2024

Book Release

Asher Perlman’s new book of cartoons, Well, This is Me, is out today.

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Published June 7, 2024

Restless Spirit

Tom Gauld for The Guardian.

If I seem to be posting a lot about unread books and to-read piles, it is because I have a lot of unread books and a daunting to-read pile and I feel bad about it.

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Published June 4, 2024

Too Many Books?

Grant Snider.

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Book Covers of Note, May 2024

Published May 28, 2024

Book Covers of Note, May 2024

I hope you’re keeping safe and well. Between work trips and sales conference it’s been a few weeks for me, and there are a lot of covers this month, so I am going to stop prattling and let you get straight to the post…

Another Word for Love by Carvell Wallace; design by Rodrigo Corral (MCD / May 2024)

Birding by Rose Ruane; design by Charlotte Stroomer; photograph by Kelsey McClellan (Little, Brown / May 2024)

I feel like there was another ice cream book cover recently and that somehow Ben Denzer has manifested this.

Blue Ruin by Hari Kunzru; design by John Gall; painting by Chad Wys (Knopf / May 2024)

John Gall also designed the cover of Hari Kunzru’s previous novel Red Pill.

Challenger by Adam Higginbotham; design by Pete Garceau (Avid Reader Press / May 2024)

Coexistence by Billy-Ray Belcourt; design by Kelly Hill (Hamish Hamilton / May 2024)

Dead Animals by Phoebe Stuckes; design by Will Speed (Hodder & Stoughton / April 2024)

Evenings and Weekends by Oisín McKenna; design by Jo Thomson (HarperCollins / May 2024)

Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon; design by Gregg Kulick (Henry Holt / March 2024)

I was trying to think what this cover reminded me of, and then I remembered this.

The Great State of West Florida by Kent Wascom; design by Jeff Miller / Faceout Studio (Grove / May 2024)

Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck; design by John Gall (New Directions / May 2024)

This is the cover of the newly released US paperback. John Gall also designed the cover for the hardback, published by New Directions last year. Author Jenny Erpenbeck and translator Michael Hofmann recently won the 2024 International Booker Prize with Kairos.

Kilworthy Tanner by Jean Marc Ah-Sen; design by David Drummond (Esplanade Books / May 2024)

This composition brings to mind David Pelham’s covers for J. G. Ballard. (On a semi-related note, air-brushed covers are probably overdue a revival. Or is it a dying art now?)

Kittentits by Holly Wilson; design by Eli Mock (Zando / May 2024)

Like Love by Maggie Nelson; design by Suzanne Dean (Vintage / May 2024)

Suzanne Dean also designed the cover of Bluets by Maggie Nelson.

Loneliness & Company by Charlee Dyroff; design by Mia Kwon (Bloomsbury / May 2024)

Love Junkie by Robert Plunket; design by Oliver Munday (New Directions / May 2024)

Olive Munday bringing his A game.

Monsters, Martyrs, and Marionettes by Adrienne Gruber; design by Tree Abraham (Book*hug / May 2024)

The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley; design by Alison Forner; typography by Andrew Footit (Avid Reader Press / May 2024)

The Novices of Lerna by Ángel Bonomini; design by Sarah Schulte (Transit Books / May 2024)

Perfume & Pain by Anna Dorn; design by Math Monahan (Simon & Schuster / May 2024)

Just so much pink this month!

The Red Grove by Tessa Fontaine; design by Sara Wood (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / May 2024)

The Skunks by FIona Warnick; design by Beth Steidle (Tin House / May 2024)

Supplication by Nour Abi-Nakhoul; design by Emma Dolan (Strange Light / May 2024)

Can anyone tell me who designed the cover of the UK edition of Supplication for Influx Press? I’d love to include it in next month’s round-up when it’s published.

The Z Word by Lindsay King-Miller; design by Andie Reid (Quirk Books / May 2024)

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Book Covers of Note April 2024

Published April 26, 2024

Book Covers of Note April 2024

Hey, I hope you’re safe and well. I’m a little bit ahead of schedule because fall sales conference season is upon us, and I have to be in New York for work next week. I’m less ahead than I would’ve liked — PRINT has already beaten me to the punch! — but here we are, a couple of days earlier than usual, with another look at some new and recent book covers. April is National Poetry Month in the US so there are a few poetry covers in the mix, as well as a couple of covers from independent presses, an Australian cover, and all the usual suspects.

Bones Worth Breaking by David Martinez; design by Alex Merto (MCD / April 2024)

Charlie Hustle by Keith O’Brien; design by Eli Mock (Pantheon / March 2024)

I just like the type and the colour palette here.

Cahokia Jazz by Francis Spufford; design by Henry Petrides (Faber & Faber / April 2024)

The Curse of Pietro Houdini by Derek B. Miller; design by David Gee (Avid Reader Press / January 2024)

Divided Island by Daniela Tarazona; design by Jack Smyth (Deep Vellum / April 2024)

The Formula by Joshua Robinson and Jonathan Clegg; design by Pete Garceau (Mariner Books / March 2024)

Two nonfiction sports books in one post! Does Formula One really count as a sport? Not for me, Clive. But the subtitle says it is, and a Canadian friend once told me that for something to qualify as a sport it has to endanger your life in some fundamental way, so I guess F1 qualifies under Quebec Rules for Teen Boys if nothing else.

Anyway, it might be fun to do a post of interesting sports books covers at some point if I can find the time (let me know if any great examples come to mind!).

Honey by Victor Lodata; design by Robin Bilardello (Harper / April 2023)

Kill For Me Kill For You by Steve Cavanagh; design by Laywan Kwan (Atria / March 2024)

I feel like this is a bit different for a psychological thriller? I like the type a lot.

Knife by Salman Rushdie; design by Arsh Raziuddin (Random House / April 2024)

Interestingly, there is an “eye” motif on the spine with the Random House logo in the centre. Look for it next time you’re in a bookstore.

Also, this cover isn’t the first to riff, consciously or otherwise, on the cut canvases of Italian artist Lucio Fontana. The cover of Ball by Tara Ison, designed by Kelly Winton, comes to mind. I’m sure there are other examples (David Gee’s unpublished cover for Lolita. Are the more?).