Books, Design and Culture
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)
Here are this month’s book covers of note.
Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane; design by David Litman (Scribner / may 2019)
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess; design by Kelly Winton (W.W. Norton / May 2019)
Has anyone done a post on A Clockwork Orange covers over the years? I feel like someone must have.
Crossing by Pajtim Statovci; design by Tyler Comrie (Pantheon / April 2019)
Dream Sequence by Adam Foulds; design by Na Kim (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / January 2019)
The Ghost Notebooks by Ben Dolnick; design by Stephanie Ross (Vintage / January 2019)
The cover of the hardback edition published last year by Pantheon was designed by Kelly Blair.
The Hypothetical Man by Paul Maliszewski & Ryan Weil; design by Alban Fischer (Trnsfr Books / March 2019)
The Ice House by Tim Clare; design by Leo Nickolls (Canongate / May 2019)
I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman; design by Anna Morrison (Vintage / May 2019)
Land and Forests by Andrew Forbes; design by Megan Fildes (Invisible Books / May 2019)
Life Support by Julia Copus; design by Helen Crawford-White (Head of Zeus / April 2019)
The Man They Wanted Me To Be by Jared Yates Sexton; design by Matt Dorfman (Counterpoint / March 2019)
Matt also designed the cover of Jared Yates Sexton’s previous book The People Are Going to Rise Like the Waters Upon Your Shore.
Map of Another Town by M.F.K. Fisher; design by Anna Morrison (Daunt Books / May 2019)
Mind Fixers by Anne Harrington; design by Matt Dorfman (W.W. Norton / April 2019)
Riots I Have Known by Ryan Chapman; design by Oliver Munday (Simon & Schuster / May 2019)
The Unpassing by Chia-Chia Lin; design by June Park (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / May 2019)
The Unwanted by Michael Dobbs; design by Tyler Comrie (Knopf / April 2019)
Tom Gauld has collaborated with John L Walters, editor of Eye magazine, to make this lovely poster celebrating the St. Bride Library in London — the largest print and publishing library in the world.
Produced in a limited edition of 80, you can get one from the library store for ÂŁ15.
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Theo Inglis, whose book Mid-Century Modern Graphic is published this month, has a lovely post on the AIGA Eye on Design blog about the work of artist, teacher, activist, and designer Corita Kent:
In 1962, Kent saw work by Andy Warhol for the first time, and her aesthetic changed markedly, becoming bolder, flatter, more abstract and brighter, often with saturated, almost fluorescent, colors. Her new style was so successful that it became became known as “nun art,” and was often imitated. Her adherence to the Pop Art aesthetic was well suited to her joyous aims: Kent said she wanted her art to “give people a lift” and help them get “more fun out of life.”
Pop Art’s celebration of the urban everyday also empowered Kent to introduce more quotidian sources into her text works. During the ’60s, she began to incorporate lyrics from pop songs, advertising slogans, and snippets of text seen on signs and packaging into her work, often pairing them with religious text. It was a move that elevated the ordinary to the spiritual, and became a frequent theme in Kent’s art and teaching. She found delight in the commonplace, and believed that the divine could be seen anywhere, even amidst the chaos of the modern city. Kent often took her students on urban expeditions—even day-long trips to gas stations and car lots—armed with cameras and viewfinders.
The largest ever exhibition of Corita Kent’s work in the UK, Corita Kent: Power Up, is currently on display at House of Illustration in King’s Cross until May 12.
Theo’s book is available May 7 from Pavilion Books.
Comments closedThe winners of the 2019 Academy of British Cover Design (ABCD) Awards were announced earlier this month and, as in previous years, the winners are an eclectic mix of styles. It is always interesting to see the covers that the designers themselves vote for. Only a couple of the winning designs have been featured here before.
Run, Riot by Nikesh Shukla; design by Michelle Brackenborough (Hodder Children’s Books / June 2018)
Folk by Zoe Gilbert; design by David Mann (Bloomsbury / July 2018)
Money by Laura Whateley; design by Jack Smyth (Fourth Estate / October 2018)
Miriam Toews; design Jonathan Pelham (Faber & Faber / September 2018)
Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier; design by Hannah Wood; embroidery by Hand & Lock (Virago / February 2018)
Helping Hen by Claudia Ripol and Yeonju Yang; design and illustration by Claudia Ripol and Yeonju Yang (Owl and Dog Books / November 2018)
The Boy at the Back of the Class by Onjali Q. Rauf; design by Thy Bui; illustration by Pippa Curnick (Orion Children’s Books / July 2018)
Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata; design by Luke Bird (Portobello Books / July 2018)
That Old Black Magic by Cathi Unsworth; design by Leo Nickolls (Serpents Tail / March 2018)
When Katie Met Cassidy by Camille Perri; design by Sinem Erkas (Piaktus Books / June 2018)
You can find my previous posts on the ABCD Award winners here: 2018; 2017; 2016; 2015 and 2014.
And while we’re on the subject of awards, the Australian Book Design Association have announced the shortlist for this year’s awards.
4 CommentsIt’s almost the first day of spring, the snow and ice have just about melted in Toronto (for now!), and everything is still awful, so it must be time for March’s book covers of note!
Bangkok Wakes to Rain by Pitchaya Sudbanthad; design by Grace Han (Riverhead / February 2019)
The Bird King by G. Willow Wilson; design by Helen Crawford-White (Grove / March 2019)
The Bold World by Jodie Patterson; design by Jaya Miceli (Ballantine / January 2019)
Boşluktakiler by Tom McCarthy; design by David Drummond (Jaguar / February 2019)
This is the Turkish edition of Men in Space by Tom McCarthy. I like how the composition and colour palette echo the cover of the US edition published by Vintage, designed by John Gall:
It also reminds of the golden leaf cover for ‘True Faith’ by New Order designed by Peter Saville.
The Cook by Maylis de Kerangal; design by Na Kim (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / March 2019)
(I feel like a Freudian could have a field day with this cover.)
Daisy Jones and The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid; design by Lauren Wakefield (Hutchinson / March 2019)
The cover of the US edition published by Ballantine (I couldn’t find an image without the book club sticker… sorry), was designed by Caroline Teagle Johnson. The book is getting a lot of buzz so I’ve seen both versions of the cover a lot online. It’s a pretty striking photo. I’m curious about where it came from…
Follow This Thread by Henry Eliot; design by Elena Giavaldi (Three Rivers Press / March 2019)
Good Kids, Bad City by Kyle Swenson; design by Henry Sene Yee (Picador / February 2019)
Halibut on the Moon by David Vann; design by Erin Fitzsimmons (Grove / March 2019)
Heroine by Mindy McGinnis; design by Erin Fitzsimmons (Katherine Tegen Books / March 2019)
I’ve Been Meaning to Tell You by David Chariandy; design by Tree Abraham (Bloomsbury / March 2019)
Lanny by Max Porter; design by Jonny Pelham (Faber & Faber / March 2019)
Midnight by Victoria Shorr; design by Sarah-May Wilkinson (Norton / March 2019)
This uses some very fancy metallic stock that you can’t really appreciate from the image.
The type reminded me a little of the cover of a Faber & Faber collection called Sex & Death from a couple of years ago designed by Luke Bird.
The Municipalists by Seth Fried; design by Matt Taylor (Penguin / March 2019)
Rutting Season by Mandeliene Smith; design by Grace Han (Scribner / February 2019)
Unspeakable by Harriet Shawcross; design by Jamie Keenan (Canongate / March 2019)
And sticking with blue-green covers…
The Wall by John Lanchester; design by Utku Lomlu (Norton / March 2019)
The cover of the UK edition published by Faber & Faber (featured in January’s post) was designed by Alex Kirby:
When Brooklyn was Queer by Hugh Ryan; design by Rob Grom (St. Martin’s Press / March 2019)
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:
(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:
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:
Circe by Madeline Miller; design by Will Staehle (Little Brown & Co / April 2018)
Also designed by Will Staehle:
Codex 1962 by SjĂłn; 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:
The Comedown by Rebekah Frumkin; design by Rachel Willey (Henry Holt / April 2018)
Also designed by Rachel Willey:
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:
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 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:
Hippie by Paulo Coelho; design by Tyler Comrie (Knopf / September 2018)
Also designed by Tyler Comrie:
The Hole by José Revueltas; design by John Gall (New Directions / November 2018)
Also designed by John Gall:
(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:
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:
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:
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:
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:
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:
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:
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:
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:
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:
This Mournable Body by Tsitsi Dangarembga; design Kimberly Glyder (Graywolf / August 2018)
Also designed by Kimberly Glyder:
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:
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).
1 CommentThis is my last monthly round-up for 2018. Next month I’ll post my round-up for the year. I have to confess that I have not given the blog 100% of my attention of late, so if you think that there are covers I might’ve overlooked this year please feel to send them my way for consideration.
Bitwise: A Life in Code by David Auerbach; design by Tyler Comrie (Pantheon / August 2018)
The Book of Beautiful Questions by Warren Berger; design by Tree Abraham (Bloomsbury / October 2018)
‘Broadsword Calling Danny Boy’ by Geoff Dyer; design Jim Stoddart (Penguin / October 2018)
The blackletter is similar, I believe, to the type used for the movie title / credits, and the chevrons are a nice reference to a design that appears in the movie. The Guardian reviewed the book last month if you are curious. (And someone in the UK needs to buy it for me as a Christmas present!)
The Deserters by Pamela Mulloy; design by David Drummond (VĂ©hicule Press / September 2018)
Evening in Paradise by Lucia Berlin; design by Na Kim (Farrar, Straus and Giroux / November 2018)
Na Kim designed the cover for Welcome Home by Lucia Berlin, also released this month, too:
The cover of the UK edition of Evening in Paradise was designed by Justine Anweiler I believe. Justine designed the wonderful cover for hardback of A Manual For Cleaning Women:
Feminasty by Erin Gibson; design by Anne Twomey; photograph by Ricky Middlesworth (Grand Central / September 2018)
Usually I’m a bit reluctant to post the covers of celebrity books, but this is pretty great.
Celebrity book covers are often look beautiful — the recent memoirs by Sally Fields and Michelle Obama come to mind — but often that’s because of a glamourous photograph. The designer’s job is just to get out of the way. That makes sense from a marketing point of view, it’s just not terribly interesting from a design perspective. This feels like it has a bit more to it somehow. Or maybe it’s just more fun…
That all said, I have started to see this kind of swashy retro type pop-up more frequently of late. A couple of recent examples that come to mind are the covers of All the Beautiful Girls by Elizabeth J. Church, designed by Anna Morrison (Fourth Estate), and The Dakota Winters by Tom Barbash designed by Allison Saltzman (Ecco):
I was also reminded of Kelly Winton‘s covers designs for the reissues of Black Swans and Sex and Rage by Eve Babitz from Counterpoint.
I would guess the fonts are Bodoni or variants thereof, but no doubt someone with a better eye for type will be able to tell us for sure.
UPDATE: Anna Morrison tells me the font she used for All the Beautiful Girls is Cabernet, which just goes to show what I know. According to the ever-useful Fonts in Use, Cabernet is “an uncredited revival of Benguiat Caslon, a 1970s Photo-Lettering typeface by Ed Benguiat.” I’m pretty sure Benguiat Caslon was used for the iconic Philip Roth covers in the 1970s so I probably should’ve recognized it…
The Feral Detective by Jonathan Lethem; design Allison Saltzman; photograph Kate Bellm (Ecco Press / November 2018)
Heavy by Kiese Laymon; design by Na Kim (Scribner / October 2018)
Hippie by Paulo Coelho; design by Tyler Comrie (Knopf / September 2018)
Is this the year of the orange cover…?
The Hole by José Revueltas; design by John Gall (New Directions / November 2018)
John Gall has a new book collecting 10 years of his collages out this month too.
You can read my 2011(!) Q & A with John about his collages here.
Homeland by Walter Kempowski; design by Dan Mogford (Granta / November 2018)
Dan also designed the cover for All for Nothing by Walter Kempowski a couple of years ago:
I Do Not Trust You by Laura J.Burns & Melinda Metz; design by Olga Grlic (St. Martin’s Press / September 2018)
I had it in my mind that snaky red covers with big white type were very “in” for thrillers right now, but the only other example I could think of was the US cover for Our Kind of Cruelty by Araminta Hall designed by Alex Merto, which is really not that similar…
Perhaps I am imagining it.
The Library Book by Susan Orlean; design by Lauren Peters-Collaer (Simon & Schuster / October 2018)
Notes from the Fog by Ben Marcus; design by Jamie Keenan (Granta / September 2018)
The US cover, which I featured in a previous post, was designed by Peter Mendelsund:
Odessa Stories by Isaac Babel; design by Anna Morrison (Puhskin Press / November 2018)
Portraits Without Frames by Lev Ozerov; design by Dan Mogford (Granta / November 2018)
The Son of Black Thursday by Alejandro Jodorowsky; design by Richard Ljoenes (Restless Books / November 2018)
Richard also designed the cover of Jodorowsky’s previous novel Where the Bird Sings Best:
And take a moment to check out Richard’s online portfolio, which is new I believe.
Wasteland by W. Scott Poole; design by Jaya Miceli (Counterpoint / November 2018)
The Winters by Lisa Gabriele; design by Nayon Cho (Viking / October 2018)
Here are the book covers that caught my eye this month…
Beirut Hellfire Society by Rawi Hage; design by Lisa Jager (Knopf Canada / August 2018)
The Boatbuilder by Daniel Gumbiner; design by Sunra Thompson (McSweeney’s / May 2018)
This goes rather nicely with Sunra’s cover for the hardcover of All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews…
The Boneless Mercies by April Genevieve Tucholke; design by Elizabeth H. Clark; illustration by Will Staehle (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / October 2018)
The Death Scene Artist by Andrew Wilmot; design by Michel Vrana (Wolsak & Wynn / October 2018)
I guess skulls aren’t going out of fashion any time soon!
‘Exterminate the Brutes’ by Sven Lindqvist; design by Luke Bird (Granta / October 2018)
The Fifth Risk by Michael Lewis; design by Pete Garceau (W. W. Norton / October 2018)
I feel like I should at least try to collect some of the best political covers from the past year or so together into a post at some point. On the other hand, I really don’t want to…
Gin: Distilled by Gin Foundry; design by James Paul Jones (Ebury Press / October 2018)
The Infinite Blacktop by Sara Gran; design by Alex Merto (Atria Books / September 2018)
Nervous States by William Davies; design by Suzanne Dean (Jonathan Cape / September 2018)
No Country Woman by Zoya Patel; design by Astred Hicks (Hachette Australia / August 2018)
Océans by James Hyndman; design by David Drummond (Les Éditions XYZ / September 2018)
Rabbit & Robot by Andrew Smith; Design by Lucy Ruth Cummins; art by Mike Perry (Simon & Schuster / September 2018)
Red Birds by Mohammed Hanif; design by Greg Heinimann (Bloomsbury / October 2018)
Sawkill Girls by Claire Legrand; design by Aurora Parlagreco; illustration by Ruben Ireland (Katherine Tegen Books / October 2018)
Something Great and Beautiful by Enrico Pellegrini; design by Gray318 (Other Press / September 2018)
I’m not entirely sure why, but cover of Something Great and Beautiful brought to mind the 2014 cover of the UK edition of The Empathy Exams by Leslie Jamison, designed by Tom Darracott for Granta. They’re really not that similar, and yet…
Son of Amity by Peter Nathaniel Malae; design by David Drummond (Oregon State University Press / October 2018)
Statistics Without Tears by Derek Rowntree; design by Matthew Young (Penguin / June 2018)
There Will Be No Miracles Here by Casey Gerald; design by Grace Han (Riverhead Books / October 2018)
Are black and white stripes / op art having a moment in New York?
Both these covers reminded me of Riverhead art director Helen Yentus’s black and white cover for The Stranger by Albert Camus:
Wasted Calories and Ruined Nights by Jay Rayner; design by Dan Mogford (Faber & Faber / October 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…
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)
