Hey, I hope you’re keeping safe, well and warm (or cool!) wherever you are.
If you missed it, my first post of 2025 was a look back at some of last year’s YA covers. You can find my 2024 list of notable literary covers here. Both posts got me thinking more generally about these lists. Do I need to change things up? Or stop altogether? Several other sites are posting lists that do much the same thing mine, and they are all starting to feel too alike. I don’t have answer, and I don’t really know I would do differently. I’m struggling to post once a month as it is. For now at least I’ll keep posting the covers that interest me. It’s just something that’s on my mind, and I have other projects I’ve been neglecting, so I’m curious if you have opinions.
Anyway, this month’s post is a bit of a short (but good!) one, and includes a couple of covers that I missed in 2024 for one reason or another. Enjoy!
Between Two Waters by Pam Brunton; design by Gill Heeley (Canongate / September 2024)
Although this came out in September 2024 in the UK, it is out this month in the US and Canada. It looks very nice in real life.
Blob by Maggie Su; design by Robin Bilardello (Harper / January 2025)
The End of the World and Hardboiled Wonderland by Haruki Murakami; design by Suzanne Dean; illustration by Takaya Katsuragawa (Vintage / December 2024)
A late, but very nice entry from 2024. The wraparound illustration is particularly good…
Everything Must Go by Dorian Lynskey; design by Eli Mock (Pantheon / January 2025)
Eurotrash by Christian Kracht; design by Sinem Erkas (Profile Books / November 2024)
I do really like this cover. It looks great! But it also looks a lot like non-fiction, especially when compared to the cover of the US edition (Liveright, October 2024) designed by Jason Heuer. They look like completely different books!
And speaking of Jason Heuer, he’s made a series of fun videos talking about embarrassing moments from his early graphic design career. You can find them on YouTube and Instagram. In the second episode Jason talks about his first book design credit…
From These Roots by Tamara Lanier; design by Anna Kochman; illustration by Mark Harris (Crown / January 2025)
Going Home by Tom Lamont; design by Jared Bartman (Knopf / January 2025)
I’ll Come To You by Rebecca Kauffman; design by Nicole Caputo (Counterpoint / January 2025)
Nicole’s cover for The Gunners by Rebecca Kauffman was featured on the blog way back in March 2018.
A Kind of Madness by Uche Okonkwo; design by Elsa Mathern (Verve Books / January 2025)
Oromay by Baalu Girma; design by Nathan Burton (Quercus / January 2025)
Playworld by Adam Ross; design by Oliver Munday (Knopf / January 2025)
The cover of Mr. Peanut by Adam Ross, designed by Peter Mendelsund was one of my favourite covers of 2010.
Something Rotten by Andrew Lipstein; design by Na Kim (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / January 2025)
These feels like a weird and funny companion to Na’s cover for Close to Home by Michael Magee from 2023…
Too Soon by Betty Shamieh; design by Kimberly Glyder (Avid Reader Press / January 2025)
Under the Eye of the Big Bird by Hironi Kawakami; design by Luke Bird (Granta / January 2025)
There are shades of Charley Harper about this.
The Vanishing Point by Paul Theroux; design by Pete Garceau (Mariner Books / January 2025)
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