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Tag: madeline partner

Book Covers of Note, September 2025

Hey. I hope you’re keeping safe and well. I’m posting this late on the last day of the month, but hopefully it was worth waiting for.

I will let you get to the covers posthaste, but before I go, today (September 30th) is also Orange Shirt Day and National Day for Truth and Reconciliation in Canada, so I would like take a moment to acknowledge and remember the survivors of residential schools, their families and the kids who didn’t come home. <3

All Consuming by Ruby Tandoh; design by Jared Bartman (Knopf / September 2025)

At Last by Marisa Silver; design by Luísa Dias (Simon & Schuster / September 2025)

Audition for the Fox by Martin Cahill; design and illustration by Elizabeth Story (Tachyon Books / September 2025)

Awake by Jen Hatmaker; design by Elizabeth Yaffe (Avid Reader Press / September 2025)

Big Time by Jordan Prosser; design by Luke Bird (Dead Ink Books / September 2025)

Beyond All Reasonable Doubt, Jesus is Alive! by Melissa Lozada-Oliva; design by Luísa Dias (Astra House / September 2025)

I love that we have two grungy / pulpy covers from Luísa Dias this month…

Chasing the Dark by Ben Machell; design by Ben Prior (Abacus / August 2025)

The Collected Stories by Cixin Liu; design by Jessie Price (Head of Zeus / September 2025)

This is holographic foil just in case it’s not obvious from the above (and if someone at Head of Zeus / Bloomsbury is reading and wants to fire me a better cover image that would be great!)

Discontent by Beatriz Serrano; design by Madeline Partner (Vintage / September 2025)

With this and the cover of The Dilemmas of Working Women designed by Sarah Kellogg (featured last month), we may have a new sub-genre of ‘well dressed and distressed’. Are there other examples?

Possibly a different kind of distress, the UK edition of Discontent, published last month by Harvill Secker, was designed by Kris Potter using a photograph by Laurent Tixador.

Dogs by C. Mallon; design by Jaya Miceli (Scribner / August 2025)

Facing Infinity by Jonas Enander; design by Anna Morrison (Atlantic Books / September 2025)

For the Sun After Long Nights by Fatemeh Jamalpour & Nilo Tabrizy; design by Linda Huang; illustration by Laura Acquaviva (Pantheon / September 2025)

Great Disasters by Grady Chambers; design by Beth Steidle (Tin House / September 2025)

In the Green Heart by Richard Lloyd Parry; design by Julia Connolly; photograph by Albarran Cabrera (Jonathan Cape / August 2025)

The Hunger We Pass Down by Jen Sookfong Lee; design by Jennifer Griffiths (Erewhon Books / September 2025)

The Island of Last Things by Emma Sloley; design by Keith Hayes; art by Jose David Morales (Flatiron Books / September 2025)

The Last Jewish Joke by Michel Wieviorka; design by David Drummond (Polity Press / September 2025)

Letters in Exile by Claude McKay; design by Jenny Volvovski (Yale University Press / September 2025)

Moderation by Elaine Castillo; design by Lynn Buckley (Viking / August 2025)

The Shadow of the Mammoth by Fabio Morábito; design by Jared Bartman (Other Press / September 2025)

Is the “blob cut-out” a thing? I kind of thought it was but then I couldn’t think of any other examples except maybe this Paul Sahre / Erik Carter cover for The Lottery and Other Stories by Shirley Jackson from a few years ago, which is more of a collage really. Are they any other examples?

Swallows by Natsuo Kirino; design by Tyler Comrie (Knopf / September 2025)

The UK cover of Swallows published by Canongate last month was designed by Jack Smyth.

They All Came To Barneys by Gene Pressman; design by Colin Webber (Viking / September 2025)

Will There Ever Be Another You by Patricia Lockwood; design by Lauren Peters-Collaer (Riverhead Books / September 2025)

Lauren also designed the cover for No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood, which was on my notable list back in 2021.

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Book Covers of Note, July 2025

Somehow it is the end of July, and I am once again rushing to get this done. I think it’s a decent mix of covers this month though, with some big books, some indies, a few type-only covers, some nice art, and a couple of trends to watch out for. I’m glad it’s all come together, even if it is last minute!

Thanks to everyone who took time to help me with cover images and design credits over the past couple of weeks (days!) — it’s really, really appreciated! I hope everyone is having a good summer.

Black Genius by Tre Johnson; design by Dominique Jones (Dutton / July 2025)

Fools for Love by Helen Schulman; design by Janet Hansen (Knopf / July 2025)

Janet also designed the cover of Helen Schulman’s novel Lucky Dogs, which was on my 2023 notable book covers list.

And thanks to Alban Fischer for pointing out that red lips on book covers are a bit of a thing at the moment (or maybe have been for a while?)

Harbour Doubts by Bebe Ashley; design by Jack Smyth (Banshee Press / July 2025)

Special thanks to Jack for sending me this cover while he was on vacation!

I Remember by Joe Brainard; design by David Pearson (Daunt Books / July 2025)

Killer on the Road / The Babysitter Lives by Stephen Graham Jones; design by David Litman (Saga Press / July 2025)

This is fun a double cover…

Oh and I’m not saying Dave likes a ripped paper motif, but I’m not not saying it either… ;-)

There might also be a thing for cars from above

Killing Stella by Marlen Haushofer; design by Matt Dorfman (New Directions / July 2025)

Matt also designed the cover of the New Directions edition of The Wall by Marlen Haushofer, which was featured on the blog back in October 2022 (where does the time go???)

Lili is Crying by Hélène Bessette; design by Jamie Keenan (New Directions / July 2025)

Ripped paper… it’s a thing.

Maggie, Or a Man and Woman Walk Into a Bar by Katie Yee; design by Grace Han (Summit Books / July 2025)

Thanks to Jaya Miceli for helping with the credit for this one!

Make Your Way Home by Carrie R. Moore; design by Beth Steidle (Tin House / July 2025)

No Sense in Wishing by Lawrence Burney; design by Janay Nachel (Atria / July 2025)

I think this is a really great (and rare!) example of a quote looking good on a cover. It doesn’t feel jammed in last minute.

One Yellow Eye by Leigh Radford; design by Kieryn Tyler (Pan Macmillan / July 2025)

Are peephole covers now a thing too?

The macabre cover of the US edition of One Yellow Eye, out this month from Gallery Books, was designed by Claire Sullivan, with art by Alex Eckman-Lawn.

The Painter’s Fire by Zara Anishanslin; design by Madeline Partner (Harvard University Press / July 2025)

Pan by Michael Clune; design by Janet Hansen (Penguin Press / July 2025)

Not to keep going about trends, but cropped faces might be a thing? Pan has the bonus creepy (peephole?) eyes though…

People With No Charisma by Jente Posthuma; design by Luke Bird (Scribe / July 2025)

The Phoenix Pencil Company by Allison King; design by Jo Thomson (HarperCollins / July 2025)

The Satisfaction Café by Kathy Wang; design by Jaya Miceli; art by Kosta Morr (Scribner / July 2025)

Whisky & Scotland by Neil M. Gunn; design and illustration by Sinem Erkas (Profile Books / July 2025)

This is just really nicely done.

Zofia Nowak’s Book of Superior Detecting by Piotr Cieplak; design and illustration by Meg Shepherd (Dialogue / June 2025)

I might generally be done with quirky-cozy (quozy? Sorry. Marketing brain) amateur sleuths, but this is a fun cover.

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