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Book Covers of Note, February 2025
Published February 25, 2025

Book Covers of Note, February 2025

Hey, I hope you’re safe and well. This month’s post is a big one so I’m pretty much going to let you get on with it, but before I do, I just wanted to mention that I’ve included a gallery of all this month’s covers as the bottom of the post so you can click through them all. This is in response to a reader email about the size of the covers on screen. I think the gallery looks nice, but I am worried that it’s going to play absolute havoc with the RSS / email so apologies in advance if that’s case. Anyway, enjoy this month’s covers, and let me know what you think.

Alligator Tears by Edgar Gomez; design by Arsh Raziuddin (Crown / February 2025)

Atrocity by Bruce Robbins; design by David Drummond (Stanford University Press / February 2025)

Ballerina by Patrick Modiano; design by Monograph (Yale University Press / January 2025)

Beta Vulgaris by Margie Sarsfield; design by Joanne O’Neill (W. W. Norton / February 2025)

Boyhood of Cain by Michael Amherst; design by Jack Smyth; photograph by Kirsten McKee (Faber & Faber / February 2025)

Creep by Emma van Straaten; design by Joanne O’Neill (Harper Perennial / February 2025)

Deep Cuts by Holly Brickley; design by Chris Allen (Crown / February 2025)

Dengue Boy by Michel Nieva; design by Rodrigo Corral; illustration by Sophy Hollington (Astra House / February 2025)

Fake Muse by Max Besora; design by Alban Fischer (Open Letter / February 2025)

I Love You So Much It’s Killing Us Both by Mariah Stovall; design by Luke Bird (Influx Press / February 2025)

This is the UK paperback cover. The cover of the US hardcover published by Soft Skull in February last year and designed by Jack Smyth was in March 2024’s round-up.

Immemorial by Lauren Markham; design by Anna Morrison (Transit / February 2025)

In Defence of Barbarism by Louisa Yousfi; design by Chantal Jahchan (Verso / January 2025)

Mazeltov by Eli Zuzovsky; design by Emily Mahar; art by Daniel El Dibujo (Henry Holt / February 2025)

Money To Burn by Asta Olivia Nordenhof; design by Matt Broughton; art Katrien de Blauwer (Vintage / February 2025)

The type is apparently the Lubalin-inspired Herbus designed by Eliott Grunewald.

Reading the Waves by Lidia Yuknavitch; design Lauren Peters-Collaer (Riverhead / February 2025)

Saint of the Narrow Street by William Boyle; design by Luke Bird (Soho Crime / February 2025)

Smother by Rachel Richardson; design by Hana Nakamura (W. W. Norton / February 2025)

The Stain by Rikki Ducornet; design by Daniel Benneworth-Gray (Dalkey Archive Press / February 2025)

A Time Outside This Time by Amitava Kumar; design by Tom Etherington (Vintage / February 2025)

This accompanies the paperback of My Beloved Life, published at the end of last month.

The cover of the hardcover of My Beloved Life was designed by Oliver Munday.

The Vanishing Point by Paul Theroux; design by Chris Bentham (Penguin / February 2025)

The cover of the US edition designed by Pete Garceau was on last month’s list.

The World After Gaza by Pankaj Mishra; design by Darren Haggar (Penguin Press / February 2025)

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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 May 28, 2021

Book Covers of Note, May 2021

Here’s this month’s look at the book covers that have caught my attention recently. Lots of fiery orange for some reason. Perhaps it is a thing?

An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser; design by Mark Abrams (Vintage / May 2021)

Ariadne by Jennifer Saint; design by Joanne O’Neill (Flatiron Books / May 2021)

The don’t look that similar side by side, by I was reminded of Will Staehle‘s 2018 cover for Circe by Madeline Miller, and the UK cover of the more recent Sistersong by Lucy Holland, designed by Melissa Four (I’m fairly sure I’ve seen an orange/red version of the Sistersong cover. Perhaps it was an ARC?).

  • Circe by Madeline Miller; design by Will Staehle (Little Brown & Co / April 2018)

The Art of Wearing a Trench Coat by Sergi Pàmies; design by Arsh Raziuddin and Oliver Munday (Other Press / March 2021)

The Atmospherians by Alex McElroy; design by Laywan Kwan (Atria / May 2021)

Dead Souls by Sam Riviere; design by Jamie Keenan; paper engineering and photography by Gina Rudd (Weidenfeld & Nicholson / May 2021)

I thought David Drummond had maybe done a cover similar to this, but I couldn’t find one. David does like neutral backgrounds and cutting type though!

  • Wall Flower by Rita Kuczynski; design by David Drummond (University of Toronto Press / August 2015)

Double Trio by Nathaniel Mackey; design by Rodrigo Corral and Boyang Xia (New Directions / April 2021)

This is a 3 volume box set and all of the covers are spectacular…

Fault Lines by Emily Itami; design by Holly Ovenden (Orion Books / May 2021)

The cover of the US edition of Fault Lines, available this fall, was designed by Mumtaz Mustafa using a photograph by Tsuguaki Abe.

Featherweight by Mick Kitson; design by Helen Crawford-White (Canongate / May 2021)

Living in Data by Jer Thorp; design by Rodrigo Corral; art by Andrew Kuo (MCD / May 2021)

When I first saw this cover I immediately thought there was some kind of link to Josef Albers ‘Homage a Square’ series, but nobody else seems to have mentioned it, so perhaps it is coincidental? Is that possible? I should probably pick up the book!

The Mission House by Carys Davies; design by Lauren Peters-Collaer (Scribner / February 2021)

Mona by Pola Oloixarac; design by Thomas Colligan (Farrar, Straus and Giroux / March 2021)

Monsters by Alison Croggon; design by Daniel New (Scribe / March 2021)

Nectarine by Chad Campbell; design by David Drummond (Signal Editions / May 2021)

The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz; design by Anne Twomey (Celadon Books / May 2021)

A Tall History of Sugar by Curdella Forbes; design by Gill Heeley (Canongate / February 2021)

Gill Heeley also designed the cover of the UK hardback edition of the book published last year…

Things We Lost to the Water by Eric Nguyen; design by Chip Kidd (Knopf / May 2021)

It’s been a while since I’ve posted a Chip Kidd cover on the blog. This guy has promise!

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