Tag: oliver munday

Published May 5, 2015

Book Covers of Note May 2015

This month’s post is very heavy on illustrated and hand-lettered covers for some reason, but it’s all the prettier for it…

all-this-has-nothing-to-do-with-me-design-Justine-Anweiler-illustration-Daphne-van-den-Heuvel
All This Has Nothing To Do With Me by Monica Sabolo; design by Justine Anweiler; illustration by Daphne van den Heuvel (Picador / April 2015)

ANWWIC
At Night We Walk in Circles by Daniel Alarcón; design by Jonathan Pelham (Fourth Estate / May 2015)

b-and-me-christopher-lin
B & Me by J. C. Hallman; design by Christopher Lin (Simon & Schuster / March 2015)

bees-design-by-sara-wood
The Bees by Laline Paull; design by Sara Wood (Ecco / May 2015)

The jacket for the US hardcover of The Bees, designed by Steve Attardo, was a book cover of note in May 2014.

black snow cover design keith hayes
Black Snow by Paul Lynch; design by Keith Hayes (Little, Brown & Co. / May 2015)

boo-design-isabel-urbina-pena
Boo by Neil Smith; design by Isabel Urbina Peña (Vintage / May 2015)

conviction-design-maria-elias-cs-neal
Conviction by Kelly Loy Gilbert design by Maria Elias; illustration by Christopher Silas Neal (Disney-Hyperion / May 2015)

eden-west-design-matt-roeser
Eden West by Pete Hautman; design by Matt Roeser (Candlewick / April 2015)

AlexisLandau_EmpireOfTheSenses_3
Empire of the Senses by Alexis Landau; design by Janet Hansen (Pantheon / March 2015)

herzog design by Lynn Buckley
Herzog by Saul Bellow; design by Lynn Buckley (Penguin / May 2015)

how-to-clone-a-mammoth-design-jason-alejandro
How to Clone a Mammoth by Beth Shapiro; design by Jason Alejandro (Princeton University Press / April 2015)

kl-design-alex-merto
KL by Nikolaus Wachsmann; design by Alex Merto (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / April 2015)

life-and-death-of-sophie-stark-design
Life and Death of Sophie Stark by Anna North; design by Spencer Kimble (Blue Rider Press / May 2015)

lifted-by-the-great-nothing-art-cs-neal
Lifted by the Great Nothing by Karim Dimechkie; design by Katya Mezhibovskaya; illustration by Christopher Silas Neal (Bloomsbury / May 2015)

Further proof, were it needed, that Christopher would do a great covers for Harper Lee.

Mislaid design by Allison Saltzman
Mislaid by Nell Zink; design by Allison Saltzman (Ecco / May 2015)

my-documents-design-illustration-sunra-thompson
My Documents by Alejandro Zambra; design & illustration Sunra Thompson (McSweeney’s / April 2015)

nightmare-and-geezenstacks-art-ms-corley
Nightmares and Geezenstacks by Fredric Brown; design by M. S. Corley (Valancourt Books / April 2015)

odysseus-abroad-design-o-munday
Odysseus Abroad by Amit Chaudhuri; design by Oliver Munday (Knopf / April 2015)

ohey design by Alban Fischer
Ohey! by Darby Larson; design by Alban Fischer (CCM / May 2015)

schlump-design-suzanne-dean-illustration-clare-curtis
Schlump by Hans Herbert Grim; design by Suzanne Dean; illustration by Clare Curtis (Vintage / May 2015)

smoke-gets-in-your-eyes-design-pete-adlington
Smoke Gets in Your Eyes by Caitlin Doughty; design by Peter Adlington (Canongate / April 2015)

The US edition, designed by David High, was a book cover of note in September 2014.

upright-thinkers-art-tom-gauld
The Upright Thinkers by Leonard Mlodinow; cover art by Tom Gauld (Allen Lane / May 2015)

visiting-hours-spencer-kimble
Visiting Hours by Amy Butcher; design by Spencer Kimble (Blue Rider Press / April 2015)

wake-up-sir-illustration-jamie-keenan
Wake Up, Sir! by Jonathan Ames; design by Jamie Keenan (Pushkin Press / May 2015)

1 Comment

Published April 6, 2015

Book Covers of Note April 2015

Never mind that still feels like some crazy never-ending winter in Toronto, it’s (allegedly) April so here are a few new and recent covers that have caught my eye in the past month…

american-warlord-design-oliver-munday
American Warlord by Johnny Dwyer; design by Oliver Munday (Knopf / April 2015)

boring-girls-design-david-gee
Boring Girls by Sara Taylor; design by David A. Gee (ECW / April 2015)

city-beasts-design
City Beasts by Mark Kurlansky; design by Rachel Willey (Riverhead / February 2015)

dismantling-design-zoe-norvell
Dismantling by Brian DeLeeuw; design by Zoe Norvell (Plume / April 2015)

every-living-one-design-alban-fischer
Every Living One by Nathan Haukes; design by Alban Fischer (Horse Less Press / March 2015)

galaxy-man-design-chas-brock
The Galaxy Game by Karen Lord; design by Charles Brock (Del Rey / January 2015)

game-of-love-and-death-artwork-cs-neal-design-nina-goffi
The Game of Love and Death by Martha Brockenbrough; design by Nina Goffi; illustration by Christopher Silas Neal (Scholastic / April 2015)

(You know who could do an amazing Harper Lee cover? Christopher Silas Neal, that’s who!)

Hausfrau by Jill Alexander Essbaum; design by Gabrielle Bordwin (Random House / March 2015)

herland-design-julia-connolly-petra-borner
Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman; design by Julia Connolly; illustration Petra Börner (Vintage / April 2015)

how-to-run-a-government-design-barnbrook
How to Run a Government by Michael Barber; design by Barnbrook (Allen Lane / March 2015)

love-sex-and-other-foreign-policy-goals-design
Love and Other Foreign Policy Goals by Jesse Armstrong; design by Matt Broughton (Jonathan Cape / April 2015)

man-who-planted-trees-design-thomas-ng
The Man Who Planted Trees by Jim Robbins; design by Thomas Ng; photograph Peter Kupfer (Spiegel & Grau / March 2015)

musical-brain
The Musical Brain by César Aira; design by Rodrigo Corral (New Directions / March 2015)

odd-man-out-design-ms-corley
Odd Man Out by F. L. Green; design by M. S. Corley (Valancourt Books / March 2015)

on-the-way-design-alban-fischer
On the Way by Cyn Vargas; design by Alban Fischer (Curbside Splendor / April 2015)

(I also like Alban Fischer’s cover for Does Not Love by James Tadd Adcox, published by Curbside Splendor in 2014, a lot)

PlagueandCholera
Plague and Cholera by Patrick Deville; design by Sian Wilson (Abacus / April 2015)

queen-of-bright-shiny-things-design-anna-booth
The Queen of Bright and Shiny Things by Ann Aguirre; design by Anna Booth; photography by Jon Barkat and Gary Spector (Feiwel & Friends / April 2015)

road-to-character-design-jim-stoddart
The Road to Character by David Brooks; design by Jim Stoddart (Allen Lane / April 2015)

The Seven Madmen by Roberto Arlt; design by Steve Panton; series design Peter Dyer (Serpent’s Tail / February 2015)

splendid-things-we-planned-design-greg-mollica
The Splendid Things We Planned by Blake Bailey; design by Greg Mollica; cover art by Matthew Cusick (W. W. Norton / February 2015)

strange-case-of-rachel-k-design-paul-sahre
The Strange Case of Rachel K by Rachel Kushner; design by Paul Sahre (New Directions / March 2015)

syrian-notebooks-design-david-a-gee
Syrian Notebooks by Jonathan Littell; design by David A. Gee; photograph by Mani (Verso / March 2015)

Tout-peut-changer-design-Nouvelle-Administration
Tout Peut Changer by Naomi Klein; design by Nouvelle Administration (Lux Éditeur / March 2015)

voices-in-the-night-design-janet-hansen
Voices in the Night by Steven Millhauser; design by Janet Hansen (Knopf / April 2015)

(Another great 2014 cover I missed — but saw in a bookstore recently — is Janet’s design for Hiding in Plain Sight by Nuruddin Farah)

whispering-shadows-design-gray318
Whispering Shadows by Jan-Philipp Sendker; design by Gray318 (Atria / April 2015)

woman-who-read-too-much-design-anne-jordan
The Woman Who Read Too Much by Bahiyyih Nakhjavani; design by Anne Jordan (Stanford University Press / April 2015)

(I like this unused unused comp very much too)

worthy-design-kimberly-glyder
Worthy by Denice Turner; design by Kimberly Glyder (University of Nevada Press / April 2015)

2 Comments

Published April 2, 2015

Olivia Laing on the Future of Loneliness

Gail-Albert-Halaban

Olivia Laing whose new book The Lonely City is out in 2016, has a personal essay on loneliness and technology in The Guardian that, like her books To the River and The Trip to Echo Spring, weaves a lot of surprisingly disparate threads together into fascinating meditation on art, literature and place:

At the end of last winter, a gigantic billboard advertising Android, Google’s operating system, appeared over Times Square in New York. In a lower-case sans serif font – corporate code for friendly – it declared: “be together. not the same.” This erratically punctuated mantra sums up the web’s most magical proposition – its existence as a space in which no one need ever suffer the pang of loneliness, in which friendship, sex and love are never more than a click away, and difference is a source of glamour, not of shame.

As with the city itself, the promise of the internet is contact. It seems to offer an antidote to loneliness, trumping even the most utopian urban environment by enabling strangers to develop relationships along shared lines of interest, no matter how shy or isolated they might be in their own physical lives.

But proximity, as city dwellers know, does not necessarily mean intimacy. Access to other people is not by itself enough to dispel the gloom of internal isolation. Loneliness can be most acute in a crowd.

Coincidentally, Laing’s piece is illustrated with photographs from Gail Albert Halaban‘s series Out My Window — one of which was used on the cover of My Salinger Year by Joanna Rackoff, designed by Peter Mendelsund and Oliver Munday.

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Published December 8, 2014

Series Book Covers 2014

In the past, I’ve often included a few series designs in with my favourite covers of the year. This year, I saw so many great covers that were part of a series, I thought a they deserved a post of their own…

9781847493774 — Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes; design by Nathan Burton (Alma / 2014)

The Gambler by Fydor Dostoevsky; design by Nathan Burton (Alma / 2014)

Notes from the Underground by Fydor Dostoevsky; design by Nathan Burton (Alma / 2014)

Alma Classics; design by Nathan Burton (Alma / 2014)

A Winter's Tale — A Winter’s Tale by William Shakespeare; design by Michel Vrana (Broadview / 2014)

As You Like It by William Shakespeare; design by Michel Vrana (Broadview / 2014)

Henry V by William Shakespeare; design by Michel Vrana (Broadview / 2014)

Broadview Shakespeare; design by Michel Vrana (Broadview / 2014)

9780141396064 — Nova Express by William Burroughs; cover art by Julian House (Penguin Classics 2014)

The Son Machine by William Burroughs; cover art by Julian House (Penguin Classics 2014)

The Ticket That Exploded by William Burroughs; cover art by Julian House (Penguin Classics 2014)

The Cut-Up Trilogy by William Burroughs; cover art by Julian House (Penguin Classics 2014)

LaSolutionEsquimauAW — Snapshots–Nouvelles voix du Caine Prize; design by David Pearson (Éditions Zulma / 2014)

Le Complex d’Eden Bellweather by Benjamin Wood; design by David Pearson (Éditions Zulma / 2014)

L’Exception by Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir ; design by David Pearson (Éditions Zulma / 2014)

Éditions Zulma; design by David Pearson (Éditions Zulma / 2014)

Come, Sweet Death by Wolf Haas; design by Christopher Brian King (Melville House / 2014)

Resurrection by Wolf Haas; design by Christopher Brian King (Melville House / 2014)

Wolf Haas; design by Christopher Brian King (Melville House / 2014)

My Fellow Skin by Erwin Mortier; design by David Pearson (Pushkin Press / 2014)

Shutterspeed by Erwin Mortier; design by David Pearson (Pushkin Press / 2014)

Marcel by Erwin Mortier; design by David Pearson (Pushkin Press / 2014)

Erwin Mortier; design by David Pearson (Pushkin Press / 2014)

9780241970317 — After You with the Pistol by Kyril Bonfiglioli; design by Richard Green; illustration by Luke Pearson (Penguin / 2014)

The Great Mordecai Moustache Mystery by Kyril Bonfiglioli; design by Richard Green; illustration by Luke Pearson (Penguin / 2014)

Something Nasty in the Woodshed by Kyril Bonfiglioli; design by Richard Green; illustration by Luke Pearson (Penguin / 2014)

Charlie Mortdecai by Kyril Bonfiglioli; design by Richard Bravery illustration by Luke Pearson (Penguin / 2014)

If I Die in a Combat Zone by Tim O’Brien; design by Cardon Webb (Broadway / 2014)

Tomcat in Love by Tim O’Brien; design by Cardon Webb (Broadway / 2014)

Northern Lights by Tim O’Brien; design by Cardon Webb (Broadway / 2014)

Tim O’Brien; design by Cardon Webb (Broadway / 2014)

9780143569725 — Cloudstreet by Tim Winton; design by Adam Laszczuk; illustration by Josh Durham (Penguin Australia / 2014)

A Fortunate Life by A. B. Facey; design by Adam Laszczuk; illustration by Josh Durham (Penguin Australia / 2014)

The Tall Man by Chloe Hooper; design by Adam Laszczuk; illustration by Josh Durham (Penguin Australia / 2014)

Penguin Australian Classics; design by Adam Laszczuk; illustration by Josh Durham (Penguin Australia / 2014)

9780141976150 — Greek and Roman Political Ideas by Melissa Lane; cover design by Matthew Young; logo design by Richard Green (Pelican 2014)

Economics: The User’s Guide by Ha-Joon Chang; cover design by Matthew Young; logo design by Richard Green (Pelican 2014)

Revolutionary Russia, 1891-1991 by Orlando Figes; cover design by Matthew Young; logo design by Richard Green (Pelican 2014)

Pelican relaunch; cover design by Matthew Young; logo design by Richard Green (Pelican 2014)

Regeneration by Pat Barker; design by Mr Foxx (Penguin / 2014)

An Ice Cream War by William Boyd; design by Joe Cruz (Penguin / 2014)

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison; design by JP King (Penguin / 2014)

Penguin Essentials; design various (Penguin / 2014)

9780141395852 — Letters from a Stoic by Seneca; design by Coralie Bickford-Smith (Penguin Classics 2014)

Essays and Aphorisms by Arthur Schopenhauer; design by Coralie Bickford-Smith (Penguin Classics 2014)

The Art of War by Sun-Tzu; design by Coralie Bickford-Smith (Penguin Classics 2014)

Penguin Pocket Hardbacks; design by Coralie Bickford-Smith (Penguin Classics 2014)

Les fantômes fument en cachette by Miléna Babin; design by David Drummond (Les Éditions XYZ / 2014)

Notre Duplex by Éléonore Létourneau; design by David Drummond (Éditions XYZ / 2014)

Quand j’étais l’Amérique by Elsa Pépin; design by David Drummond (Les Éditions XYZ / 2014)

Quai No. 5; design by David Drummond (Les Éditions XYZ / 2014)

Sicilian Uncles by Leonardo Sciascia; design by Dan Mogford (Granta / 2014)

The Moro Affair by Leonardo Sciascia; design by Dan Mogford (Granta / 2014)

The Wine-Dark Sea by Leonardo Sciascia; design by Dan Mogford (Granta / 2014)

Leonardo Sciascia; design by Dan Mogford (Granta / 2014)1

9780374534691 — August 1914 by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn; design by Oliver Munday (FSG / 2014)

November 1916 by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn; design by Oliver Munday (FSG / 2014)

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn; design by Oliver Munday (FSG / 2014)

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn; design by Oliver Munday (FSG / 2014)

authority — Authority by Jeff VanderMeer (US); design by Charlotte Strick; Illustration by Eric Nyquist (FSG / 2014)

Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer (US); design by Charlotte Strick; Illustration by Eric Nyquist (FSG / 2014)

Acceptance by Jeff VanderMeer (US); design by Charlotte Strick; Illustration by Eric Nyquist (FSG / 2014)

The Southern Reach Trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer (US); design by Charlotte Strick; Illustration by Eric Nyquist (FSG / 2014)

Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer (UK); design by Jo Walker; illustration by Kai and Sunny (Fourth Estate / 2014)

Authority by by Jeff VanderMeer (UK); design by Jo Walker; illustration by Kai and Sunny (Fourth Estate / 2014)

Acceptance by Jeff VanderMeer (UK); design by Jo Walker; illustration by Kai and Sunny (Fourth Estate / 2014)

The Southern Reach Trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer (UK); design by Jo Walker; illustration by Kai and Sunny (Fourth Estate / 2014)

ukojenie_RBG2 — Ukojenie by Jeff VanderMeer (Poland); cover art by Patryk Mogilnicki (Otwarte / 2014)

Unicestwienie by Jeff VanderMeer (Poland); cover art by Patryk Mogilnicki (Otwarte / 2014)

Ujarzmienie by Jeff VanderMeer (Poland); cover art by Patryk Mogilnicki (Otwarte / 2014)

The Southern Reach Trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer (Poland); cover art by Patryk Mogilnicki (Otwarte / 2014)

city-of-saints — City of Saints & Madmen by Jeff VanderMeer backlist; design by Crush Creative (Tor / 2014)

Shriek: An Afterword by Jeff VanderMeer backlist; design by Crush Creative (Tor / 2014)

Veniss Underground by Jeff VanderMeer backlist; design by Crush Creative (Tor / 2014)

Jeff VanderMeer backlist; design by Crush Creative (Tor / 2014)

The Ego and His Own by Max Stirner; design by Rumors (Verso / 2014)

Freud and the Non-European by Edward Said; design by Rumors (Verso / 2014)

Verso Radical Thinkers; design by Rumors (Verso / 2014)

battle-of-ap-bac — The Battle of AP Bac by Neil Sheehan; design by Joan Wong (Vintage / 2014)

How War Begins by John Keegan; design by Joan Wong (Vintage / 2014)

Moral Disorder by Margaret Atwood; design by Joan Wong (Vintage / 2014)

Vintage Shorts; design by Joan Wong (Vintage / 2014)

9782896494927 — Fleur de Cerisier by Aline Apostolska; design by David Drummond (VLB éditeur / 2014)

Elle Etait si Jolie by Pierre Szalowski; design by David Drummond (VLB éditeur / 2014)

Les Iles Canaries by Claudia Larochelle; design by David Drummond (VLB éditeur / 2014)

Vol 459; design by David Drummond (VLB éditeur / 2014)

Archetype by M. D. Waters; design by Jaya Miceli (Plume / 2014)

Prototype by M. D. Waters; design by Jaya Miceli (Plume / 2014)

M. D. Waters; design by Jaya Miceli (Plume / 2014)

9780099598282 — Art and Lies by Jeanette Winterson; design by James Paul Jones (Vintage / 2014)

The Passion by Jeanette Winterson; design by James Paul Jones (Vintage / 2014)

Sexing the Cherry by Jeanette Winterson; design by James Paul Jones (Vintage / 2014)

Vintage Winterson; design by James Paul Jones (Vintage / 2014)

3 Comments

Published December 8, 2014

50 Covers for 2014

Book designers, you do amazing work. Thank you. I am especially grateful to all the designers and art directors (not to mention publicists and other publishing folk) who have shared their wisdom, provided me with images, and helped me with design credits this year — these posts would not be possible without you. I also want thank my fellow book design bloggers, notably Book Covrs, Booketing, and Caustic Cover Critic, for their sterling work, and my local bookstores, Type, Book City on the Danforth, Ben McNally Books, and Indigo Bay & Bloor, for letting me browse their shelves.

Here are my covers of 2014:

all-my-puny-sorrows
All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews; design by Sunra Thompson (McSweeney’s / November 2014)

All Our Names by Dinaw Mengestu; design by Isabel Urbina Peña (Knopf / March 2014)

bark
Bark by Lorrie Moore; design by Carol Devine Carson; photography by Josef Sudek (Knopf / February 2014)

The Book of Heaven by Patricia Storace; design by Linda Huang (Pantheon / February 2014)

book-of-strange-new-things

The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber; art direction and design Rafi Romaya; illustration Yehrin Tong (Canongate / October 2014)

9781476747231
The Blazing World by Siri Hustvedt; design by Christopher Lin (Simon & Schuster / March 2014)

Brave Man Seven Storeys Tall by Will Chancellor; design by Richard Ljoenes (HarperCollins / July 2014)

Broken Monsters by Lauren Beukes; design by Keith Hayes (Mulholland Books / September 2014)

California by Edan Lepucki; design Julianna Lee (Little Brown & Co. / July 2014)

chop-chop
Chop Chop by Simon Wroe; design by Ben Wiseman (Penguin / April 2014)

clothes-music-boys
Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys by Viv Albertine; design by Luke Bird (Faber & Faber / May 2014)

The Corpse Exhibition by Hassan Blasim; design by Jason Ramirez (Penguin / February 2014)

dept-of-speculation-gray-318
Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill; design by Gray318 (Granta / March 2014)

Dog-Ear
Dog Ear by Jim Johnstone; design by David Drummond (Signal Editions / May 2014)

The Empathy Exams by Leslie Jamison; design by Tom Darracott (Granta / June 2014)

Enlightenment 2.0 by Joseph Heath; design by David A. Gee (HarperCollins / April 2014)

Forensic Songs by Mike McCormack; design by Jason Booher (SOHO / July 2014)

fourth-july-creek
Fourth of July Creek by Smith Henderson; design by Allison Saltzman; illustration by Bryan Nash Gill (Ecco / June 2014)

Friendship by Emily Gould; design by Jennifer Carrow (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / July 2014)

fullblood-arabian
Fullblood Arabian by Osama Alomar; design by Paul Sahre (New Directions / March 2014)

A-Girl-is-a-Half-formed-Thing
A Girl is a Half-formed Thing by Eimear McBride; design by Donna Payne (Faber & Faber / April 2014)

Happy are the Happy by Yesmina Reza; design by Suzanne Dean (Harvill Secker / July 2014)

The Histories by Herodotus, translated by Tom Holland; design by Coralie Bickford-Smith (Penguin Classics / September 2014)

The Intervals of Cinema by Jacques Rancière; design by Jessica Svendsen (Verso / October 2014)

Karate Chop by Dorthe Nors; design by Carol Hayes (Graywolf February 2014)

leaving-the-sea
Leaving the Sea by Ben Marcus; design by Peter Mendelsund (Knopf / January 2014)

And here it is side by side with 2012’s The Flame Alphabet:

The Liar’s Wife by Mary Gordon; design by Linda Huang (Pantheon / August 2014)

978-0-385-53807-7
Love Me Back by Merritt Tierce; design by Emily Mahon; illustration by Rizon Parein (Doubleday / September 2014)

9781447259374
The Man Who Couldn’t Stop; design by Katie Tooke (Picador / April 2014)

Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka; design by Jamie Keenan (W. W. Norton / February 2014)

My Life in Middlemarch by Rebecca Mead; design by Elena Giavaldi (Crown / January 2014)

Napoleon the Great by Andrew Roberts; design by Isabelle De Cat (Penguin / October 2014)

on-such-a-full-sea
On Such a Full Sea by Chang-Rae Lee; design by Helen Yentus; lettering Jason Booher (Riverhead / January 2014)

our-poison-horse
Our Poison Horse by Derrick Brown; design by Jennifer Heuer (Write Bloody / October 2014)

Radio Benjamin edited by Lecia Rosenthal; design by Isaac Tobin (Verso / October 2014)

Russians by Gregory Feifer; design by Catherine Casalino (Twelve Books / February 2014)

The Scarborough by Michael Lista; design by David Drummond (Véhicule Press / September 2014)

The Secret World of Oil by Ken Silverstein; design by Matt Dorfman (Verso / May 2014)

9780307908483
Silence Once Begun by Jesse Ball; design by Peter Mendelsund (Pantheon / January 2014)

silent-history
The Silent History by Eli Horowitz, Kevin Moffett, Matthew Derby; design by Oliver Munday (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / June 2014)

song-for-approaching
Song for an Approaching Storm by Peter Fröberg Idling; design by David Pearson (Pushkin Press / March 2014)

Specter of Capital by Joseph Vogl; design by Anne Jordan (Stamford University Press / October 2014)

9780374270650
Strange Bodies by Marcel Theroux; design by Nayon Cho; illustration by Mark Stutzman (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / February 2014)

Ugly Girls by Lindsay Hunter; design by Charlotte Strick; photograph by Natalie Dirks (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / November 2014)

9781447229759
Vanishing by Gerard Woodward; design by Jamie Keenan (Picador UK / March 2014)

Wittgenstein Jr by Lars Iyers; design by Christopher Brian King (Melville House / September 2014)

Wolf in White Van by John Darnielle; design by Timothy Goodman (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / September 2014)

Area-X
9780374261177
Area X by Jeff VanderMeer; design by Rodrigo Corral (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / November 2014)

young-skins
young-skins-full
Young Skins: Stories by Colin Barrett; design by James Paul Jones (Jonathan Cape / March 2014)

Your Face in Mine by Jess Row; design by Oliver Munday (Riverhead / August 2014)

Thanks all.

20 Comments

Published October 2, 2014

Book Covers of Note October 2014

It’s October and the fall book season is in full swing. It’s kind of bonkers in the trade from now until Christmas, so this is the second to last (if not the actual last) cover round-up for 2014. I think I can probably squeeze in one more next month, but then we will be well into ‘covers of the year’ territory so we’ll have to see. I also have more posts in the Beasts! series (and goodness know what else) to fit in somehow! While I figure that out, however, here is this month’s collection of notable book covers…

Lerner 1004
10:04 by Ben Lerner; design by Scott Richardson (McClelland & Stewart / September 2014)

puny-sorrows
All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews; design by Helen Crawford-White / Studio Helen (Faber & Faber / June 2014)

The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber; art direction and design Rafi Romaya; illustration Yehrin Tong (Canongate / October 2014)

9781472116666
The Bookshop Book by Jen Campbell; design by Leo Nickolls (Constable / October 2014 )

broken-monsters-keith-hayes
Broken Monsters by Lauren Beukes; design by Keith Hayes (Mulholland Books / September 2014)

Charming Billy by Alice McDermott; design by Henry Sene Yee; illustration by Bill Mudron (Picador / October 2014)

flings-oliver-munday
Flings by Justin Taylor; design by Oliver Munday (Harper / August 2014)

I-Am-China
I Am China by Xiaolu Guo; design Emily Mahon; photograph Masha Sardari (Nan A. Talese / September 2014)

fields-of-blood
Fields of Blood by Karen Armstrong; design by Oliver Munday (Knopf / October 2014)

intervals-in-cinema
The Intervals of Cinema by Jacques Rancière; design by Jessica Svendsen (Verso / October 2014)

Limonov by Emmanuel Carrère; design by Yang Kim and Tyler Comrie (FSG / October 2014)

Limonov by Emmanuel Carrère; design by Richard Green (Allen Lane / September 2014)

Limonov by Emmanuel Carrère; design by Yang Kim and Tyler Comrie (FSG / October 2014)
Limonov by Emmanuel Carrère; design by Yang Kim and Tyler Comrie (FSG / October 2014)

Limonov by Emmanuel Carrère; design by Richard Green (Allen Lane / September 2014)
Limonov by Emmanuel Carrère; design by Richard Green (Allen Lane / September 2014)

A Man Lies Dreaming by Lavie Tidhar; design by Ben Summers (Hodder / October 2014)

mr-gwyn
Mr. Gwyn by Alessandro Baricco; design by Sunra Thompson (McSweeney’s / July 2014)

9781846140273-isabelle-de-cat
Napoleon the Great by Andrew Roberts; design by Isabelle De Cat (Penguin / October 2014)

annotated-lovecraft
The New Annotated H. P. Lovecraft edited by Leslie S. Klinger; design by gray318 (W. W. Norton / October 2014)

notre-duplex
Notre Duplex by Éléonore Létourneau; design by David Drummond (Éditions XYZ / August 2014)

not-that
Not That Kind of Girl by Lena Dunham; design by CHIPS (Random House / September 2014)

Playing for the Commandant by Suzy Zail; design by Matt Roeser (Candlewick / October 2014)

radio-benjamin
Radio Benjamin edited by Lecia Rosenthal; design by Isaac Tobin (Verso / October 2014)

specter-of-capital
Specter of Capital by Joseph Vogl; design by Anne Jordan (Stamford University Press / October 2014)

white-van
The White Van by Patrick Hoffman; design by Walter Green (Grove Atlantic / September 2014)

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Published September 3, 2014

Book Covers of Note September 2014

It’s hard to believe it is already September, but here we are… time for another round of book covers!

If you’re new to this feature, each month I collect together new and recent covers that have caught my eye in the previous few weeks. Although the focus is on books released in the current month, the posts also include covers I’ve missed earlier in the year. You can find the previous month’s posts here.

Thanks (as always) to my local bookstores — Type Books on Queen West, Book City on the Danforth, and Indigo Bay & Bloor — for fighting the good fight (and their wonderful displays!).

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Abbott Miller: Design and Content; design by Pentagram (Princeton Architectural Press / September 2014)

Arvida by Samuel Archibald; design by Catherine D’Amours / Pointbarre (Le Quartanier / August 2014)

(this is an obvious miss from last month’s post about maps. Sorry Catherine!)

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The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher by Hilary Mantel; design by Rodrigo Corral Design; photograph Demurez/Glasshouse (Henry Holt / September 2014)

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The City Under the Skin by Geoff Nicholson; design by Oliver Munday; photograph by George Baier IV (FSG / June 2014)

(Another one that should have been in the maps post. And yes, that really is someone’s back apparently)

The Establishment by Owen Jones; design by Richard Green (Allen Lane / September 2014)

forensic-songs
Forensic Songs by Mike McCormack; design by Jason Booher (SOHO / July 2014)

God Telling a Joke by David Margoshes; design by David Drummond (Oolichan Books / May 2014)

Hack Attack by Nick Davies; design by David Drummond (Faber & Faber / August 2014)

The Histories by Herodotus; design by Coralie Bickford-Smith (Penguin Classics / September 2014)

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison; design by JP King (Penguin / August 2014)

lippy-booher
Lippy by Bush Moukarzel; design by Jason Booher (Oberon Books / August 2014)

The Most Dangerous Animal of All by Gary L. Stewart with Susan Mustafa; design by Jarrod Taylor (HarperCollins / June 2014)

(I’m not endorsing the content of this book at all, but the red acetate cover does need to be seen in person to be fully appreciated)

smoke-gets-in
Smoke Gets in Your Eyes by Caitlin Doughty; design by David High / High Design (W. W. Norton / September 2014)

The Transcriptionist by Amy Rowland; design by Keith Hayes (Algonquin Books / May 2014)

Wolf in White Van by John Darnielle; design by Timothy Goodman (FSG / September 2014)

wittgenstein-jr
Wittgenstein Jr by Lars Iyers; design by Christopher Brian King (Melville House / September 2014)

You by Zoran Drvenkar; design by Kelly Blair (Knopf / August 2014)

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Published August 5, 2014

Book Covers of Note August 2014

Here is this month’s selection of recently noted covers:

2 A.M. at the Cat’s Pajamas by Marie-Helene Bertino; design by Christopher Brand (Crown August 2014)

The Bend of the World by Jacob Bacharach; design by Jamie Keenan (W. W. Norton May 2014)

Brave Man Seven Storeys Tall by Will Chancellor; design by Richard Ljoenes (Harper July 2014)

Butterflies in November by Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir; design by Nathan Burton (Pushkin Press June 2014)

Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami; design by Suzanne Dean (Harvill Secker August 2014)

(See the U.S. Cover here)

The Girls from Corona del Mar by Rufi Thorpe; design by Abby Weintraub (Knopf July 2014)

H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald; cover art by Christopher Wormell (Jonathan Cape July 2014)

Happy are the Happy by Yesmina Reza; design by Suzanne Dean (Harvill Secker July 2014)

The Liar’s Wife by Mary Gordon; design by Linda Huang (Pantheon August 2014)

Philip Larkin: Life, Art and Love by James Booth; design by David Mann (Bloomsbury August 2014)

Preparing the Ghost by Gavin Frank; design by Ben Wiseman (W. W. Norton August 2014)

The Reef by Iain McCalman; design by Oliver Munday (Scientific American May 2014)

The Removers by Andrew Meredith; design by Evan Gaffney (Scribner July 2014)

Spin by Clive Veroni; design by WAX (House of Anansi August 2014)

Unspeakable Things by Laurie Penny; design by Greg Heinimann (Bloomsbury July 2014)

We Are Called To Rise by Laura McBride; design by Christopher Lin (Simon & Schuster June 2014)

What We See When We Read by Peter Mendelsund; design by Peter Mendelsund (Vintage August 2014)

Your Face in Mine by Jess Row; design by Oliver Munday (Riverhead August 2014)

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Published July 9, 2014

Book Covers of Note July 2014

As well posting great cover designs for books released in July, I’ve taken this month’s round-up as an opportunity to catch up on a few I missed earlier this year. Enjoy!

adam
Adam by Ariel Schrag; design by Christopher Moisan (Mariner June 2014)

american-blonde
American Blonde by Jennifer Niven; design by Sara Wood (Plume July 2014)

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The Arsonist by Sue Miller; design by Gabriele Wilson (Knopf June 2014)

California by Edan Lepucki; design Julianna Lee (Little Brown & Co. July 2014)

Cartwheel by Jennifer Dubois; design Eileen Carey / photograph by Kniel Synnatzschke (Random House May 2014)

cubed
Cubed by Nikil Saval; design by Oliver Munday (Doubleday April 2014)

fourth-july-creek
Fourth of July Creek by Smith Henderson; design by Allison Saltzman, cover art Bryan Nash Gill (Ecco June 2014)

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Friendship by Emily Gould; design by Jennifer Carrow (FSG July 2014)

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Gottland: Mostly True Stories from Half of Czechoslovakia by Mariusz Szczygiel; design by Christopher King (Melville House May 2014)

how-to-be-danish
How To Be Danish by Patrick Kingsley; design by Andrew Smith (Atria February 2014)

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A Man Came Out of a Door in the Mountain by Adrianne Harun; design by Kristen Haff (Penguin February 2014)

the-martian
The Martian by Andy Weir; design by Eric White (Crown February 2014)

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Nobody is Ever Missing by Catherine Lacey; design by Charlotte Strick; illustration by Patrick Leger (FSG Originals, July 2014)

no-country
No Country by Kalyan Ray; design by Christopher Lin (Simon & Schuster June 2014)

My Fellow Skin

Shutterspeed by Erwin Mortier; design by David Pearson (Pushkin Press / 2014)

Marcel by Erwin Mortier; design by David Pearson (Pushkin Press / 2014)

My Fellow Skin / Shutterspeed / Marcel by Erwin Mortier; design by David Pearson (Pushkin Press July 2014)

Night Film by Marisha Pessl; design by Shasti O’Leary Soudant (Random House July 2014)

out-of-time
Out of Time by Lynne Segal; design by David A. Gee (Verso July 2014)

panic
Panic in a Suitcase by Yelena Akhtiorskaya; design by Helen Yentus / Photograph by Emine Ziyatdinova (Riverhead July 2014)

string

The String Diaries by Stephen Lloyd Jones; design by Keith Hayes (Mulholland Books July 2014)

dueling-neurosurgeons
The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons by Sam Kean; design by Will Staehle (Little, Brown & Co. May 2014)

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Published May 5, 2014

Triangles, Quadrangles, Shards, and Fragments

This is my last post on book covers and triangles — for the time being at least. I hope you’ve enjoyed this three-sided, three-post design diversion (you can see the previous posts here and here):

The Adjacent by Christopher Priest; design by Martin Stiff, Amazing15 (Titan Books April 2014) 1

book-of-heaven
The Book of Heaven by Patricia Storace; design by Linda Huang (Pantheon February 2014)

book-of-my-lives
The Books of My Lives by Aleksandar Hemon; design by Jonathan Pelham (Picador February 2014)

box-of-birds
A Box of Birds by Charles Fernyhough; design by Dan Mogford (Unbound May 2013)

Close to the Machine by Ellen Ullman; design by Clare Skeats (Pushkin Press March 2013)

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Connectome by Sebastian Seung; design by Matthew Young (Penguin June 2013)

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Contradance by John Peck; design by Natalie F. Smith (University of Chicago Press October 2011)

Dostoevsky_Demons
Demons by Fyodor Dostoevsky; design by Peter Mendelsund (Vintage August 2004)

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Gun Dealers’ Daughter by Gina Apostol; design by Jaya Miceli (W. W. Norton August 2012)

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November 1916 by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (Farrar, Straus & Giroux August 2014)

August 1914 by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (Farrar, Straus & Giroux August 2014)

Stories and Prose Poems by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (Farrar, Straus & Giroux November 2014)

Design by Oliver Munday

9780141393346
The Scandal of Father Brown by G. K. Chesterton; design by Matthew Young (Penguin

Snowdrops by A. D. Miller; design by Emily Mahon (Doubleday February 2011)

time-machine
The Time Machine by H. G. Wells; design by Coralie Bickford-Smith (Penguin May 2012)

we-the-animals-800
We Are Animals by Justin Torres; design by Gray318 (Granta March 2012)

your-face-mine
Your Face in Mine by Jess Row; design by Oliver Munday (Riverhead August 2014)

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Published March 13, 2014

Recent Covers of Note March 2014

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The Arsonist by Sue Miller; design by Greg Heinimann

barcelona-shadows
Barcelona Shadows by Marc Pastor; design by Clare Skeats

beauty
Beauty by Frederick Dillen; design by Christopher Lin

Mabey Dreams
Dreams of the Good Life by Richard Mabey; illustration by Millie Marotta; design Samantha Johnson / Coralie Bickford-Smith

fantomes_fument_c1
Les fantômes fument en cachette by Miléna Babin; design by David Drummond

Frog Music by Emma Donoghue; design by Katie Tooke; illustration Emma Farrarons

give-me-everything-you-have
Give Me Everything You Have by James Lasdun; design by Julia Connolly

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The Improbability Principle by David J. Hand; design by Oliver Munday

Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka; design by Jamie Keenan

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The New New Thing by Michael Lewis; design by Darren Haggar

on-the-reproduction-of-capitalism
On the Reproduction of Capitalism by Louis Althusser; design by Neil Donnelly

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The Orchard of Lost Souls by Nadifa Mohamed; design by Gabriele Wilson

swan-gondola-9781780744902
The Swan Gondola by Timothy Schaffert; design by Alex Merto

9781250039569
The Trip to Echo Spring by Oliva Laing; design by Henry Sene Yee

why-we-took-the-car-design-allison-colpoys
Why We Took the Car by Wolfgang Herrndorf; design by Allison Colpoys

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Published December 14, 2013

Nicholas Blechman’s Best Book Covers of 2013

The great book designer George Salter once said that a good jacket “must be in perfect accord with the literary quality of the book. It must be even more if it is to function as an important sales factor, if it is to ‘stop’ the eye of the person passing by.” Of the thousands of books that come through the offices of the Book Review each year, these are the covers and jackets that caught my eye, that compelled me to flip them over to check the back flap to see who designed them.

If you weren’t satisfied with my 2013 covers list (and why would you be?), then the infinitely more qualified Nicholas Blechman, art director at New York Times Book Review, has selected his best book covers of the year.

Ulysses, redesigned by Peter Mendelsund for Vintage, is on Nicholas’s list, and I also liked Paul Sahre‘s design for the cover of That Smell and Notes From Prison by Sonallah Ibrahim, and the cover of Without Their Permission by Alex Ohanian designed by Oliver Munday:

We agreed on Gabriele Wilson‘s beautiful cover for Middle C by William Gass, but I think I should compile a list of all the great covers from 2013 that I’ve seen since I posted my list on Tuesday. (I’m kidding. Sort of).

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Tag: oliver munday

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