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Published November 14, 2017

Book Covers of Note, November 2017

It’s my last monthly cover round-up of the year! Watch out for my review of 2017 next month… 


After Me Comes the Flood by Sarah Perry; design by Pete Dyer (Serpents Tail / November 2017)


Basket of Deplorables by Tom Rachman; design by Josh Durham, Design by Committee (Text / September 2017)


Bonfire by Krysten Ritter; design by Will Staehle (Crown Archetype / November 2017)


Don’t Save Anything by Jame Salter; design by Zoe Norvell (Counterpoint / November 2017)


Dunbar by Edward St Aubyn; design by Julia Connolly; illustration Peter Strain (Hogarth / October 2017)


The Giving Light by Gavin Corbett; design by Niall McCormack (Cló Hi Tone / November 2017)

Niall also designs the excellent covers for Gorse journal. The latest issue, Gorse #9, is out this month:


Go, Went, Gone by Jenny Erpenbeck; design by Rodrigo Corral (New Directions / September 2017)


Gravel Heart by Abdulrazak Gurnah; design by Greg Heinimann (Bloomsbury / May 2017)

How Will I Know You? by Jessic Treadway; design by Catherine Casalino; illustration by Henrietta Harris (Grand Central Publishing / August 2017)

The cover of How Will I Know You? reminded me of Lynn Buckley’s 2016 cover design for Sex Object by Jessica Valenti…  

And I’m starting to think that faceless women might be a thing… 


Over the Plain Houses by Julia Franks; design Meg Reid; illustration by Jody Edwards (Hub City Press / September 2017)


The Parcel by Anosh Irani; design by Allison Colpoys (Scribe / September 2017)



The Poems of Dylan Thomas; design by Jamie Keenan (New Directions / November 2017)


Release by Patrick Ness; design by Erin Fitzsimmons; photograph by Andrew Yuzko (Harper Teen / September 2017)


Sing Unburied Sing by Jesmyn Ward; design by David Mann (Bloomsbury / November 2017)


They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us by Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib; design Two Dollar Radio (Two Dollar Radio / November 2017)


Time of Gratitude by Gennady Aygi; design by Eileen Baumgartner (New Directions / December 2017)


Toi Aussi Mon Fils by Jonathan Pedneault; design by David Drummond (Les Éditions XYZ / November 2017)


The Trauma Cleaner by Sarah Krasnostein; design by W. H. Chong (Text / October 2017)


Ultraluminous by Katherine Faw; design by Rodrigo Corral; lettering June Park (FSG / December 2017)


Where the Past Begins by Amy Tan; design by Allison Saltzman (Ecco / October 2017)


The World Goes On by László Krasznahorkai; design by Paul Sahre (New Directions / November 2017)

Speaking of Paul Sahre, his “graphic memoir” Two Dimensional Man was publishing by Abrams in September:

AND… speaking of László Krasznahorkai (as I know you all were), the cover of the UK edition of The World Goes On was designed by Harry Haysom:

It’s part of a series of abstract covers by Haysom for the Profile Books editions of Krasznahorkai:

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Published August 4, 2017

Book Covers of Note August 2017

Oh hey, August.


Another Brooklyn by Jacqueline Woodson; design by Milan Bozic (Amistad / May 2017)

Robin Billardello‘s cover design for the hardcover of Another Brooklyn, released last year, is also great. 


Bolshoi Confidential by Simon Morrison; design by Jo Walker (Fourth Estate / August 2017)

They’re not really the same, but the cover of Bolshoi Confidential reminded me of La Boca‘s excellent cover design for The Teleportation Accident by Ned Beauman from a few years ago… 

Bolshoi Confidential by Simon Morrison; design by Jo Walker (Fourth Estate / August 2017)


The Book of Disquiet by Fernando Pessoa; design by Peter Mendelsund (New Directions / August 2017)


Everybody Hurts by Joanna Nadin & Anthony McGowan; design by Leo Nickolls (Atom / August 2017)


The Futilitarians by Anne Gisleson; design by Lauren Harms (Little Brown & Co. / August 2017)


The House of Government by Yuri Slezkine; design by Chris Ferrante; illustration by Francesco Bongiorni (Princeton University Press / August 2017)


Humankind by Timothy Morton; design by  Anne Jordan and Mitch Goldstein (Verso / August 2017)


I Am, I Am, I Am by Maggie O’Farrell; design by Yeti Lambregts (Tinder Press / August 2017)

This is just the latest in a series of great covers for Maggie O’Farrell’s books designed by Yeti. 


I Am the Wolf by Mark Lanegan; design by Alex Camlin (Da Capo / August 2017)


A Life of Adventure and Delight by Akhil Sharma; design by Alex Kirby (Faber & Faber / August 2017)

The cover of the US edition designed by Peter Mendelsund was featured in last month’s post. 

A Life of Adventure and Delight by Akhil Sharma; design Peter Mendelsund (W.W. Norton / July 2017)


Lovers & Strangers by Clair Wills; design by Tom Etherington (Allen Lane / August 2017)


A Man of Shadows by Jeff Noon; design by Will Staehle (Angry Robot / August 2017)


Often I Am Happy by Jens Christian Grøndahl; design by Justine Anweiler (Picador / August 2017)


Safe by Ryan Gattis; design by Alex Merto (MCD / August 2017)


Sex & Rage by Eve Babitz; design by Kelly Winton (Counterpoint / July 2017)


Stay with Me by Ayobami Adebayo; design by Janet Hansen (Knopf / August 2017)

  
The Story of John Nightly by Tot Taylor; design by Bob & Roberta Smith (Unbound / July 2017)


Such Small Hands by Andres Barba; design by Dan Mogford (Portobello Books / August 2017)


Turf by Elizabeth Crane; design by Kelly Winton (Soft Skull Press / June 2017)


Vengeance is Mine, All Others Pay Cash by Eka Kurniawan; design by Erik Carter (New Directions / August 2017)

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Published July 18, 2017

Book Covers of Note July 2017

Something… something… vacation… something… jetlag…. something… inbox… something… Oh look! It’s July’s book covers!1


Album for the Young (and Old) by Vera Pavlova; design by Janet Hansen (Knopf / April 2017)


Amanda Wakes Up by Alisyn Camerota; design by Kimberly Glyder (Viking / July 2017)


City of Saints and Thieves by Natalie C. Anderson; design by Steven Leard (Oneworld / July 2017)


The Conference of Birds by Attar, translated by Sholeh Wolpé; design by Jaya Miceli (W. W. Norton / April 2017)


Equipment for Living on Poetry and Pop Music by Michael Robbins; design by Thomas Colligan (Simon & Schuster / July 2017)


Flesh and Bone and Water by Luiza Sauma; design by Lauren Peters-Collaer (Scribner / June 2017)


Fly Me by Daniel Riley; design by Lucy Kim (Little, Brown & Co. / June 2017)


Gather the Daughters by Jennie Melamed; design by Yeti Lambregts (Tinder Press / July 2017)


Goodnight Boy by Nikki Sheehan; design by Edward Bettison (Oneworld / July 2017)


The Graybar Hotel by Curtis Dawkins; design by Pete Adlington (Canongate / July 2017)

The cover of the US edition, designed by the aforementioned Thomas Colligan for Scribner, is an interesting compare and contrast:


Hello Sunshine by Laura Dave; design by Jennifer Heuer (Simon & Schuster / July 2017)


Hollow by Owen Egerton; design by Matt Dorfman (Counterpoint / July 2017)


I Must Belong Somewhere by Jonathan Dean; design by Dan Mogford (Weidenfeld & Nicolson / May 2017)

(This would be a nice addition to this old list of maps on book covers)


Investigations of a Dog by Franz Kafka, translated by Michael Hofmann; design by John Gall (New Directions / May 2017)


Kompromat by Stanley Johnson; design by James Paul Jones (Oneworld / July 2017)


The Lawn Job by Chuck Caruso; design by La Boca (Cloud Lodge Books / July 2017)


A Life of Adventure and Delight by Akhil Sharma; design Peter Mendelsund (W.W. Norton / July 2017)


The Little Buddhist Monk & The Proof by César Aira; design by Rodrigo Corral; lettering by June Park (New Directions / June 2017)

And as this is two stories in one, you get a fancy back cover too…. 

The covers of the UK editions of César Aira’s books The Little Buddhist Monk, The Proof, and The Seamstress and the Wind, published separately by And Other Stories, were designed by Edward Bettison:


Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz; design by Will Staehle (Harper / June 2017)


Shark Drunk by Morten Strøksnes; design by Oliver Munday (Knopf / June 2017)

(Much as I love Oliver’s cover — particularly his choice of type — it immediately reminded me Tom Lenartowicz’s minimalist Jaws design)


Smoke by Dan Vyleta; design Mark Abrams; illustration by Alejandro García Restrepo (Anchor / June 2017)

Mark Swan‘s design for the UK hardcover, published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson, was one of my favourite covers of last year (I liked the book a lot too!)… 


Storming Heaven by Steve Wright; design by David A. Gee (Pluto Press / July 2017)


The Summer of Impossible Things by Rowan Coleman; design Helen Crawford-White (Ebury Press / June 2017)


Things To Do When You’re a Goth in the Country by Chavisa Woods; design by Adam Lewis Greene (Seven Stories Press / May 2017)


Under the Skin by Michel Faber; design by Rafi Romaya; illustration Yehrin Tong (Canongate / July 2017)


What It Means When A Man Falls from the Sky by Lesley Nneka Arimah; design by Jaya Miceli (Riverhead / April 2017)


Writing Not Writing by Tom Fisher; design by  Anne Jordan and Mitch Goldstein (University of Iowa Press / July 2017)

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Published March 9, 2017

Book Covers of Note March 2017

Holy smokes! There are a lot of good covers this month! Feast your eyes on March’s book covers of note:


Amiable with Big Teeth by Claude McKay; cover art by Sean Qualls (Penguin / March 2017)


The Book of Greek and Roman Folktales, Legends & Myths edited and translated by William Hansen; design by Amanda Weiss (Princeton University Press / March 2017)


The Bridge Ladies by Betsy Lerner; design by Justine Anweiler (Pan Macmillan / March 2017)


A Conjuring of Light by V.E. Schwab; design by Will Staehle (Tor Books / February 2017)

This completes a distinctive set of covers for V.E. Schwab’s ‘Shades of Magic’ trilogy by Will Staehle: 

A Darker Shade of Magic by V. E. Schwab; design by Will Staehle (Tor / February 2015)


Dead Letters by Caite Dolan-Leach; design by Jaya Miceli (Random House / February 2017)


Dick Cheney Shot Me in the Face by Timothy O’Leary; design by David A. Gee (Unsolicited Press / February 2017)


Done Dirt Cheap by Sarah Nicole Lemon; design Alyssa Nassner; illustration Amanda Lanzone (Amulet Books / March 2017)


The Education of Margot Sanchez by Lilliam Rivera; cover art by Dana Svobodova (Simon & Schuster / February 2017)


Eyes Wide Open by Isaac Lidsky; design by Zoe Norvell (Tarcher / March 2017)

And now two covers for Exit West by Mohsin Hamid — first the cover for the UK edition designed by Richard Bravery (Hamish Hamilton / March 2017):

And the cover of the US edition designed by Rachel Willey (Riverhead / March 2017):

Exit West by Mohsin Hamid; design by Rachel Willey (Riverhead / March 2017)


The Hearts of Men by Nickolas Butler; design by Allison Saltzman (Ecco / March 2017)


Jerzy by Jerome Charyn; design by Alban Fischer (Bellevue Literary Press / March 2017)


Little Nothing by Marisa Silver; design by James Paul Jones (Oneworld / March 2017)

Rachel Willey’s cover design for the US edition of Little Nothing published by Blue Rider Press was part of my September 2016 round-up.

Little Nothing by Marisa Silver; design by Rachel Willey (Blue Rider Press / September 2016)


The Name of the Game is Kidnapping by Keigo Higashino; design by Janet Hansen (Vertical / February 2017)


Narcissism for Beginners by Martine McDonagh; design by Tree Abraham (Unbound / March 2017)


Next Year for Sure by Zoey Leigh Peterson; design by Jaya Miceli; cover art by Jarek Puczel (Scribner / March 2017)


One Day We’ll All Be Dead and None of This Will Matter by Scaachi Koul; design by C.S. Richardson (Doubleday Canada / March 2017)


One of the Boys by Daniel Magariel; design Thomas Colligan (Scribner / March 2017)


Optimists Die First by Susin Nielsen; design by Joan Wong (Wendy Lamb Books / February 2017)


Our Short History by Lauren Grodstein; design by Olga Grlic (Algonquin / March 2017)


Standard Hollywood Depravity by Adam Christopher; design by Will Staehle (Tor Books / March 2017)


Swimmer Among the Stars by Kanishk Tharoor; design by Tyler Comrie (Farrar, Straus and Giroux / March 2017)

I believe the cover of the UK edition, published next month by Pan Macmillan, was designed by Justine Anweiler:


The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See; design by Lauren-Peters-Collaer (Scribner / March 2017)


The Zoo of the New edited by Nick Laird & Don Paterson; design by Richard Green (Particular Books / March 2017)

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Published June 9, 2016

Book Covers of Note June 2016

Something of a bumper post this month, with lots of black and white covers for some reason. Perhaps it’s a thing…?

Addlands design Jenny Grigg
Addlands by Tom Bullough; design by Jenny Grigg (Granta / June 2016)

barkskins-design Jaya Miceli
Barkskins by Annie Proulx; design Jaya Miceli (Scribner / June 2016)

The cover of the UK edition (Fourth Estate / June 2016), designed by Anna Morrison, is an interesting contrast:
Barkskins design by Anna Morrison

Barkskins by Annie Proulx; design Jaya Miceli (Scribner / June 2016)

Boy-s Own Story design Ami Smithson
A Boys Own Story by Edmund White; design by Ami Smithson (Picador / June 2016)

9780399184123
But What If We’re Wrong? by Chuck Klosterman; design by Paul Sahre (Blue Rider Press / June 2016)

TheChaplinMachine
The Chaplin Machine by Owen Hatherley; design by David Pearson (Pluto Press / June 2016)

Crow-Girl design Mendelsund and Munday
The Crow Girl by Erik Axl Sund; design by Peter Mendelsund & Oliver Munday (Knopf / June 2016)

death confetti design Jacob Covey
Death Confetti by Jennifer Robin; design by Jacob Covey (Feral House / June 2016)

Essex Serpent design Peter Dyer
The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry; design Peter Dyer (Serpent’s Tail / June 2016)

Fen design by Suzanne Dean
Fen by Daisy Johnson; design Suzanne Dean (Vintage / June 2016)


The Girls by Emma Cline; design Peter Mendelsund; lettering by Jenny Pouech (Random House / June 2016)

The cover of the UK edition (Chatto & Windus / June 2016), which makes intriguing use of ITC Avant Garde Gothic,1 was designed by Suzanne Dean:

girls UK

Goldfish_fc
Goldfish JKT_final

Goldfish by Nat Luurtsema; design by Anna Booth (Feiwel & Friends / June 2016)

(This has a fancy spot gloss that makes the school of fish appear to shimmer)

How to Ruin Everything design Ben Denzer
How to Ruin Everything by George Watsky; design by Ben Denzer (Penguin / June 2016)

Human Acts design Tom Darracott
Human Acts by Han Kang; design by Tom Darracott (Portobello Books / January 2016)

Infomocracy design Will Staehle
Infomocracy by Malka Older; design by Will Staehle (Tor Books / June 2016)

ink and bone design Ervin Serrano
Ink and Bone by Lisa Unger; design by Ervin Serrano (Touchstone / June 2016)

In the Dark in the Woods design Kate Gaughran
In the Dark in the Woods by Eliza Wass; design by Kate Gaughran (Quercus / April 2016)

Is That Kafka design Erik Carter
Is That Kafka? 99 Finds by Reiner Stach; design by Erik Carter (New Directions / April 2016)

Invincible Summer design Justine Anweiler
Invincible Summer by Alice Adams; design by Justine Anweiler (Picador / June 2016)

Lost Time Accidents design Pete Adlington
The Lost Time Accidents by John Wray; design by Peter Adlington (Canongate / June 2016)

The cover of the US edition (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / February 2016), designed by Janet Hansen, is another fascinating contrast:
Lost Time Accidents design Janet Hansen

Lost Time Accidents by John Wray; design by Janet Hansen (FSG / February 2016)

The Muse cover art Lisa Perrin
The Muse by Jessie Burton; design by Ami Smithson, cover art by Lisa Perrin (Picador / June 2016)

Print
Naked Diplomacy by Tom Fletcher; cover design by Jonathan Pelham (William Collins / June 2016)

Nitro Mountain design Oliver Munday
Nitro Mountain by Lee Clay Johnson; design by Oliver Munday (Knopf / May 2016)

The Panama Papers_9781786070470
The Panama Papers by Bastian Obermayer and Frederik Obermaier; design by James Paul Jones (Oneworld / June 2016)

Rasputin design Ed Kluz
Rasputin and Other Ironies by Teffi; design by Eleanor Crow; cover art by Ed Kluz (Pushkin Press / May 2016)

Scar design CS Neal
Scar by J. Albert Mann; design by Christopher Silas Neal (Calkins Creek / April 2016)

sex object design by Lynn Buckley
Sex Object by Jessica Valenti; design by Lynn Buckley (Dey Street / June 2016)

White Sands design Pete Adlington
White Sands by Geoff Dyer; design by Peter Adlington (Canongate / June 2016)

 

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Published February 9, 2016

Book Covers of Note February 2016

adios_cowboy_cover_HIRES
Adios, Cowboy by Olja Savicevic; design by Sunra Thompson (McSweeney’s / February 2016)

The Encounter design David Pearson
The Encounter: Amazon Beaming by Petru Popescu; design by David Pearson (Pushkin Press / February 2016)

Empire of Things design Coralie Bickford-Smith
Empire of Things by Frank Trentmann; design by Coralie Bickford-Smith (Allen Lane / January 2016)

A Gathering of Shadows Final
A Gathering of Shadows by V. E. Schwab; design by Will Staehle (Tor Books / February 2016)

This is a rather nice riff on Will’s cover for last year’s A Darker Shade of Magic.

In a Land of Paper God design Yeti Lambregts
In a Land of Paper of Gods by Rebecca Mackenzie; design by Yeti Lambregts (Tinder Press / January 2016)

Kropotkin design David Gee
Kropotkin and the Anarchist Intellectual Tradition by Jim MacLaughlin; design by David A. Gee (Pluto Press / February 2016)

Legoland design by Justine Anweiler illo Axel Bizon
Legoland by Gerard Woodward; design by Justine Anweiler; illustration by Axel Bizon and Lena Sarrault (Picador / February 2016)

9780553448061
Liar by Rob Roberge; Jake Nicolella (Crown / February 2016)1

Look at Me design by Yeti L
Look at Me by Sarah Duguid; design by Yeti Lambregts (Tinder Press / February 2016)

My Father the Pornographer-design by Jamie Keenan
My Father the Pornographer by Chris Offutt; design by Jamie Keenan (Atria / February 2016)

oblivion design Liana Finck
Oblivion by Sergei Lebedev; design by Liana Finck (New Vessel Press / January 2016)

Shadow Queen design Sarah Nichole Kaufman
The Shadow Queen by C. J. Redwine; design Sarah Nichole Kaufman; lettering / apple carving Sean Freeman (Balzer + Bray / February 2016)

song for no mans land design Christine Foltzer illst Jeffrey Alan Love
A Song for No Man’s Land by Andy Remic; design by Christine Foltzer; illustration by Jeffrey Alan Love (Tor Books / February 2016)

A Song for No Man’s Land is the first book in a trilogy of novellas by Andy Remic. All three books have covers illustrated by Jeffrey Alan Love — you can read his process at  Tor.com.

 

Superabundance design by Jamie Keenan
Superabundance by Heinz Helle; design by Jamie Keenan (Profile / February 2016)

Symptoms of Being Human design by Sarah Nichole Kaufman
Symptoms of Being Human by Jeff Garvin; design by Sarah Nichole Kaufman (Balzer + Bray / February 2016)

Thanks for the Trouble design by Lucy Ruth Cummins
Thanks for the Trouble by Tommy Wallach; design by Lucy Ruth Cummins; Photography by Keirnan Monaghan, styling by Theo Vamvounakis (Simon and Schuster / February 2016)

unforgettable design Sinem Erkas
Unforgettable by Charlie Maclean; design by Sinem Erkas (self-published / February 2016)

You can read more about the design of this cover on Sinem’s website.

Was She Pretty Leanne Shapton
Was She Pretty by Leanne Shapton; design by Leanne Shapton (Drawn & Quarterly / February 2016)

kom
We Slaves of Suriname by Anton de Kom; design by David Drummond (Pluto Press / February 2016)2

You Should Pity Us Instead design Kristen Radtke
You Should Pity Us Instead by Amy Gustine; design by Kristen Radtke (Sarabande Books / February 2016)

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Published January 12, 2016

Book Covers of Note January 2016

Oof. Hello, January. This is all rather soon isn’t it? But here we are, a new month, and another selection of new book covers (with a few ‘old’ ones that I missed in the excitement at the end of 2015). Happy New Year…

Print
All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders; design by Will Staehle (Tor Books / January 2016)

Bird design Kelly Winton
Bird by Noy Holland; design by Kelly Winton (Counterpoint / November 2015)

Blizzard design Devin Washburn
The Blizzard by Vladimir Sorokin; design by Devin Washburn (FSG / January 2016)

Childrens Home design Jaya Miceli; Art by Valerie Hegarty
The Children’s Home by Charles Lambert; design by Jaya Miceli (Scribner / January 2016)

Fine Fine design by Dan McKinley
Fine, Fine, Fine, Fine, Fine by Diane Williams; design by Dan McKinley (McSweeney’s / January 2016)

A note from the book on the cover art:

“The art on this book’s cover is unsigned and was created for a romance novella published in Mexico City in the 1960s that appeared in serial form. This piece was produced using collage and gouache overpainting on illustration board, and the back reads “El Angel No. 64.” The printer of these covers held on to the originals for decades, and the entire collection was recently purchased from his warehouse. Works are available from the Pardee Collection Gallery of Iowa City, and ‘El Angel’ is provided courtesy of Diane Williams and Wolfgang Neumann.”

Gamelife design Alex Merto
Gamelife by Michael W. Clune; design by Alex Merto (FSG / September 2015)

Girl Through Glass design Jaya Miceli
Girl Through Glass by Sari Wilson; design Jaya Miceli (Harper / January 2016)

goodonpaper-FINAL
Good on Paper by Rachel Cantor; design by Adly Elewa (Melville House / January 2016)

Ministry of Nostalgia design Andy Pressman
The Ministry of Nostalgia by Owen Hatherley; design by Andy Pressman (Verso / January 2016)

1956
1956: The World in Revolt by Simon Hall; design by Alex Kirby (Faber & Faber / Janaury 2016)

A nice US / UK compare and contrast for The Portable Veblen by Elizabeth McKenzie:

design Oliver Munday
design Jo Walker

Portable Veblen design Jo Walker
Portable Veblen by Elizabeth McKenzie; design by Jo Walker (Fourth Estate / January 2016)

Portable Veblen design Oliver Munday
Portable Veblen by Elizabeth McKenzie; design by Oliver Munday (Penguin Press / January 2016)

Prose Factory design James Paul Jones
The Prose Factory by D. J. Taylor; design by James Paul Jones (Chatto & Windus / January 2016)

snow queen sanna annukka
The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen, illustrated by Sanna Annukka; cover art by Sanna Annukka (Hutchinson / October 2015)

This looks absolutely beautiful, but I’ve seen very little about it online, much less seen it in person. Apparently Sanna Annukka has also illustrated an edition of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Fir Tree. It looks wonderful too.

Splitfoot design by Nico Taylor
Mr. Splitfoot by Samantha Hunt; design by Nico Taylor (Corsair / January 2016)

Stargazers Sister design Oliver Munday
The Stargazer’s Sister by Carrie Brown; design by Oliver Munday (Pantheon / January 2016)

stones of muncaster cathedral design MS Corley
The Stones of Muncaster Cathedral by Robert Westall; design by M.S. Corley (Valancourt Books / December 2015)

13-8 design Shepherd Studio
13.8 by John Gribbin; design by Shepherd Studio (Icon / October 2015)

This Is The Ritual design Greg Heinimann
This is the Ritual by Rob Doyle; design by Greg Heinimann (Bloomsbury / January 2016)

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Published July 7, 2015

Book Covers of Note July 2015

It’s finally summer, and because July is traditionally something of a quiet month in publishing, I’m taking the opportunity to catch up on a few covers that I missed earlier in the year…

Act of God design Janet Hansen

Act of God by Jill Ciment; design by Janet Hansen (Pantheon / March 2015 )

All My Puny Sorrows design Sunra Thompson

All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews; design and illustration by Sunra Thompson (McSweeney’s / June 2015)

Print
Armada by Ernest Cline; design by Will Staehle (Crown / July 2015)

Asylum design Spencer Kimble
The Asylum by Simon Doonan; design by Spencer Kimble (Blue Rider Press / February 2015 )

Book of Numbers design Suzanne Dean cover illustration Carnovsky

Book of Numbers by Joshua Cohen; design by design Suzanne Dean; illustration Carnovsky (Harvill Secker / June 2015)

Book of Numbers design Oliver Munday

Book of Numbers by Joshua Cohen; design by Oliver Munday (Random House / June 2015)

Chasing Rumer illustration by Andrew Holder

Chasing Rumor by Cameron Chambers; design by Haruna Madono; illustration by Andrew Holder (Patagonia / June 2015)

Earth design by Alex Merto
Earth by Hubert Krivine; design by Alex Merto (Verso Books / April 2015)

Economics After Capitalism design David Gee

Economics After Capitalism by Derek Wall; design by David A. Gee (Pluto Press / July 2015)

egg design by Clare Skeats

Egg by Blanche Vaughan; design by Clare Skeats (Wiedenfeld & Nicolson / March 2015)

Here You Are design by Alban Fischer

Here You Are by Jared Joseph & Sara Peck; design by Alban Fischer (Horse Less Press / March 2015)

Krautrock design by Adly Elewa

Future Days by David Stubbs; design by Adly Elewa (Melville House / July 2015)

Lord Fear design by Kelly Blair

Lord Fear by Lucas Mann; design by Kelly Blair (Pantheon / May 2015)

Modern Romance design by Jay Shaw photograph by ruvan wijesooriya
Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari; design by Jay Shaw; photograph by Ruvan Wijesooriya (Penguin / June 2015)

Pretty Is design by Lucy Kim

Pretty Is by Maggie Mitchell; design by Lucy Kim (Henry Holt / July 2015)

Seed Collectors design by Gray318

The Seed Collectors by Scarlett Thomas; design by Gray318 (Canongate / July 2015)

Stammered Songbook design Clare Skeats

Stammered Songbook by Erwin Mortier; design by Clare Skeats (Pushkin Press / March 2015)

thrown design gray318

Thrown by Kerry Howley; design by Gray318 (Hamish Hamilton / May 2015)

Trust Me design Jamie Keenan
Trust Me, PR is Dead by Robert Phillips; design by Jamie Keenan (Unbound / June 2015)

Unibrow design Zoe Norvell

Unabrow by Una Lamarche; design by Zoe Norvell (Plume / March 2015)

9780241972762
Whisky Tango Foxtrot by David Shafer; design by Richard Bravery (Penguin / June 2015)

World on a Plate design Nick Misani

World on a Plate by Mina Holland; design by Nick Misani (Penguin / May 2015)

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Published February 2, 2015

Book Covers of Note February 2015

Here is this month’s selection of new book covers that have caught my eye…

angry-youth-comix
Angry Youth Comix by Johnny Ryan; design by Keeli McCarthy (Fantagraphics / February 2015)

Dom Casmurro hi-res
Dom Casmurro by Machado de Assis; design by Nathan Burton (Daunt Books / February 2015)

etta-otto-russell-james
Etta and Otto and Russell and James by Emma Hooper; design by Gray318 (Penguin / January 2015)

fishermen-gray318
The Fishermen by Chigozie Obioma; design by Gray318 (Pushkin Press / February 2015)

Girl In The Dark
Girl in the Dark by Anna Lyndsey; design by Greg Heinimann (Bloomsbury / February 2015)

i-am-radar
I Am Radar by Reif Larsen; design by Will Staehle (Penguin Press / February 2015)

ismael-and-his-sisters
Ismael and His Sisters by Louise Stern; design by Dan Mogford (Granta / February 2015)

italians
The Italians by John Hooper; design by Nicholas Misani (Viking / January 2015)

karate-chop-pearson
Karate Chop by Dorthe Nors; design by David Pearson (Pushkin Press / February 2015)

munich-airport
Munich Airport by Greg Baxter; design by Anne Twomey (Twelve Books / January 2015)

room
The Room by Jonas Karlsson; design by Christopher Brand; photograph by George Baier IV (Hogarth / February 2015)

shooting-stars-burton
Shooting Stars by Stefan Zweig; design by David Pearson (Pushkin Press / February 2015)


Pudd’nhead Wilson and The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain; design by Isabel Urbina Peña (Vintage / February 2015)

utopia-of-rules
The Utopia of Rules by David Graeber; design by Christopher Brian King (Melville House / February 2015)

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Published October 17, 2014

Bugs

 

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This, the latest post in my Beasts! series, was unexpectedly difficult to compile. While it seems there isn’t a book cover in existence that couldn’t be improved by putting on a bird on it, bugs are, at least by comparison, somewhat rare. While I assumed that bees, beetles, butterflies, centipedes, flies, spiders, termites et al would naturally lend themselves to evocative book designs, we are apparently still quite squeamish about creatures with six legs or more. That said, today’s post includes far more rejected (and short-lived covers) than previous instalments in the series, which that it isn’t necessarily the designers who are afraid of creepy crawlies, but rather other decision-makers in the process are worried about their negative influence on sales. Hopefully some of these covers will change their minds about that…

The Beetle by Richard Marsh; design by Coralie Bickford-Smith (Penguin / October 2008)
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest by Steig Larsson; design by Peter Mendelsund (Knopf / May 2010 )
The Last Days of the Lacuna Cabal by Sean Dixon; art by Emily Mahon; butterfly image by Hannelore Muller; hand-lettering by Chris Sergio (Other Press / April 2009 )
Ten Plagues by Mary Nealy; design by David Carlson

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The Acid House by Irvine Welsh; design by Matt Broughton (Vintage Books)

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

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Arcadia by Lauren Groff; design by Will Staehle (Voice / March 2012)

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Babayaga by Toby Barlow; design by Gray318 (Corvus / February 2014)


The Bees by Laline Paull; design by Steve Attardo (Ecco / May 2014)

bees
The Bees by Laline Paull; design by Jo Walker (Fourth Estate / May 2014)

beautiful-you
Beautiful You by Chuck Palahniuk; design by Rodrigo Corral Design (Doubleday / October 2014)

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Bone Gap by Laura Ruby; design by Michelle Taormina (Balzer + Bray / March 2015)

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Boxer Beetle by Ned Beauman; illustration by Lorenzo Petrantoni (Sceptre / August 2010)

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Brodeck’s Report by Phillipe Claudel; design by Anna Heath (Quercus)

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Bug Music by David Rothenberg; design by Ervin Serrano (St. Martin’s Press / May 2013)

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Carnival by Rawi Hage; design by Brian Morgan, illustration by Lorenzo Petrantoni (House of Anansi Press / August 2012)


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

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Cockroach by Rawi Hage; design by Albert Tang (W. W. Norton / October 2009)

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Cockroach by Rawi Hage; design by Bill Douglas (House of Anansi / unused)

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Constant Gardener by John Le Carre; design by Stuart Bache (Sceptre)

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Crowd of Sounds by Adam Sol; design by Bill Douglas (House of Anansi / April 2003)

electricity
Electricity by Victoria Glendinning; design by David Mann (Pocket Books / April 2006)

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Escaping into the Open by Elizabeth Berg; design by The Book Designers (Harper / August 2012)

Fever
Fever by Sonia Shah; design by LeeAnn Falciani (Picador / June 2011)

The First Principles of Dreaming
The First Principles of Dreaming by Beth Goobie; design by Natalie Olsen / Kisscut Design (Second Story Press / September 2014)


Generation A by Douglas Coupland; design by Jennifer Heuer (Simon & Schuster / June 2010)

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Generation A by Douglas Coupland; design by Books We Made (Tropen / August 2010)

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Ghost Moth by Michèle Forbes; design by Kathleen Lynch / Black Kat Design (Penguin Canada / October 2013)

A Sting in the Tale by Dave Goulson; design by James Paul Jones; illustration Louise Bird (Jonathan Cape / June 2013)
A Buzz In The Meadow by Dave Goulson; James Paul Jones; illustration Louise Bird (Jonathan Cape / September 2014 )

Sting
A Sting in the Tale by Dave Goulson; design by LeeAnn Falciani (Picador / April 2014)

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Hurt Healer by Tony Nolan; design by Connie Gabbert (Baker / unused?)

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In Translation edited by Sherry Simon; design by David Drummond (McGill-Queen’s University Press / unused?)

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The Marriage Game by Alison Weir; design by The Book Designers (Ballantine / unused)

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

missing-link
Missing Link by Jeffrey Donaldson; design by David Drummond (forthcoming)

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The Moth introduced by Neil Gaiman; design by Dan Stiles (Serpent’s Tail / August 2014)

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My First Kafka by Matthue Roth & Rohan Daniel Eason; design by Richard Rodriguez; cover illustration Rohan Daniel Eason (One Peace Books / June 2013)

never-mind
Never Mind by Edward St. Aubyn; design by Stuart Wilson (Picador / April 2012)

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Original Sins by Peg Kingman; design by Darren Haggar (W. W. Norton / September 2010)

Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy; design by Coralie Bickford-Smith (Penguin / December 2012)
Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle; illustration by Despotica; series design by Coralie Bickford-Smith (Penguin / December 2012)
Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell; design by Coralie Bickford-Smith (Penguin / December 2012)

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Perdido Street Station by China Mieville; design by Crush Creative (Pan Books / May 2011)

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Possession by A. S. Byatt; design Vintage Design (Vintage / December 2009)

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The Reason I Jump by Naoki Higashida; design by Kai & Sunny (Sceptre / July 2013)


Royauté by Alexie Morin design by Catherine D’Amours / Pointbarre (Le Quartanier / October 2013)

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The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes; design by Keith Hayes (Mulholland Books / June 2013)

Swallow
Swallow by Theanna Bischoff; design by Natalie Olsen / Kisscut Design (NeWest Press / February 2013)

Poe GOTHIC SERIES Holly MacDonald
Tales of Mystery and Imagination by Edgar Allan Poe; Holly MacDonald (Bloomsbury / October 2009)

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Why You Should Read Kafka Before You Waste Your Life by James Hawes; Design and lettering by Steve Snider; Illustration by Douglas Smith (St. Martin’s Press / July 2008)

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

cartwheel
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
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 July 23, 2010

Something for the Weekend

The cover for The Disappearing Spoon designed by the amazing Will Staehle. To quote Tal Goretsky at Book Covers Anonymous:  “Holy Mother God!”. Apparently it’s printed on uncoated paper.

You can see some of Tal’s own rather nice design work here.

And speaking of designer’s blogs… Designer Joanna Rieke has started a new blog called UnCovered about book and magazine covers. She recently interviewed illustrator (and Casual Op. hero) Tom Gauld:

I think most literature works perfectly well without illustrations and I have seen some truly awful images put on the cover (used as illustrations) of great books. As for comics, I’m more often frustrated by comics which are too wordy than too visual. I think the balance between words and pictures is very important in a comic and though the ratio doesn’t always have to be the same, my heart sinks when I see a page which is filled with writing.

Taking a summer break from his regular illustration gig at The Guardian, Tom is currently producing a weekly comic and posting it to Flickr:

Real Editors Ship — I linked this on Twitter already, but it’s kind of great so what the hell… Paul Ford on getting stuff out the door and the value of editors (and I would suggest Production Managers):

People often think that editors are there to read things and tell people “no.” Saying “no” is a tiny part of the job. Editors are first and foremost there to ship the product without getting sued… This is not to imply that you hit every sub-deadline, that certain projects don’t fail, that things don’t suck. I failed plenty, myself. It just means that you ship…

Editors are really valuable, and, the way things are going, undervalued. These are people who are good at process. They think about calendars, schedules, checklists, and get freaked out when schedules slip. Their jobs are to aggregate information, parse it, restructure it, and make sure it meets standards. They are basically QA for language and meaning.

The Fine art of Recommending Books — Laura Miller at Salon:

Amazon and other online merchants have harnessed mighty algorithms to run their “If you enjoyed that, you might like this…” suggestion engines, but these are still crude instruments. Practically any novel you plug into Amazon’s search engines at the moment returns the robotic announcement that people who bought it also bought one of Stieg Larsson’s “Girl” thrillers — because seemingly everybody in America is buying those books. It’s not like you need the world’s most sophisticate e-commerce servers to tell you that.

And finally…

Steranko! — Jonathan Ross interviews comics legend Jim Steranko, inspiration for Josef Kavalier in Michael Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay,  for The Guardian:

Spend an hour with Jim Steranko and, if he’s in the mood, he’ll regale you with the most extraordinary tales. Are they true, I have asked myself more than once, or is he a fantasist? Has his love of storytelling and the creation of modern myths bled into his own life story until he can no longer tell the two apart? Well, now that I’ve met him, I believe them all to be true, just as I believe it when he tells me he still runs miles every day, pumps iron, and fornicates blissfully like a man a third his age. He is unique. He is Steranko. He is the greatest.

A slideshow of Steranko’s work is here.

Have a good weekend…

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