Tag: zak tebbal

Notable Book Covers of 2024

Published December 19, 2024

Notable Book Covers of 2024

It is the time of year for lists and I should’ve been done weeks ago, but I am late and already well behind the pack. Apologies for that.

I admire Matt Dorfman‘s ability to whittle his list down to a dozen covers for the New York Times. I imagine it takes him a lot less time for one thing, but I’m sure Matt still agonizes over every cover. It requires a level of discipline and restraint that I do not possess to keep it that tight year after year.

I am not alone in that latter respect. LitHub’s list, chosen by designers, is 167 covers this year. 28 covers more than last year’s already long list, 64 more than 2022, and 66 more than 2021.

In 2020, their list was relatively lean 89.

PRINT’s list of best book covers of 2024, compiled by editor-at-large Zachary Petit, is also long. It’s a 100 covers. Last year it was 50.

I’m not trying to throw stones here. We are all seeing more covers than we used to. There are more books for one thing. But they’re not just something we just experience in print in anymore. You don’t have to go into a bookstore or read the newspaper or magazine to see them. They’ve become something we see and share all the time online. Designers are promoting their own work and (slowly) getting more credit for it (although there is a lot more to be done in that area. Publishers — credit your designers!). My monthly round-ups are now one of several you can choose from.

And it is not like my list is short. This year it features work by 48 designers — more than half of them women — and 86 covers (plus a couple of supplementary images).

The consensus seems to be that it was a decent year for covers, and it’s hard to argue with other people’s selections even if I don’t love them all.

It is telling though that 100 of LitHub’s selections were individual picks. There are covers on my list that are not on the anyone else’s despite their length. So while I think we agree there were lots of good covers, I’m less certain we entirely agree on which ones were actually the outstanding ones.

A recent article Spine argued that there is a battle between minimalism and maximalism going on (you can find Spine’s end of year list here by the way). I think that could be true. Different approaches work for different audiences. But I also think it’s messier than that. I get the sense that publishers are less sure of what they want and what sells (certain genres notwithstanding).

It has been a rough year for a lot of publishers, so there is undoubtedly a lot of uncertainty, and no small amount of anxiety. I could go on about why that it is (and the publishing’s self-inflicted wounds) but, in short, what I think we’re also seeing with book covers is more meddling and less direction.

Anyway, I don’t want to end this on a bleak note. This year was shit enough. Despite it all, there genuinely were a lot of good covers in 2024, and some that I did think we’re outstanding. A couple of them made me laugh, which was no small thing. It was a strong year for several individual designers in particular and, despite the pressures, many produced work that was recognizably theirs. I thought there were more interesting covers coming out of the UK and Ireland (that mercifully wasn’t just about the inks or the finishes!), and there were some fun Canadian covers too.

Thanks, as always, for reading, and I hope you’re all keeping safe and well. Happy Holidays!

Alphabetical Diaries by Sheila Heti; design by Na Kim (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / February 2024)

Anyone’s Ghost by August Thompson; design by Keith Hayes (Penguin Press / July 2024)

The Abyss by Fernando Vallejo; design by Janet Hansen (New Directions / June 2024)

Also designed by Janet Hansen:

*One Day I’ll Grow Up and Be a Beautiful Woman* by Abi Maxwell; design by Janet Hansen (Knopf / September 2024)

Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino; design by Thom Colligan (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / January 2024)

Birding by Rose Ruane; design by Charlotte Stroomer; photograph by Kelsey McClellan (Little, Brown / May 2024)

Butter by Asako Yuzuki; design by Emma Pidsley (HarperCollins / February 2024)

Challenger by Adam Higginbotham; design by Pete Garceau (Avid Reader Press / May 2024)

Cold by David Hayden Taylor; design by Kelly Hill (McClelland & Stewart / January 2024)

Crisis Actor by Declan Ryan; design by Stephanie Cui (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / February 2024)

Dear Dickhead by Virginie Despentes; design by Luke Bird (Quercus / September 2024)

Also designed by Luke Bird (and I could’ve several included more!):

*Free Therapy* by Rebecca Ivory; design by Luke Bird (Vintage / March 2024)

Defectors by Paola Ramos; design Chantal Jahchan (Pantheon / September 2024)

The Empusium by Olga Tokarczuk; design by Lauren Peters-Collaer (Riverhead / September 2024)

Also designed by Lauren Peters-Collaer:

*Colored Television* by Danzy Senna; design by Lauren Peters-Collaer (Riverhead / September 2024)

Everything and Nothing At All by Jenny Heijun Wills; design by Terri Nimmo (Knopf Canada / August 2024)

Fog & Car by Eugene Lim; design by Michael Salu (Coffee House Press / July 2024)

It’s the spine and back cover that really make this for me.

Fruit of the Dead by Rachel Lyon; design by Math Monahan (Scribner / March 2024)

Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon; design by Gregg Kulick (Henry Holt / March 2024)

Also designed by Gregg Kulick:

*An Earthquake is a Shaking of the Surface of the Earth* by Anna Moschovakis; design by Gregg Kulick (Soft Skull / November 2024)

Greta & Valdin by Rebecca K. Reilly; design by Clay Smith (Avid Reader Press / February 2024)

Honey by Victor Lodata; design by Robin Bilardello (Harper / April 2023)

In Tongues by Thomas Grattan; design by Alex Merto (MCD / May 2024)

Also designed by Alex Merto:

*Dear Dickhead* by Despentes; design by Alex Merto (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / September 2024)

Ixelles by Johannes Anyuru; design by Jonathan Pelham (Two Lines Press / October 2024)

Kittentits by Holly Wilson; design by Eli Mock (Zando / May 2024)

Latino Poetry: The Library of America Anthology by Rigoberto González; by design by Isabel Urbina Peña (Library of Amerca / September 2024)

Also designed by Isabel Urbina Peña:

*Nearly All Men in Lagos are Mad* by Damilare Kuku; design by HarperVia / March 2024)

Liars by Sarah Manguso; design by Cassie Gonzalez (Hogarth Press / July 2024)

Little Rot by Akwaeje Emezi; design by Kishan Rajani (Faber & Faber / July 2024)

Also designed by Kishan Rajani :

*The Buddha of Suburbia* by Hanif Kureishi; design by Kishan Rajani (Faber / July
2024)

Love Junkie by Robert Plunket; design by Oliver Munday (New Directions / May 2024)

Also designed by Oliver Munday:

*Holy Winter 20/21* by Maria Stepanova; design by Oliver Munday (New Directions / October 2024)

Madness by Antonia Hylton; design by Daniel Benneworth-Gray (Footnote Press / March 2024)

Mammoth by Eva Baltasar; design by Anna Morrison (And Other Stories / August 2025)

MILF by Paloma Faith; design by Jack Smyth (Ebury / June 2024)

Also designed by Jack Smith:

*Lobster* by Hollie McNish; design by Jack Smyth (Little, Brown / March 2024)

The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley; design by Alison Forner; typography by Andrew Footit (Avid Reader Press / May 2024)

Mojave Ghost by Forrest Gander; design by Giacomo Girardi / Rodrigo Corral; lettering by Adriana Tonello (New Directions / October 2024)

Monstrilio by Gerardo Sámano Córdova; design by Tom Etherington (Cinder House / June 2024)

Mystery Lights by Lena Valencia; design by Beth Steidle (Tin House / August 2024)

Also designed by Beth Steidle:

*The Skunks* by FIona Warnick; design by Beth Steidle (Tin House / May 2024)

Necrology by Meg Ripley; design by Luísa Dias (Creature Publishing / September 2024)

Also designed by Luísa Dias:

*Bear Season* by Gemma FaircloughLuísa Dias (Wild Hunt Books / March 2024)

Nicked by M. T. Anderson; design by Zak Tebbal (Pantheon / July 2024)

The Obscene Bird of Night by José Donoso; design by Joan Wong (New Directions / April 2024)

The Observable Universe by Heather McCalden; design by Arsh Raziuddin and Gaby Pesqueira Ortiz (Hogarth / March 2024)

Also designed by Also designed by Arsh Raziuddin:

*How to Make Herself Agreeable to Everyone* by Cameron Russell; design by Arsh Raziuddin (Random House / March 2024)

Piglet by Lottie Hazell; design by Jenni Surasky; art by Noah Verrier (Henry Holt / February 2024)

A Reason To See You Again by Jami Attenberg; design by Allison Saltzman (Ecco / September 2024)

Sociopath by Patric Gagne; design by Rodrigo Corral (Simon & Schuster / April 2024)

The Sons of El Rey by Alex Espinoza; design by David Litman (Simon & Schuster / June 2024)

Supplication by Nour Abi-Nakhoul; design by Emma Dolan (Strange Light / May 2024)

There’s Always This Year by Hanif Abdurraqib; design by Tyler Comrie; photograph by Matt Eich (Random House / March 2024)

Also designed by Tyler Comrie:

*Plastic* by Scott Guild; design by Tyler Comrie (Pantheon / February 2024)

Thirst by Marina Yuszczuk; design by Kaitlin Kall (Dutton / March 2024)

The Understory by Saneh Sangsuk; design by Emily Mahon (Deep Vellum / March 2024)

Also designed by Emily Mahon:

*A Thousand Thoughts in Flight* by Maria Gabriela Llansol; design by Emily Mahon (Deep Vellum / July 2024)

Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange; design by Linda Huang (Knopf / February 2024)

Also designed by Linda Huang:

*Martyr!* by Kaveh Akbar; design by Linda Huang (Knopf /January 2024)

Wandering Stars, by Tommy Orange; design by Suzanne Dean (Vintage / March 2024)

Also designed by Suzanne Dean:

*Dogs and Monsters* by Mark Haddon; design by Suzanne Dean; illustration by Neue Gestaltung (Vintage / August 2024)

I also have to give a special shout out to the cover for Paper Boat by Margaret Atwood (Chatto & Windus / October 2024). Suzanne commissioned paper art by Nathan Ward to design a template for a paper boat that could be cut out from the dust jacket and stuck together.

You Dreamed of Empires by Álvaro Enrigue; design Kris Potter; illustration by Rodolfo Baquier (Vintage / January 2024)

You Glow in the Dark by Liliana Colanzi; design by Jamie Keenan (New Directions / February 2024)

Also designed by Jamie Keenan:

*Between This World and the Next* by Praveen Herat; design by Jamie Keenan; illustration by Sukutangan (Restless Books / June 2024)

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Book Covers of Note, August 2024

Published August 27, 2024

Book Covers of Note, August 2024

Hey, I hope you’re keeping safe and well. I feel like I just finished July’s post and now it’s the end of August. There are a few more covers from earlier in the year in this month’s post. I’m still catching up. But there’s some Canadian content, a few covers from the UK, some indie presses, and a university press, which is always nice. Enjoy the last few weeks of summer!

1974 by Francine Prose; design by High Tide (Harper / June 2024)

Thanks to Robin Bilardello and AD Milan Bozic at Harper for their help on the credit for this one! :-)

Anyone’s Ghost by August Thompson; design by Keith Hayes (Penguin Press / July 2024)

This was published last month, but I had it in my August folder. If I had to guess it was because of the author’s name. I am easily confused.

The Buddha of Suburbia by Hanif Kureishi; design by Kishan Rajani (Faber / July? 2024)

I think this came out in July too, but it looks like Faber used the ISBN of the existing 2017 edition even though there is a new cover so I don’t know for sure when it was updated (publishers: don’t do this).

Burn by Peter Heller; design Kelly Blair; painting ‘Boat Building in Maine’ (detail) by Paul Dougherty (Knopf / August 2024)

Coexistence by Billy Ray Belcourt; design by Kelly Hill; photography by Steven Beckly (Hamish Hamilton Canada / May 2024)

Dogs and Monsters by Mark Haddon; design by Suzanne Dean; illustration by Neue Gestaltung (Vintage / August 2024)

Because I am of certain age (old and mouldering like an ancient vampire hiding from the sun of contemporary pop culture) this reminded me of the cabinet art for the original Space Invaders arcade game. Hilariously, if not surprisingly, there is a Fonts in Use post about the typography of the original promo materials and cabinet art of Space Invaders. If anyone knows of a good article about the artwork itself I would love to read it.

Everything and Nothing At All by Jenny Heijun Wills; design by Terri Nimmo (Knopf Canada / August 2024)

Feeding the Monster by Anna Bogutskaya; design by Henry Petrides (Faber / August 2025)

Speaking of all things retro, Henry has posted some photos of his Letraset experiments for this cover on Instagram.

Hair for Men by Michelle Williams; design by Greg Tabor (House of Anansi / August 2025)

There is something ‘early 2000s Canlit’ about this cover. If you’d told me this was designed for Anansi by Bill Douglas in like 2004 I would’ve believed you, and I mean that in the best way. (I appreciate that only the grizzled Canadian publishing folks like me will get this reference but hey…)

Layman’s Report by Eugene Marten; design by Kate Sinclair (McClelland & Stewart / August 2024)

Mammoth by Eva Baltasar; design by Anna Morrison (And Other Stories / August 2025)

Anna also designed the covers for two previous novels by Eva Baltasar published by AOS, including a pink special edition of Permafrost (which is possibly my favourite).

Mina’s Matchbox by Yoko Ogawa; design by Suzanne Dean; illustration by Gérard DuBois (Harvill Secker / August 2024)

The cover of the US edition published Pantheon this month by was designed by Tyler Comrie.

The Murmuration by Carlos Labbé; design by Anna Jordan (Open Letter / July 2024)

Mystery Lights by Lena Valencia; design by Beth Steidle (Tin House / August 2024)

Nicked by M. T. Anderson; design by Zak Tebbal (Pantheon / July 2024)

It might be time to update the now very old (10 years!) skulls post.

Nine Minds by Daniel Tammet; design by Louis Gabaldoni (Profile Books / July 2024)

I was trying to think what this reminded me of and I think it’s either Ed Emberley’s Great Thumbprint Drawing Book or possibly the current cover of Design as Art by Bruno Munari, which (IIRC) uses drawings of faces from inside the book (but no thumbprints!).

And, also designed by Louis…

On the Roof by Tom Allan; design by Louis Gabaldoni (Profile Books / August 2024)

This is really lovely…

Plastic by Scott Guild; design by Tyler Comrie (Pantheon / February 2024)

Oof. I’m very late to this one.

Plaything by Bea Setton; design by Beci Kelly (Transworld / June 2024)

I don’t know how you would describe this particular shade — salmon pink? Financial Times pink? (Are those variations of the same thing, actually?) — but it feels like a pink covers are still a bit of thing. (Did I mention pink covers already a couple of months ago? I think I did…? Sigh. I am repeating myself. It might be time to give this up)

Some White Folks by Jennifer Chudy; design by Elisha Zepeda / Faceout Studio (University of Chicago Press / July 2024)

I like this cover a lot, but is the disembodied hug also becoming a thing? I think I mentioned this a while back too! (Pictured: the cover The Nursery by by Szilvia Molnar designed by Hayley Warnham from May last year, and a poster by Vasilis Marmatakis for the 2015 movie The Lobster)

A Termination by Honor Moore; design by Janet Hansen (Public Space / August 2024)

Obviously the details of the designs and the approaches are quite different, but the cover of A Termination reminded me of the cover of Anxiety by Samir Chopra designed by Karl Spurzem for Princeton University Press from March this year. I think it’s an interesting compare and contrast?

The Wisdom of Sheep by Rosamund Young; design by Darren Haggar (Penguin Press / August 2024)

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Published December 12, 2022

Notable Book Covers of 2022

2022. Twenty twenty-two. Two thousand and twenty-two… “Where did it go?” Or, sobbing, “ are we done yet?” It feels like both. It’s been a year that’s simultaneously dragged on interminably and disappeared in a cognitive blur.

I’m glad other people have already written about it.

At Creative Review, writer and editor Mark Sinclair picked his favourite covers of 2022 and reflected on industry trends in the UK, including the Design Publishing & Inclusivity mentorship program for under-represented creatives launched this year by Ebyan Egal, Donna Payne, and Steve Panton.

Literary Hub posted the best covers of the year as chosen by 31 designers. With a comprehensive 103 covers on the list, it tacitly poses the annual question “what do I have left to add to this conversation?” LitHub have been posting these lists for seven years apparently. I am an ancient desiccated husk.

Fast Company and the Washington Post asked slightly smaller groups of designers to write about their favourites covers.

Jason Kottke, back from sabbatical, posted his selections for 2022. I gather that Spine’s list is imminent.

Designer and art director Matt Dorfman chose the best book covers of 2022 for the New York Times, and empathized with the plight of the designers:

Most often, any personal stylistic expressions in their work are swallowed up in service to the multiple masters — editors, marketing directors, sales teams — who sign off on a book’s cover. There is also the matter of adhering to any one publisher’s dos and don’ts, which can inform mandates about typography, color palettes and production flourishes like embossing or metallic inks. For people employed in a theoretically creative pursuit, designers’ talents are often defined by how effortlessly they can make themselves disappear to serve the book.
Matt Dorfman, New York Times

No one captured the prevailing mood better than this Tom Gauld cartoon. A reminder, if one were needed, that nobody knows anything.

Earlier in the year, Australian reporter Rafqa Touma called out the trend of ‘well dressed and distressed’ young women on covers. As designer Mietta Yans notes, the covers often reflect their books’ stylish and sad protagonists, so I’m not sure this one is on the art departments.

*Love and Other Puzzles* by Kimberley Allsopp; design by Mark Campbell (HarperCollins Australia / February 2022)

Last year we had book blobs; this year we got more “ominous blobs” just to add to everyone’s existential dread.

*The Singularities* by John Banville; design by John Gall (Knopf / October 2022)

Some of the trends I’ve talked about before spilled over into 2022. Collage, painting (contemporary, and historical — often tightly cropped), big skies, landscapes and seascapes, black and white photography (not just for LGBTQ+ trauma!), retro-ness, idiosyncratic display typefaces. Orange. Pink was in vogue too. The Instagram-ish combination of both pink and orange (sometimes with deep purple-ish blues too) seemed to be very much a thing this year. I suspect this is what happens when you ask designers to make things “pop” one too many times.

*You Have a Friend in 10A* by Maggie Shipstead; design by Irene Martinez (Doubleday / May 2022)

It is hard to know if these are genuine trends, or if it is just the stuff I notice. I’m sure there are things going on with commercial covers that I don’t pay enough attention to (although I will not be sad to see the popularity of that flat illustration style — the one that Slate pointed out in TWO THOUSAND AND FIFTEEN! — eventually fade away). I certainly don’t get the sense that everything looks the same, which is often the criticism. There is still room for a little weirdness and that can only be a good thing…

Best of Friends by Kamila Shamsie; design by Lauren Peters-Collaer (Riverhead / September 2022)

Also designed by Lauren Peters-Collaer:

*Thrust* by Lidia Yuknavitch; design by Lauren Peters-Collaer (Riverhead / June 2022)

Boy Friends by Michael Pedersen; design by Gray 318; illustration by Nathaniel Russell (Faber & Faber / July 2022)

Brother Alive by Zain Khalid; design by Jo Walker (Grove Press UK / August 2022)

A Calm & Normal Heart by Chelsea T. Hicks; design by Jaya Nicely (Unnamed Press / June 2022)

Carnality by Lina Wolff; design by Tyler Comrie (Other Press / July 2022)

The Bloater by Rosemary Tonks; design by Oliver Munday (New Directions / September 2022)

Also designed by Oliver Munday:

*Fear of Black Consciousness* by Lewis R. Gordon; design by Oliver Munday (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / January 2022)

The Ghetto Within by Santiago H. Amigorena; design by Mike McQuade (HarperVia / August 2022)

A Girlhood by Carolyn Hays; design by Mel Four (Blair / September 2022)

The Haunting of Hajji Hotak by Jamil Jan Kochai; design by Zak Tebbal (Viking / July 2022)

How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu; design by Will Staehle (William Morrow & Co. / January 2022)

I Want to Keep Smashing Myself Until I Am Whole by Elias Canetti, edited by Joshua Cohen; design by Alex Merto; illustration Ian Woods (Picador USA / September 2022)

Also designed by Alex Merto:

*After the Lights Go Out* by John Vercher; design by Alex Merto (Soho Press / June 2022)

Joan by Katherine J. Chen; design by Holly Ovenden (Hodder & Stoughton / July 2022)

The Last White Man by Mohsin Hamid; design by Ahlawat Gunjan (India Hamish Hamilton / August 2022)

The Last White Man by Mohsin Hamid; design by Chris Bentham (Hamish Hamilton / August 2022).

Lessons by Ian McEwan; design by Suzanne Dean; illustration by Tina Berning (Jonathan Cape / September 2022)

Also designed by Suzanne Dean:

*Ghost Music* by An Yu; design Suzanne Dean (Harvill Secker / November 2022)

The Julian Barnes cover also came in blue, and under the die-cut jacket is a beautiful photo from René Groebli’s photoessay The Eye of Love.

A Little Piece of Mind by Giles Paley-Phillips; design by Tree Abraham (Unbound / June 2022)

Tree had her own book, Cyclettes, published this year. You can read about the process of designing her own cover over at Spine.

No Land in Sight by Charles Simic; design by John Gall; photograph by Michael Kenna (Knopf / August 2022)

Also designed by John Gall:

O Caledonia by Elspeth Barker; design by Tristan Offit (Scribner / September 2022)

Also designed by Tristan Offit:

*Briefly, A Delicious Life* by Nell Stevens; ; design by Tristan Offit (Scribner / July 2022)

Offended Sensibilities by Alisa Ganieva; design by Emily Mahon (Deep Vellum / November 2022)

Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield; design by Ami Smithson (Picador / March 2022)

I also really liked Ami’s cover for the UK edition of New Animal by Ella Baxter.

The Pink Hotel by Liska Jacobs; design by June Park; (MCD / July 2022)

Also designed by June Park:

*Cult Classic* by Sloane Crosley; design by June Park (MCD / June 2022)

Pure Colour by Sheila Heti; design by Na Kim (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / February 2022)

Also designed by Na Kim:

*Present Tense Machine* by Gunnhild Øyehaug; design by Na Kim (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / January 2022)

The Raptures by Jan Carson; design by Irene Martinez Costa (Doubleday UK / January 2022)

The Red Zone by Chloe Caldwell; design by Michael Salu (Soft Skull Press / April 2022)

Sacrificio by Ernesto Mestre-Reed; design by Dana Li (SoHo Press / September 2022)

Also designed by Dana Li:

*Things We Found When the Water Went Down* by Tegan Mia Swanson; design by Dana Li (Catapult / December 2022)

Shit Cassandra Saw by Gwen E. Kirby; design and illustration by Lydia Ortiz (Penguin Books / January 2022)

This is like hallucinatory nightmare vision of the Francis Cugat illustration on the cover of The Great Gatsby first edition.

Solenoid by Mircea Cărtărescu; design by Anna Jordan (Deep Vellum / October 2022)

The Status Game by Will Storr; design by Steve Leard (William Collins / July 2022)

True Biz by Sara Novic; design by Jack Smyth (Little, Brown / April 2022)

Jack did a lot of great covers this year. I could easily have posted a couple more with no dip in quality:

*The Premonitions Bureau* by Sam Knight; design Jack Smyth (Faber & Faber / May 2022)

Trust by Hernan Diaz; design by Katie Tooke (Picador / August 2022)

The New York skyline was printed onto the edges of the books and then photographed for this one.

Walk the Vanished Earth by Erin Swan; design by Elizabeth Yaffe (Viking / May 2022)

The Waste Land by Matthew Hollis; design by Jamie Keenan (Faber & Faber / October 2022)

Watergate by Garrett M. Graff; design by Alison Forner (Avid Reader Press / February 2022)

Weasels in the Attic by Hiroko Oyamada; design by Luke Bird (Granta / November 2022)

Also designed by Luke Bird:

White Bull by Elizabeth Hughey; design by Alban Fischer (Sarabande Books / January 2022)

Also designed by Alban Fischer:

*Brown Neon* by Raquel Gutiérrez; design by Alban Fischer (Coffee House Press / June 2022)

You can read about Alban’s design process for Till the Wheels Come Off at Spine.

Worn by Sofi Thanhauser; design by Janet Hansen (Pantheon / January 2022)

Also designed by Janet Hansen:

*A Country of Strangers* by D. Nurkse; design by Janet Hansen (Knopf / April 2022)

Yoga by Emmanuel Carrère; design by Rodrigo Corral (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / August 2022)

Also designed by Rodrigo Corral:

*Bliss Montage* by Ling Ma; design by Rodrigo Corral (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / September 2022)

You Have a Friend in 10A by Maggie Shipstead; design by Kelly Blair; illustration by Toby Leigh (Knopf / May 2022)

You Made a Fool of Death With Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi; design by Anna Morrison (Faber and Faber / May 2022)

Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart; design by Christopher Moisan; photograph by Kyle Thompson (Grove Press / April 2022)

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Published July 29, 2022

Book Covers of Note, July 2022

I’m even later than usual this month and everyone else posted their selections days ago, so you must really like book covers if you’re still jonesing for more! (And just a reminder: if you are in fact addicted to book covers and don’t want to miss any new posts, you can get them automatically sent to your inbox now. It’s not a newsletter, just magical RSS. But subscribing will confirm that you have a problem and should seek help!)

Beyond Measure by James Vincent; design by Jonathan Pelham (Faber & Faber / June 2022)

This reminded me of David Litman‘s cover for One Day by Gene Weingarten from a couple of years ago. I like both of these a lot.

Boy Friends by Michael Pedersen; design by Gray 318; illustration by Nathaniel Russell (Faber & Faber / July 2022)

(Happy belated birthday, Jon!)

Carnality by Lina Wolff; design by Tyler Comrie (Other Press / July 2022)

This is giving me strong New Directions vibes for some reason.

Denial by Jon Raymond; design by Natalia Olbinski; photograph by Robert Adams (Simon & Schuster / July 2022)

The Haunting of Hajji Hotak by Jamil Jan Kochai; design by Zak Tebbal (Viking / July 2022)

An Honest Living by Dwyer Murphy; design Davi d Litman (Viking / July 2022)

A bit of a Saul Bass / Hitchcock thing happening at the moment…? (The cover of the Faber edition of The Premonitions Bureau by Sam Knight was designed by Jack Smyth)

Inheritance by Baynard Woods; design by Henry Sene Yee (Legacy Lit / June 2022)

Joan by Katherine J. Chen; design by Holly Ovenden (Hodder & Stoughton / July 2022)

The cover of the US edition published by Random House was designed by Lucas Heinrich:

New Waves by Kevin Nguyen; design by Zak Tebbal (One World / July 2022)

If I remember correctly, Zak Tebbal also designed cover of the hardback edition:

Other Names for Love by Taymour Soomro; design by June Park (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / July 2022)

The Pink Hotel by Liska Jacobs; design by June Park (MCD / July 2022)

Quite the contrast between these two designs!

Reward System by Jem Calder; design by Luke Bird (Faber & Faber / May 2022)

Reward System by Jem Calder; design by Alex Merto (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / July 2022)

The Status Game by Will Storr; design by Steve Leard (William Collins / July 2022)

Total by Rebecca Miller; design by Rodrigo Corral and Jared Bartman; photograph by Elinor Carucci (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / July 2022)

The Wine-Dark Sea Within by Dhun Sethna; design by Rebecca Lown (Basic Books / June 2022)

Orange covers: it’s a thing.

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Published June 30, 2021

Book Covers of Note, June 2021

A little bit rushed again this month for various reasons (will I ever catch up? No. No I won’t…), but here are my cover picks for June…

Animal by Lisa Taddeo; design by Greg Heinimann (Bloomsbury / June 2021)

The cover of the US edition of Animal, published by Simon & Schuster, was designed by Alison Forner and Zak Tebbal:

Fear and Trembling by Søren Kierkegaard; design Richard Ljoenes (Liveright / June 2021)

Folklorn by Angela Mi Young Hur; design by Helen Crawford-White (Erewhon Books / April 2021)

The Great Mistake by Jonathan Lee; design by Nathan Burton (Granta / June 2021)

The cover of the US edition, published by Knopf, was designed by none other than John Gall:

(The Knopf cover actually reminds me of this Lauren Peters-Collaer silhouette cover from a couple of years ago for Verso)

How the Word is Passed by Clint Smith; design by Lucy Kim (Little Brown and Company / June 2021)

Island by Siri Ranva Hjelm Jacobsen; design by Anna Morrison (Pushkin Press / June 2021)

July by Kathleen Ossip; design by Alban Fischer (Sarabande Books / June 2021)

The Ones We’re Meant To Find by Joan He; design Aurora Parlagreco; illustration Aykut Aydogdu (Roaring Brook Press / May 2021)

Pure Flame by Michelle Orange; design by Na Kim (Farrar, Straus and Giroux / June 2021)

In the ongoing game of books I think look alike but actually don’t when you put them side by side, the cover of Pure Flame brought to mind Peter Mendelsund‘s design for Civil Wars by David Armitage from a few years ago. Of course they don’t really look anything alike, but that’s how this game works…

Civil Wars by David Armitage; design by Peter Mendelsund (Yale University Press / February 2017)

A Shock by Keith Ridgway; design by Nathan Burton (Picador / June 2021)

A read an ARC of A Shock earlier this month and thought it was extraordinary. A recent review in the Observer described it a collection voyeuristic vignettes, which I suppose is accurate. The book is made up of interconnected and intimate stories, often about loneliness and confinement of one kind or another (particularly resonant during the pandemic). They are prying and unsettling… stories about seeing and been seen (or not). But in a wider sense, A Shock is about the telling and retelling stories (myths even!), and the way that is revealed in the novel itself is what elevates it above and beyond the usual fare. Anyway… I liked it. It won’t be for everyone.

The cover of the US edition, available from New Directions next month, was designed by the one and only Mr. Keenan: