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The Casual Optimist Posts

Published March 18, 2019

Book Covers of Note, March 2019

It’s almost the first day of spring, the snow and ice have just about melted in Toronto (for now!), and everything is still awful, so it must be time for March’s book covers of note! 


Bangkok Wakes to Rain by Pitchaya Sudbanthad; design by Grace Han (Riverhead / February 2019)


The Bird King by G. Willow Wilson; design by Helen Crawford-White (Grove / March 2019)


The Bold World by Jodie Patterson; design by Jaya Miceli (Ballantine / January 2019)


Boşluktakiler by Tom McCarthy; design by David Drummond (Jaguar / February 2019)

This is the Turkish edition of Men in Space by Tom McCarthy. I like how the composition and colour palette echo the cover of the US edition published by Vintage, designed by John Gall:

It also reminds of the golden leaf cover for ‘True Faith’ by New Order designed by Peter Saville.  


The Cook by Maylis de Kerangal; design by Na Kim (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / March 2019)

(I feel like a Freudian could have a field day with this cover.)


Daisy Jones and The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid; design by Lauren Wakefield (Hutchinson / March 2019)  

The cover of the US edition published by Ballantine (I couldn’t find an image without the book club sticker… sorry), was designed by Caroline Teagle Johnson. The book is getting a lot of buzz so I’ve seen both versions of the cover a lot online. It’s a pretty striking photo. I’m curious about where it came from… 

Daisy Jones and The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid; design by Lauren Wakefield (Hutchinson / March 2019)
Daisy Jones and The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid; design by Caroline Teagle Johnson (Ballantine / March 2019)


Follow This Thread by Henry Eliot; design by Elena Giavaldi (Three Rivers Press / March 2019) 


Good Kids, Bad City by Kyle Swenson; design by Henry Sene Yee (Picador / February 2019)


Halibut on the Moon by David Vann; design by Erin Fitzsimmons (Grove / March 2019)


Heroine by Mindy McGinnis; design by Erin Fitzsimmons (Katherine Tegen Books / March 2019)


I’ve Been Meaning to Tell You by David Chariandy; design by Tree Abraham (Bloomsbury / March 2019)


Lanny by Max Porter; design by Jonny Pelham (Faber & Faber / March 2019)


Midnight by Victoria Shorr; design by Sarah-May Wilkinson (Norton / March 2019)

This uses some very fancy metallic stock that you can’t really appreciate from the image.

The type reminded me a little of the cover of a Faber & Faber collection called Sex & Death from a couple of years ago designed by Luke Bird.


The Municipalists by Seth Fried; design by Matt Taylor (Penguin / March 2019)


Rutting Season by Mandeliene Smith; design by Grace Han (Scribner / February 2019)


Unspeakable by Harriet Shawcross; design by Jamie Keenan (Canongate / March 2019)

And sticking with blue-green covers… 


The Wall by John Lanchester; design by Utku Lomlu (Norton / March 2019)

The cover of the UK edition published by Faber & Faber (featured in January’s post) was designed by Alex Kirby:


When Brooklyn was Queer by Hugh Ryan; design by Rob Grom (St. Martin’s Press / March 2019)

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Published February 26, 2019

The ‘Future Book’ is Here

I haven’t posted anything about books and technology here for a while, but I thought this recent Wired piece by Craig Mod on the “Future Book” was quite interesting: 

Physical books today look like physical books of last century. And digital books of today look, feel, and function almost identically to digital books of 10 years ago, when the Kindle launched… Yet here’s the surprise: We were looking for the Future Book in the wrong place. It’s not the form, necessarily, that needed to evolve—I think we can agree that, in an age of infinite distraction, one of the strongest assets of a “book” as a book is its singular, sustained, distraction-free, blissfully immutable voice. Instead, technology changed everything that enables a book, fomenting a quiet revolution. Funding, printing, fulfillment, community-building—everything leading up to and supporting a book has shifted meaningfully, even if the containers haven’t. Perhaps the form and interactivity of what we consider a “standard book” will change in the future, as screens become as cheap and durable as paper. But the books made today, held in our hands, digital or print, are Future Books, unfuturistic and inert may they seem.

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Published February 22, 2019

J.D. Salinger Anniversary Editions Designed by Moker Ontwerp

To mark the 100th birthday of J.D. Salinger, Amsterdam-based design studio Moker Ontwerp were asked by Dutch publisher De Bezige Bij to design brand new covers for four of Salinger’s most famous books.

There are longstanding requirements for J.D. Salinger covers. No photographs or illustrations can be used, and the title should always be above the author’s name and set in bigger type. To break the rigidity of these rules and bring more expressiveness to the design, the studio decided to write all the titles with a brush instead of using a font, while setting the author’s name “as seriously as possible” in stately Roman Capitals.

The results, I think, speak for themselves… 

Thanks to Henk van het Nederend at Moker Ontwerp for letting me know about this project. 

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Published February 14, 2019

Book Covers of Note February 2019

Thanks to the weather cancelling everything, I’m not horrendously late with this month’s covers post!


All the Lives We Ever Lived by Katharine Smyth; design by Michael Morris (Crown / January 2019)


Black Leopard Red Wolf by Marlon James; cover art by Pablo Gerardo Camacho (Riverhead / February 2019)


Consent by Leo Benedictus; design by Alex kirby (Faber & Faber / February 2019)


The Current by Tim Johnston; design by Pete Garceau (Algonquin / January 2019)

You can read about the icy process behind this cover at Spine Magazine. 


The Far Field by Madhuri Vijay; design by Kelly Winton (Grove / January 2019)


The Five by Hallie Rubenhold; design by Jo Thomson (Transworld / February 2019)

I like this jacket a lot, but it’s what’s under it that really caught my eye:

The whole package looks great:


Golden State by Ben H. Winters; design by Gregg Kulick (Mulholland Books / January 2019)

The cover of Ben H. Winters previous novel Underground Airlines, also published by Mulholland Books, was designed by Oliver Munday:

Underground Airlines by Ben H. Winters; design by Oliver Munday (Mulholland Books / July 2016)
Golden State by Ben H. Winters; design by Gregg Kulick (Mulholland Books / January 2019)


Good Enough by Jen Petro-Roy; design by Liz Dresner; cover art by art Romy Blümel (Feiwel & Friends / February 2019)


Hold Still by Nina LaCour; design Samira Iravani; cover art by Adams Carvalho (Penguin / February 2019)

This is, of course, the same creative team behind the cover for We Are OK by Nina LaCour:

We Are Okay by Nina Lacour; design by Samira Iravani; illustration by Adams Carvalho (Dutton / February 2017)


Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli; design by Jennifer Carrow (Knopf / February 2019)

The cover for the UK edition of Lost Children Archive, published by Fourth Estate, was designed by Jo Walker: 


Muscle by Alan Trotter; design by Gray318 (Faber & Faber / February 2019)


Never Enough by Judith Grisel; design by Emily Mahon (Doubleday / February 2019)


The Peacock Feast by Lisa Gornick; design by Na Kim (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / February 2019)


Sick-Note Britain by Adrian Massey; design by Steve Leard (Hurst / February 2019)


Tentacle by Rita Indiana; design by Steve Marsden (And Other Stories / January 2019)


Thick by Tressie McMillan Cotton; design by Oliver Munday (The New Press / January 2019)

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Published January 27, 2019

Book Covers of Note January 2019

Here are this month’s book covers of note. Better late than never I suppose! (And so much for that New Year’s Resolution to better at blogging in 2019!). I’ll be starting on February’s post next week…


Cusp by Josephine Wilson; design by Alissa Dinallo (UWA Publishing / August 2018)

Starting my first 2019 covers post with a book from 2018 is not ideal, is it? Ah well… Take a look at some of the rejected covers on Alissa’s Instagram.   


The Dreamers by Karen Thompson Walker; design by Anna Kochman (Random House / January 2019)


Holy Lands by Amanda Sthers; design by Tree Abraham (Bloomsbury / January 2019)


Joy Enough by Sarah McColl; design by Catherine Casalino (Liveright / January 2019)


Maid by Stephanie Land; design by Amanda Kain (Hachette / January 2019)

You guys are weird… 

Pretend I’m Dead by Jen Beagin; design by Alex Merto (Scribner / May 2018)

The cover of the UK edition of Maid, published by Trapeze, also features rubber gloves FWIW. Sadly I don’t know who designed it.  


McGlue by Ottessa Moshfegh; design by Ben Denzer (Penguin / January 2019)


Mouthful of Birds by Samanta Schweblin; design by Stephen Brayda (Riverhead / January 2019)


No! by Charles Nemeth; design by James Paul Jones (Atlantic Books / January 2019)


Not Working by Josh Cohen; design by Matthew Young (Granta / January 2019)

I saw this in a bookstore on a recent visit to the UK. It stood out in a display of new nonfiction. I think it was the doodle-like looseness of the approach that initially caught my eye, but I also like that it feels like a parody of the contemporary nonfiction cover template. 


Old Newgate Road by Keith Scribner; design by Janet Hansen (Knopf / January 2019)


An Orchestra of Minorities by Chigozie Obioma; design by Gray318 (Little, Brown & Company / January 2019)

Jon also designed the cover of Chigozie Obioma’s previous novel The Fishermen:

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

The cover of the UK edition of An Orchestra of Minorities, published by Little, Brown, was designed by Nico Taylor.

Also in the UK, Pushkin Press have a new edition of The Fishermen with a cover by Anna Morrison:

The Fishermen by Chigozie Obioma; design by Anna Morrison (Pushkin Press / January 2019)
The Fishermen by Chigozie Obioma; design by Gray318 (Pushkin Press / February 2015)


Salt On Your Tongue by Charlotte Runcie; design by Gray318 (Canongate / January 2019)


Savage Frontier by Matthew Carr; design by Dan Mogford (Hurst / November 2018)


The Soprano Sessions by Matt Zoller Seitz and Alan Sepinwall; design by Mike McQuade (Abrams / January 2019)


To the River by Don Gillmor; design by Five Seventeen (Random House Canada / December 2018)


The Wall by John Lanchester; design by Alex Kirby (Faber & Faber / January 2019)


The Weight of a Piano by Chris Cander; design by Kelly Blair (Knopf / January 2019)

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Published January 4, 2019

Eye Test

Jeremy Nguyen.

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Published January 2, 2019

The Rest of the Best 2018

Happy New Year!

Before we move on to new books for 2019, here are some of the better end-of-year lists that looked back at book cover design in 2018…   

Paste were out of the gate early with a list of the 18 best book covers of 2018. 

The Pisces by Melissa Broder; design by Rachel Willey (Bloomsbury / May 2018)
Impossible Owls by Brian Phillips; design Jamie Keenan (FSG / October 2018)

The folks at Spine left it until right before Christmas to post their 2018 Book Covers We Loved, but they did do a nice video with designer Holly Dunn, highlighting a few of their favourites from the list:

In the most eagerly awaited list, Matt Dorfman chose his 12 covers of the year for the New York Times (although whoever wrote the “We think you can judge a year by its book covers” subhed owes Matt an apology).  

My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh; design Darren Haggar (Penguin Press)
Playing Changes by by Nate Chinen; design by Kelly Blair (Pantheon)

The Literary Hub asked 27 designers to share their favorite book covers of the year and came up with a list of 75 “covers of note” (where have I heard that before?), including a couple of covers I didn’t see anywhere else, which is always a pleasant surprise. 

The Blue Flowers by Raymond Queneau; design by Peter Mendelsund (New Directions)
Sexographies by Gabriela Weiner; design by Na Kim (Restless Books)

Vulture posted a list of their 10 favourite covers with commentary from the designers. 

The Friend by Sigrid Nunez; design by Nicolas Ortega (Riverhead)
My Sister the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite ; design by Michael Windsor (Doubleday)

And, drawing on the lists from LitHub and Paste (and some other guy), Jason Kottke posted a short but sweet list of book covers for the year that included a couple of my favourites, Cherry designed by Janet Hansen and Circe designed by Will Staehle. 

Cherry by Nico Walker; design by Janet Hansen (Knopf / August 2018)
Circe by Madeline Miller; design by Will Staehle (Little Brown & Co / April 2018)
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Published December 19, 2018

Notable YA Covers of 2018

I have to apologize even more than usual for this year’s YA post. I’ve been rushing to get it done before the holidays and I have finally run out of time. But even though this list is far from definitive, there are still lots of great young adult (and one or two middle-grade) covers for you to peruse. Enjoy! 


Always Forever Maybe by Anica Mrose Rissi; design Erin Fitzsimmons (HarperTeen / June 2018)

And She Was by Jessica Verdi; design by Sara Wood (Scholastic / July 2018)


The Boneless Mercies by April Genevieve Tucholke; design by Will Staehle (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / October 2018)


The Boneless Mercies by April Genevieve Tucholke; design by Jack Noel (Simon and Schuster / October 2018)


Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi; design Richard Deas (Henry Holt / March 2018)

City of Saints and Thieves by Natalie C. Anderson; design by Dana Li (Speak / May 2018)


Clara Voyant by Rachelle Delaney; design by Jennifer Griffiths; illustration Christy Lundy (Puffin Canada / May 2018)


The Colors of the Rain by R. L. Toalson; cover art by C. S. Neal (Yellow Jacket / September 2018)


Darius the Great is Not Okay by Adib Khorram; design by Samira Iravani; art by Adams Carvalho (Dial Books / September 2018)


Dread Nation by Justina Ireland; design by David Curtis; photography by Gustavo Marx (Balzer + Bray / July 2018)


Emergency Contact by Mary H.K. Choi; design by Lizzy Bromley; illustration gg (Simon & Schuster / March 2018)


The Fates Divide by Veronica Roth; design by Erin Fitzsimmons; illustration by Jeff Huang (Katherine Tegen Books / April 2018)


Five Feet Apart by Rachael Lippincott with Mikki Daughtry and Tobia Laconis; cover art Lisa Perrin (Simon & Schuster / December 2018)


500 Words or Less by Juleah Del Rosario; design by Sarah Creech; illustration by Cannaday Chapman (Simon Pulse / October 2018)


The Forest Queen by Betsy Cornwell; cover art by Sarah J. Coleman (Clarion / August 2018)


A Girl Like That by Tanaz Bhathena; design by Elizabeth H. Clark (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / March 2018)

The Girl You Thought I Was by Rebecca Phillips; design Michelle Taormina and Alison Klapthor; Photograph by Marta Bevaqua (Harpercollins / July 2018)

Gone to Drift by Diana McCaulay; design by David Curtis; illustration by Dadu Shin (HarperCollins / April 2018)


The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert; design by Jim Tierney (Flatiron Books / January 2018)

Heretics Anonymous by Katie Henry; design by David Curtis (Katherine Tegen Books / August 2018)

I Am Thunder by Muhammad Khan; design by Rachel Vale (Pan Macmillan / January 2018)


Legendary by Stephanie Garber; design by Erin Fitzsimmons and Ray Shappell (Flatiron Books / May 2018) 


The Loneliest Girl in the Universe by Lauren James; design David Curtis; illustration Amir Belhoula (HarperTeen / July 2018)


Meet Cute by Jennifer L. Armentrout et al; design Mallory Grigg; illustration by Nina Cosford (HMH / January 2018)


Monday’s Not Coming by Tiffany D Jackson; design by Erin Fitzsimmons (Katherine Tegen Books / May 2018)


Nice Try, Jane Sinner by Lianne Oelke; art and lettering by Colin Mercer (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt / January 2018)


Not the Girls You’re Looking For by Aminah Mae Safi; design by Liz Dresner; Photography by Michael Frost (Feiwel & Friends / June 2018)


People Like Us by Dana Mele; design by Maggie Edkins (Putnam / February 2018)


The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo; design by Erin Fitzsimmons; illustration by Gabriel Moreno (Harper Teen / March 2018)

Pride by Ibi Zoboi; design Jenna Stempel-Lobell (Balzer & Bray / September 2018)


Rabbit & Robot by Andrew Smith; Design by Lucy Ruth Cummins; art by Mike Perry (Simon & Schuster / September 2018)

Sawkill Girls by Claire Legrand; design by Aurora Parlagreco; illustration by Ruben Ireland (Katherine Tegen Books / October 2018)

  
Sadie by Courtney Summers; design by Kerri Resnick; art by Agata Wierzbicka (St. Martin’s Press / September 2018)


Sky in the Deep by Adrienne Young; design by Kerri Resnick; illustration by Larry Rostant (Wednesday Books / April 2018)


Smoke and Mirrors by K. D. Halbrook; design Chloe Foglia; cover art by Karl James Mountford (Paula Wiseman Books / September 2018)

Le Projet Starpoint: Le Réveil des Adjinns by Marie-Lorna Vaconsin; design by Yeaaah Studio (La Belle Colère / October 2018)

The cover of the first book in the series, published last year, is also very nice:

A Stitch in Time by Daphne Kalmar; cover art by Karl James Mountford (St Martin’s Press / June 2018)


Tess of the Road by Rachel Hartman; cover art by Simon Prades (Random House / February 2018)


Tyler Johnson Was Here by Jay Coles; design Marcie Lawrence; illustration by Charlotte Day (Little, Brown & Co / March 2018)


Undead Girl Gang by Lily Anderson; design by Corina Lupp; photography by  Michael Frost (Razorbill / May 2018)


A Very Large Expanse of Sea by Tahereh Mafi; design by Rodrigo Corral (HarperCollins / October 2018)


The Way You Make Me Feel by Maurene Goo; design by Elizabeth H. Clark (Farrar. Straus & Giroux / may 2018)


The Wrinkle in Time Quartet by Madeleine L’Engle; design by Kimberly Glyder (Library of America / September 2018)

Kimberly also designed the cover of The Polly O’Keefe Quartet, volume 2 of the Kairos novels, for Library of America:

The two volumes are available as a boxed set. 

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Published December 11, 2018

Book Covers of Note 2018

This has been an exhausting year for oh so, so many reasons, but book covers remained a bright spot for me in 2018. 

As always, my end-of-year list collects together the covers that I found interesting or noteworthy in some way or another in the past 12 months. It is organized alphabetically by title and grouped by designer (because that makes sense to me when I’m compiling the list). 

In terms of trends, there were a lot of hot orange book covers this year. Stark black, white and red covers were popular for non-fiction. Stars and stripes featured heavily too (I refuse to do a post about this!). Snakes seemed to be a thing!

Typographically, big white sans serifs are still a go-to. And hand-lettering and handwriting are still going strong. But retro typefaces, particularly big serifs with swishy swashes, are making a comeback. 

Thanks as always to everyone who has supported the blog this year, especially the folks who have taken the time to help with cover images and design credits. I’m sorry for the many, many the emails I have not replied to this year, and for all the covers, designers, and publishers I have overlooked. 


Aetherial Worlds by Tatyana Tolstaya; design by Stephanie Ross (Knopf / March 2018)

Stephanie Ross’s cover for Ruth Bader Ginsberg by Jane Sherron De Hart, published by Knopf in October, also caught my eye this year. 


Agrippina: Empress, Exile, Hustler, Whore by Emma Southon; design by Mark Ecob (Unbound / August 2018)


America is Not the Heart by Elaine Castillo; design by Gray318 (Atlantic Books / May 2018)

Also designed by Gray318:

Something Great and Beautiful by Enrico Pellegrini; design by Gray318 (Other Press / September 2018)
Me Mum. Me Dad. Me. by Malcolm Duffy; design Gray318 (Head of Zeus / April 2018)
Feel Free by Zadie Smith; design by Gray318 (Hamish Hamilton / February 2018)

(I got to visit Jon in his studio this summer, which was nice.)


Austerlitz by W.G. Sebald; design David Pearson (Penguin / June 2018)

Also designed by David Pearson:

Staying Power by Peter Fryer; design by David Pearson; illustration by Adam Busby (Pluto Press / September 2018)
Mad, Bad, Dangerous to Know by Colm Tóibín; design David Pearson (Viking / October 2018)
England’s Discontents by Mike Wayne; design by David Pearson (Pluto Press / November 2018)


The Book of Joan by Lidia Yuknavitch; design by Rafi Romaya; illustration by Florian Schommer (Canongate / January 2018)


Born To Be Posthumous by Mark Dery; design by Jim Tierney; photograph by Richard Corman (Little Brown & Co. / November 2018)

Congratulations to Jim and Sara on the birth of their baby last month! 


Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber; design by David Litman (Simon & Schuster / May 2018)


Cherry by Nico Walker; design by Janet Hansen (Knopf / August 2018)

Also designed by Janet Hansen:

Immigrant, Montana by Amitava Kumar; design Janet Hansen (Knopf / July 2018)
Provocations by Camille Paglia; design Janet Hansen (Pantheon / October 2018)


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

Also designed by Will Staehle:

The Outsider by Stephen King; design by Will Staehle (Scribner / May 2018)
The Infinite Future by Tim Wirkus; design by Will Staehle (Prentice Hall / January 2018)


Codex 1962 by Sjón; design by Rodrigo Corral (MCD / September 2018)

The cover of the UK edition of Codex 1962 published by Sceptre, which features art by Owen Gent, is also beautiful.

Also designed by Rodrigo Corral Studio: 

Severance by Ling Ma; design Rodrigo Corral (FSG / August 2018)
The End of the End of the Earth by Jonathan Franzen; design by Rodrigo Corral; photo by Jeroen Mantel (FSG / November 2018)
The Linden Tree by Cesar Aira; design by Rodrigo Corral (New Directions / May 2018)


The Comedown by Rebekah Frumkin; design by Rachel Willey (Henry Holt / April 2018)

Also designed by Rachel Willey:

Heartbreaker by Claudia Dey; design by Rachel Willey (Random House / August 2018)
The Pisces by Melissa Broder; design by Rachel Willey (Bloomsbury / May 2018)


The Doctor Stories by William Carlos Williams; design by Joan Wong (New Directions / September 2018)


Educated by Tara Westover; illustration by Patrik Svensson (Random House / March 2018)

Probably the most ubiquitous nonfiction book of the year (if not, in the end, the bestselling). Canada and the UK went with photographic covers. This was more memorable I thought. 


Evening in Paradise by Lucia Berlin; design by Na Kim (Farrar, Straus and Giroux / November 2018)

Also designed by Na Kim:

Welcome Home by Lucia Berlin; design by Na Kim (Farrar, Straus and Giroux / November 2018)
Heavy by Kiese Laymon; design by Na Kim (Scribner / October 2018)
Certain American States by Catherine Lacey; design by Na Kim (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / August 2018)


he Fed and Lehman Brothers by Laurence M. Ball; design by Catherine Casalino (University of Cambridge Press / June 2018)

Also designed by Catherine Casalino:

The Age of Caesar by Plutarch; translation by Pamela Mensch; design by Catherine Casalino (W.W. Norton / January 2018)
Here Kitty Kitty by Jardine Libaire; design Catherine Casalino (Hogarth / June 2018)


The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer; design by Ben Denzer (Riverhead Books / April 2018)

I also really liked Ben Denzer’s typographic cover for A Short Film About Disappointment by Joshua Mattson (Penguin Press / August 2018).


Feminasty by Erin Gibson; design by Anne Twomey; photograph by Ricky Middlesworth (Grand Central / September 2018)


The Feral Detective by Jonathan Lethem; design Allison Saltzman; photograph Kate Bellm (Ecco Press / November 2018)


Fox 8 by George Saunders; design by Greg Heinimann (Bloomsbury / November 2018)


Gin: Distilled by Gin Foundry; design by James Paul Jones (Ebury Press / October 2018)


Gun Love by Jennifer Clement; design by Michael Morris (Hogarth / March 2018)

Also designed by Michael Morris:

My German Brother by Chico Buarque; design by Michael Morris (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / June 2018)
Woman No. 17 by Edan Lepucki; design by Michael Morris; illustration by Oliver Wilson (Crown / February 2018)


Hippie by Paulo Coelho; design by Tyler Comrie (Knopf / September 2018)

Also designed by Tyler Comrie:

Ponti by Sharlene Teo; design by Tyler Comrie (Simon & Schuster / September 2018)
Bitwise: A Life in Code by David Auerbach; design by Tyler Comrie (Pantheon / August 2018)
There There by Tommy Orange; design by Tyler Comrie (Knopf / June 2018)


The Hole by José Revueltas; design by John Gall (New Directions / November 2018)

Also designed by John Gall:

The Frolic of the Beasts by Yukio Mishima; design John Gall (Vintage / November 2018)
Emissary by Yuko Tawada; design by John Gall (New Directions / April 2018)

(Don’t forget about the new book collecting 10 years of John Gall’s collages!)


The House of Impossible Beauties by Joseph Cassara; design by Sara Wood (Ecco / February 2018)

You can read about the design of this cover on Literary Hub. 


The Infinite Blacktop by Sara Gran; design by Alex Merto (Atria Books / September 2018)

Also designed by Alex Merto:

Pretend I’m Dead by Jen Beagin; design by Alex Merto (Scribner / May 2018)
Let It Bang by RJ Young; design by Alex Merto (HMH / November 2018)
Awayland by Ramona Ausubel; design by Alex Merto (Riverhead / March 2018)


In the Distance by Hernan Diaz; design by Luke Bird (Daunt Books / June 2018)

I read the US edition of In the Distance (Coffee House Press / 2017) earlier this year. It is quite extraordinary and not what I expected — a western, but not really. I was really pleased that Daunt decided to publish it in the UK. 

Also designed by Luke Bird:

Patient X by David Peace; design by Luke Bird (Faber & Faber / April 2018)
Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata; design by Luke Bird (Portobello Books / July 2018)


The Island That Disappeared by Tom Feiling; design by Marina Drukman (Melville House / March 2018)


The Italian Teacher by Tom Rachman; design by Jaya Miceli (Viking / March 2018)

Also designed by Jaya Miceli:

An American Marriage by Tayari Jones; design by Jaya Miceli (Algonquin Books / February 2018)
The Incendiaries by R.O. Kwon; design Jaya Miceli (Riverhead / July 2018)
Wasteland by W. Scott Poole; design by Jaya Miceli (Counterpoint / November 2018)


A Ladder to the Sky by John Boyne; design by Jo Thomson (Doubleday / August 2018)


Liveblog by Megan Boyle; design by Nicole Caputo (Tyrant Books / September 2018)

Also designed by Nicole Caputo:

It Needs To Look Like We Tried by Todd Robert Petersen; design by Nicole Caputo (Counterpoint / May 2019)
Tomb of the Unknown Racist by Blanche McCrary Boyd; design by Nicole Caputo (Counterpoint / May 2019)
The Gunners by Rebecca Kauffman; design by Nicole Caputo (Counterpoint / March 2018)

The Gunners — a novel about a group of misfit friends reuniting at a funeral — was a favourite in my office this year. 


The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner; design by Peter Mendelsund; photograph by Nan Goldin (Scribner / May 2018)

Also designed by Peter Mendelsund:

Notes from the Fog by Ben Marcus; design Peter Mendelsund (Knopf / August 2018)
Calypso by David Sedaris; design by Peter Mendelsund (Little, Brown & Co. / May 2018)
Tell Them of Battles, Kings, and Elephants by Mathias Énard; design by Peter Mendelsund (New Directions / November 2018)


My Cat Yugoslavia by Pajtim Statovci; design by Anna Morrison (Pushkin Press / April 2018)

I thought this was a nice contrast to the cover of the US edition designed by Oliver Munday (Pantheon / April 2017). It’s interesting that only the cat’s ear makes an appearance, and the snake (a boa constrictor in the story I think?) is more prominent.  

Also designed by Anna Morrison:

Odessa Stories by Isaac Babel; design by Anna Morrison (Puhskin Press / November 2018)
All the Beautiful Girls by Elizabeth J. Church, designed by Anna Morrison (Fourth Estate / March 2018)
Women by Chloe Caldwell; design by Anna Morrison (Fourth Estate / March 2018)


No Country Woman by Zoya Patel; design by Astred Hicks (Hachette Australia / August 2018)


Notes from the Fog by Ben Marcus; design by Jamie Keenan (Granta / September 2018)

Also designed by Jamie Keenan:

Perfidious Albion by Sam Byers; design Jamie Keenan; art by Emily Allchurch (Faber & Faber / August 2018)
Rock and Roll is Life by D.J. Taylor; design by Jamie Keenan (Constable / May 2018)
Impossible Owls by Brian Phillips; design Jamie Keenan (FSG / October 2018)


On Gravity by A. Zee; design by Jason Alejandro (Princeton University Press / May 2018)


Packing My Library by Alberto Manguel; design by Tom Starr (Yale University Press / March 2018)


The Perfect Nanny by Leila Slimani; design by Julianna Lee (Penguin / January 2018)


The Reservoir Tapes by Jon McGregor; design by Strick&Williams (Catapult / August 2018)


She Wants It by Jill Soloway; design by Elena Giavaldi (Crown / October 2018)


The Son of Black Thursday by Alejandro Jodorowsky; design by Richard Ljoenes (Restless Books / November 2018)

Richard Ljoenes recently talked about designing covers for Alejandro Jodorowsky — the cover of Where the Bird Sings Best was on my 2016 notable list — with Spine Magazine. 


The Stars Now Unclaimed by Drew Williams; design by Jack Smyth (Simon & Schuster / August 2018)

Also designed by Jack Smyth:

The Life and Rhymes of Benjamin Zephaniah; design by Jack Smyth (Simon & Schuster / May 2018) 
Yeti by Graham Hoyland; design by Jack Smyth (William Collins / May 2018)
A Station on the Path to Somewhere Better by Benjamin Wood; design by Jack Smyth (Scribner UK / June 2018)


A Superior Spectre by Angela Meyer; design by Design by Committee (Ventura / August 2018)


Swan Song by Kelleigh Greenberg-Jephcott; design by Lauren Wakefield (Hutchinson / June 2018)


Tell Me Lies by Carola Lovering; design Donna Cheng (Simon & Schuster / July 2018)

Crossing out is a thing.


Ten Arguments For Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now by Jaron Lanier; design Dan Mogford (The Bodley Head / June 2018)

Also designed by Dan Mogford:

Homeland by Walter Kempowski; design by Dan Mogford (Granta / November 2018)
A Very British Coup by Chris Mullin; design by Dan Mogford (Serpent’s Tail / 2018)
Portraits Without Frames by Lev Ozerov; design by Dan Mogford (Granta / November 2018)


There There by Tommy Orange; design by Suzanne Dean; art by Bryn Perrott (Harvill Secker / July 2018)

You can read about the design of this cover at Spine Magazine.

Also designed by Suzanne Dean:

The Largess of the Sea Maiden by Denis Johnson; design by Suzanne Dean (Jonathan Cape / February 2018)
Nervous States by William Davies; design by Suzanne Dean (Jonathan Cape / September 2018)
The Only Story by Julian Barnes; design by Suzanne Dean (Jonathan Cape / February 2018)


This Mournable Body by Tsitsi Dangarembga; design Kimberly Glyder (Graywolf / August 2018)

Also designed by Kimberly Glyder:

The Last of the Stanfields by Marc Levy; design by Kimberly Glyder (AmazonCrossing / December 2018)
Waiting for Tomorrow by Nathacha Appanah; design by Kimberly Glyder (Graywolf / April 2018)
The Music Shop by Rachel Joyce; design by Kimberly Glyder (Random House / January 2018)

Tin Man by Sarah Winman; design by Grace Han ( G.P. Putnam’s Sons / May 2018)

Everyone should read Tin Man btw. It is sad and lovely.

Also designed by Grace Han:

The Line Becomes a River by Francisco Cantú; design by Grace Han (Riverhead / February 2018)
There Will Be No Miracles Here by Casey Gerald; design by Grace Han (Riverhead Books / October 2018)
Florida by Lauren Groff; design by Grace Han (Riverhead / June 2018)


Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver; design by Ami Smithson (Faber & Faber / October 2018)

This has rather fancy edges (and endpapers I believe):


The Woman in the Window by A. J. Finn; design by Elsie Lyons (William Morrow / January 2018)

I also really liked Elisie Lyons’ glamorously noir cover for Sunburn by Laura Lippman (William Morrow / February 2018).

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Published December 3, 2018

Samuel Beckett Advent Calendar

Tom Gauld for The Guardian.

For some reason the Samuel Beckett Advent Calendar reminds me of the Half Man Half Biscuit song Joy Division Oven Gloves. 

Tom has a new postcard book The Snooty Bookshop out now. 

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Published November 28, 2018

Design Matters with Paul Sahre

Graphic designer and book cover designer Paul Sahre talks about his work and his recent memoir, Two-Dimensional Man, with Debbie Millman on Design Matters: 

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Published November 26, 2018

How Reid Miles Created the Blue Note Look

In the latest episode of Vox’s Earworm video series, producer Estelle Caswell takes a look at the classic record covers of the jazz label Blue Note designed by Reid Miles and frequently featuring the photographs of Francis Woolf:  

(via Michael Bierut)

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