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The Casual Optimist Posts

Book Covers of Note, July 2024
Published July 26, 2024

Book Covers of Note, July 2024

I wonder what it is like to live in uninteresting — boring, even — times? It must be nice. While I continue to ponder that, here are this month’s book covers….

The Alternatives by Caoilinn Hughes; design by Lauren Peters-Collaer (Riverhead / April 2024)

Back to the Local by Maurice Gorham; design by Pete Adlington (Faber & Faber / June 2024)

Pete talks about the book and his process designing the cover for the Faber Journal.

Festival & Game of the Worlds by César Aira; design by Tyler Comrie (New Directions / July 2024)

The Horse by Willy Vlautin; design by Milan Božić (HarperCollins / July 2024)

Kicking Off Around the World by Ramon Usall; design by Steve Leard (Pluto Press / June 2024)

If I was good at blogging I would have posted this last month when the book was actually published and before the finals of Euros and Copa America, but here we are. Better late than never I guess, and politics never goes out of sport however much some people pretend they are unconnected. (I’m still thinking about doing a post of covers from books about sport, but haven’t got any further than that. Again, if I was actually smart and organized, I would have had it done in time for the Olympics. Cover suggestions still welcome by the way!).

Anyway… The author’s surname and the book’s subtitle were actually printed on to the shirt for the cover and Steve made or bought actual buttons to decorate it. He kindly sent over these shots of the work in progress…

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

(If anyone in the UK can tell me who designed the red and green cover of Liars for Pan Macmillan — and send me a hi-res cover image! — I would to love to include it next month’s list when it’s released)

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

Long Island Compromise by Taffy Brodesser-Akner; design by Tyler Comrie (Random House / July 2024)

The cover of Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s previous novel Fleishman is in Trouble was designed by Kelly Blair. I feel like these work together despite being quite different? Maybe it’s as simple as the combination of really big type for the title and handwriting of “a novel”?

Neu Klang by Christoph Dallach; design by Jack Smyth (Faber & Faber / May 2024)

This is out in the US/Canada next month.

Paul Celan and the Trans-Tibetan Angel by Yoko Tawada; design by Jamie Keenan (New Directions / July 2024)

Rangikura by Tayi Tibble; design by Linda Huang; illustration by Simone Noronha (Knopf / April 2024)

The same team created the cover of Tayi Tibble’s previous poetry collection Poūkahangatus, which was included way back in September 2022’s post.

The Road to the Salt Sea by Samuel Kọláwọlé; design Alicia Tatone (Amistad Books / July 2024)

(Thanks to Alicia and AD Stephen Brayda for sending over the cover)

Steak by Tim Hayward; design by Luke Bird (Quadrille / May 2024)

I am late to this one, but it is very good (in my defence, it only came out in the US/Canada last month).

They Dream in Gold by Mai Sennaar; design by Vivian Lopez Rowe (Zando / July 2024)

Tripping on Utopia by Benjamin Breen; design by Tyler Comrie (Grand Central / January 2024)

I don’t who decided July is Tyler Comrie month (me, apparently), but it seems that way…

Trouble in Censorville by Nadine M. Kalin and Rebekah Modrak; design by Ben Denzer (Disobedience Press / July 2024)

Whoever You Are, Honey by Olivia Gatwood; design by Jaya Miceli; art by Steven Wilson (Dial Press / July 2024)

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Published July 18, 2024

Best Books for Summer by Tom Gauld

Tom Gauld for The Guardian.

This is pretty much me whenever we go on vacation, although I usually bring more anxiety to the mix.

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Published July 16, 2024

Write What You Know

This is pretty much why I don’t write anything I don’t have to.

Asher Perlman’s book of cartoons, Well, This is Me, is available now.

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Modernism, Inc.
Published July 15, 2024

Modernism, Inc.

Opening in New York this week at IFC Center, Modernism, Inc. is a new documentary about architect Eliot Noyes, a pioneer of modern corporate design during America’s post-war economic boom.

Director Jason Cohn (also co-director of Eames: The Architect and the Painter) recently discussed Noyes and his legacy with Steven Heller for PRINT:

Eliot Noyes started out as a disciple of Walter Gropius and the Bauhaus, which was a specific flavor of Modernism that developed in Europe between the wars. There was a kind of idealism—a social reform aspect—to it. Modern design promised to improve people’s lives in tangible ways by making high-quality goods and housing affordable for everyone. Once Modernism became installed in America after WWII, however, it lost a lot of that idealism. It was adopted by multinational corporations like IBM and it became the preferred architectural style of the super-rich. I don’t think Eliot Noyes was consciously trying to make this happen, but he was probably as central to this evolution as anyone. I try to let viewers make up their own minds about whether Eliot Noyes made the world better or worse as a result of the work he did in corporate design, but I hope they at least think about what might have happened if Modernism maintained the more independent spirit that it had before if became “Modernism, Inc.”

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Published June 28, 2024

Klaas Verplancke’s “Chilling”

Another lovely illustration by cartoonist Klaas Verplancke for the cover of the latest New Yorker. It has been an unseasonably hot June in Toronto!

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Book Covers of Note, June 2024
Published June 27, 2024

Book Covers of Note, June 2024

Hey everyone. I hope you keeping well. It’s another big post this month. There are lots of new covers, but also quite a few that I missed (or didn’t have the design credit for!) from earlier this year too. I expect that’ll keep happening over the next couple of posts as I try to catch up over the summer, so feel free to send me stuff I might have overlooked. Now is the time!

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

Ask Me Again by Clare Sestanovich; design by Janet Hansen (Knopf / June 2024)

A Janet Hansen one-two to open proceedings…

Blessings by Chukwuebuka Ibeh; design by John Fontana; painting by Tosin Olusegun Kalejaye (Doubleday / June 2024)

The cover of the UK edition published by Penguin earlier this year, designed by Richard Bravery (I think?), uses the same painting by Tosin Kalejaye but it’s interesting to see the differences in the approach side by side.

The Borrowed Hills by Scott Preston; design by Jaya Miceli (Scribner / June 2024)

Another example of the US and the UK cover sharing the same image but with differing approaches. I like the type and the retro poster vibe of the UK cover a lot. I don’t have the design credit though so please drop me a note if you know whose work it is and I’ll add it in!

Brat by Gabriel Smith; design by Stephanie Ross (Penguin Press / June 2024)

Cue the Sun by Emily Nussbaum; design by Michael Morris (Random House / June 2024)

An Excellent Host by Chelsea G. Summers; design by Jaya Nicely (Unnamed Press / April 2024)

I’m a bit late to this. An Excellent Host, a short story by Chelsea G. Summers author of the cult hit A Certain Hunger, was originally printed exclusively for Independent Bookstore Day back in April. Signed copies are still currently available from the publisher. Jaya Nicely also designed the cover of A Certain Hunger of course…

Fire Exit by Morgan Talty; design by Beth Steidle (Tin House / June 2024)

The Friday Afternoon Club by Griffin Dunne; design by Evan Gaffney; photograph by Camilla McGrath (Penguin Press / June 2024)

Nice swooshy type here, and that photo.

Girls by Kirsty Capes; design by Dan Jackson; art by Tracey Sylvester Harris (Orion / May 2024)

Gub by Scott McKendry; design by Anna Morrison (Little, Brown / February 2024)

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

The Mark by Fríða Ísberg; design by Robbie Porter (Faber & Faber / June 2024)

Ominous blobs are back!

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

This reminded me of Darren Haggar’s cover for the W.W. Norton edition of Crime by Irvine Welsh from the distant days of 2009.

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

The cover of the US edition of Monstrilio, published by Zando in March last year, was designed by Alex Merto. I was a little late to it, but it was included in my September round-up.

Overstaying by Ariane Koch; design by Jonathan Pelham (Pushkin Press / April 2024)

A Perfect Day to Be Alone by Nanae Aoyama; design by Jack Smyth (Quercus / May 2024)

Please Stop Trying to Leave Me by Alana Saab; design by Mark Abrams; painting by Jennifer Allnut (Knopf / June 2024)

There are shades of Italian Renaissance painter Giuseppe Arcimboldo about this cover.

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

Supplication by Nour Abi-Nakhoul; design by Luke Bird (Influx Press / June 2024)

I’m not much of a horror fan so my frame of reference is very dated, but this cover immediately made me thing of the 1998 Japanese movie Ringu (and the end of The Blair Witch Project).

The Canadian cover of Supplication designed by Emma Dolan for PRH Canada was featured in last month’s list.

(Thanks to Jack Smyth for the UK cover credit. Cheers Jack)

The Survivors of the Clotilda by Hannah Durkin; design by Mike McQuade (Amistad Press / January 2024)

Technology is Not the Problem by Timandra Harkness; design by Steve Leard (HQ / May 2024)

Eye, eye…

When Women Ran Fifth Avenue by Julie Satow; design by Emily Mahon (Doubleday / June 2024)

This makes a nice pair with the cover of The Upstairs Delicatessen by Dwight Garner designed by June Park and published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux in October last year.

Worry by Alexandra Tanner; design by Alicia Tatone; painting by Shannon Cartier Lucy (Scribner / March 2024)

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Published June 21, 2024

Barry Blitt’s “Anything But That”

I recently came across this 2016 Barry Blitt cover for The New Yorker. I hadn’t seen it before. Obviously it’s about the US presidential election that year, but I’m not sure that much has changed.

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Published June 18, 2024

Book Release

Asher Perlman’s new book of cartoons, Well, This is Me, is out today.

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Published June 7, 2024

Restless Spirit

Tom Gauld for The Guardian.

If I seem to be posting a lot about unread books and to-read piles, it is because I have a lot of unread books and a daunting to-read pile and I feel bad about it.

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Published June 4, 2024

Too Many Books?

Grant Snider.

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Book Covers of Note, May 2024
Published May 28, 2024

Book Covers of Note, May 2024

I hope you’re keeping safe and well. Between work trips and sales conference it’s been a few weeks for me, and there are a lot of covers this month, so I am going to stop prattling and let you get straight to the post…

Another Word for Love by Carvell Wallace; design by Rodrigo Corral (MCD / May 2024)

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

I feel like there was another ice cream book cover recently and that somehow Ben Denzer has manifested this.

Blue Ruin by Hari Kunzru; design by John Gall; painting by Chad Wys (Knopf / May 2024)

John Gall also designed the cover of Hari Kunzru’s previous novel Red Pill.

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

Coexistence by Billy-Ray Belcourt; design by Kelly Hill (Hamish Hamilton / May 2024)

Dead Animals by Phoebe Stuckes; design by Will Speed (Hodder & Stoughton / April 2024)

Evenings and Weekends by Oisín McKenna; design by Jo Thomson (HarperCollins / May 2024)

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

I was trying to think what this cover reminded me of, and then I remembered this.

The Great State of West Florida by Kent Wascom; design by Jeff Miller / Faceout Studio (Grove / May 2024)

Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck; design by John Gall (New Directions / May 2024)

This is the cover of the newly released US paperback. John Gall also designed the cover for the hardback, published by New Directions last year. Author Jenny Erpenbeck and translator Michael Hofmann recently won the 2024 International Booker Prize with Kairos.

Kilworthy Tanner by Jean Marc Ah-Sen; design by David Drummond (Esplanade Books / May 2024)

This composition brings to mind David Pelham’s covers for J. G. Ballard. (On a semi-related note, air-brushed covers are probably overdue a revival. Or is it a dying art now?)

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

Like Love by Maggie Nelson; design by Suzanne Dean (Vintage / May 2024)

Suzanne Dean also designed the cover of Bluets by Maggie Nelson.

Loneliness & Company by Charlee Dyroff; design by Mia Kwon (Bloomsbury / May 2024)

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

Olive Munday bringing his A game.

Monsters, Martyrs, and Marionettes by Adrienne Gruber; design by Tree Abraham (Book*hug / May 2024)

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

The Novices of Lerna by Ángel Bonomini; design by Sarah Schulte (Transit Books / May 2024)

Perfume & Pain by Anna Dorn; design by Math Monahan (Simon & Schuster / May 2024)

Just so much pink this month!

The Red Grove by Tessa Fontaine; design by Sara Wood (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / May 2024)

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

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

Can anyone tell me who designed the cover of the UK edition of Supplication for Influx Press? I’d love to include it in next month’s round-up when it’s published.

The Z Word by Lindsay King-Miller; design by Andie Reid (Quirk Books / May 2024)

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Published May 15, 2024

Bluebeard by Tom Gauld

This, but for my personal art and design projects, and my actual proper job.

(Tom Gauld for The Guardian, obviously. Tom is currently selling some original drawings in his shop if you would like to own one of his masterpieces)

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