Books, Design and Culture
I was raking leaves in Toronto last night where it also feels like a lot of folks have discarded masks, so Adrian Tomine‘s latest cover for The New Yorker resonated with me.
The copy of The Loneliness of a Long-Distance Cartoonist propped up against the railing is also a nice touch.
1 CommentThis month’s post includes a few covers that I missed earlier in the year along side the new and recent releases. I’m starting to think about my annual recap so please let me know if you think I’ve overlooked any other particularly notable covers that stood out for you and/or seemed emblematic of wider trends in 2022.
And just a reminder with all the stuff going on with social media that if you’d prefer to get new posts auto-magically emailed to you, you can subscribe here. I have also re-opened comments on new posts after closing them for a few months if you want to politely share your thoughts below.
Africa Risen by Sheree Renée Thomas, Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki and Zelda Knight; design by Christine Foltzer; art by Manzi Jackson (Tordotcom / November 2022)
Alindarka’s Children by Alhierd Bacharevic; design by Pablo Delcan (New Directions / June 2022)
The Come Up by Jonathan Abrams; design by Chris Allen (Crown / October 2022)
Diary of a Misfit by Casey Parks; design by Janet Hansen (Knopf / August 2022)
Ejaculate Responsibly by Gabrielle Blair; design Studio Eight and a Half (Workman / October 2022)
Feral City by Jeremiah Moss; design by Gregg Kulick (W.W. Norton / October 2022)
I’ve noted before that pink is a bit of a thing at the moment, but it’s kind of interesting that it’s being used on ‘grittier’ books…
Ghost Music by An Yu; design Suzanne Dean (Harvill Secker / November 2022)
Night of the Living Rez by Morgan Talty; design by Diane Chonette (Tin House / July 2022)
No Land in Sight by Charles Simic; design by John Gall (Knopf / August 2022)”
“Fuuuuuuuuuck….!” is the only way I can describe the mixture of awe and annoyance that I hadn’t thought of it I felt when I saw this cover. So simple and so clever.
O Caledonia by Elspeth Barker; design by Tristan Offit (Scribner / September 2022)
This has a very similar ‘obscured face collage’ feel to Tristan Offit’s cover for Briefly, A Delicious Life by Nell Stevens, which I thought I had posted here earlier in the year but apparently did not (probably because I didn’t — and still don’t! — know who designed the cover of the UK edition (it was designed by Mel Four, photograph by Marta Bevacqua) and I wanted to post them together?).
Pacifique by Sarah L. Taggart; design by Natalie Olsen (Coach House Books / October 2022)
People Person by Candice Carty-Williams; design by Emma A. Van Deun (Scout Press / September 2022)
The Singularities by John Banville; design by John Gall (Knopf / October 2022)
I don’t know if this actually reminds me of another cover, or if it’s just very Gallsian.
But actual blobs (as opposed to ‘book blobs‘) are a thing…
Solenoid by Mircea Cărtărescu; design by Anna Jordan (Deep Vellum / October 2022)
Toad by Katherine Dunn; design by June Park; illustration by Lydia Ortiz (MCD / November 2022)
Waiting for Ted by Marieka Bigg; design by Luke Bird (Cinder House / October 2022)
The Wall by Marlen Haushofer; design by Matt Dorfman (New Directions / June 2022)
The Waste Land by Matthew Hollis; design by Jamie Keenan (Faber & Faber / October 2022)
Mr. Keenan also designed the cover for the Liveright edition of The Waste Land itself a few years ago.
(The US edition of Matthew Hollis’s book, forthcoming from W. W. Norton, also has an interesting cover. If anyone from Norton would like to send me a hi-res image with the design credit, I’ll be happy to add it in!)
Weasels in the Attic by Hiroko Oyamada; design by Luke Bird (Granta / November 2022)
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I think pretty much every book cover designer I know shared this over the weekend. Every British one at least…
Tom’s latest collection of literary cartoons, Revenge of the Librarians, is out now.
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Tom Gauld for the New York Times.
Tom’s new book, coincidentally called Revenge of the Librarians, is out now.
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Author and illustrator Jon Klassen recently announced that his new book The Skull will be available from Candlewick Press in July, 2023. A whopping 115 pages, and based on a folktale Klassen read in a library before an event in Alaska (a great story in itself!), it tells the tale of a girl who runs away from home and befriends a talking skull she finds alone in a house in the woods. It is as spooky and macabre as it sounds, and totally worth the wait!
Jon Klassen’s latest book with Mac Barnett, The Three Billy Goats Gruff, was published this month.
Comments closedBusy month. Lots of book covers. Gotta go…
Barred by Daniel S. Medwed; design by Chin-Yee Lai (Basic Books / September 2022)
Bliss Montage by Ling Ma; design by Rodrigo Corral (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / September 2022)
Rodrigo Corral also designed the cover of Ling Ma’s previous novel Severance.
Canción by Eduardo Halfon; design by Alban Fischer (Bellevue Literary Press / September 2022)
Drive by James Sallis; design by David Litman (Poisoned Pen Press / September 2022)
I was just talking about this book — how it is a near perfect thriller, but also great for dudes who don’t read a lot of fiction — so I was happy to see it’s been given a new lick of paint. And pink covers are, as I keep saying ad nauseam, a thing…
Fingers Crossed by Miki Berenyi; design by Paul Palmer-Edwards photo Jurgen Ostarhild (Nine Eight Books / September 2022)
I’m including this because of the beautiful photo (with a colour palette remarkably on trend in 2022) and my inevitable teenage crush on indie style icon Miki from Lush.
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)
This collage is incredible.
A Girlhood by Carolyn Hays; design by Mel Four (Blair / September 2022)
Kick the Latch by Kathryn Scanlan; design by John Gall (New Directions / September 2022)
Lessons by Ian McEwan; design by Suzanne Dean; illustration by Tina Berning (Jonathan Cape / September 2022)
Modern Fables by Mikka Jacobsen; design by Natalie Olsen (Freehand Books / September 2022)
Perish by Latoya Watkins; design by Grace Han (Tiny Reparations / August 2022)
Poūkahangatus by Tayi Tibble; design by Linda Huang; art by Simone Noronha (Knopf / July 2022)
Sacrificio by Ernesto Mestre-Reed; design by Dana Li (SoHo Press / September 2022)
This reminded me Peter Mendelsund‘s Amerika cover for Schocken back in the day. But, as is the norm around here, the two covers do not actually look that much alike side by side…
Strangers to Ourselves by Rachel Aviv; design by Rodrigo Corral (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / September 2022)
We Spread by Iain Reid; design by Chelsea McGuckin (Scout Press / September 2022)
Are letters growing roots a mini-thing?
Worn Out by Alyssa Hardy; design by Emily Mahon; embroidery and dyeing by Alex Stikeleather (New Press / September 2022)
Comments closedA documentary on the Hernandez Brother’s groundbreaking alternative comic Love & Rockets will launch the new season of KCET’s art and culture series Artbound, streaming on the PBS app October 5, 2022.
Love & Rockets turns 40 this year, and if you have $400 USD burning a hole in your pocket, Fantagraphics are collecting together bound facsimiles of the original fifty issues in a special eight-volume boxed set. (Although I would settle for a slightly more affordable Love and Rockets #24 t-shirt myself!)
Comments closedIt’s been a while since I posted about author, illustrator and designer Coralie Bickford-Smith. In a new video for Penguin Books she talks about her creative process, her work on the original Clothbound Classics, and Penguin’s new Little Clothbound editions.
Comments closedI’m doing my best to catch up a little bit this month, but there’s no such thing as a quiet month in publishing any more. Just rest assured nobody knows what they’re doing — we’re just here for the chaos and romance…
Acceptance by Emi Nietfeld; design by Stephanie Ross (Penguin Press / August 2022)
As It Turns Out by Alice Sedgwick Wohl; design by Alex Merto (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / August 2022)
And kudos to Alex for not putting the author or the title — or any text at all! — on the cover (and getting away with it)…
Brother Alive by Zain Khalid; design by Jo Walker (Grove Press UK / August 2022)
Brown Neon by Raquel Gutiérrez; design by Alban Fischer (Coffee House Press / June 2022)
Even the Darkest Night by Javier Cercas; design by Jack Smyth (Knopf / June 2022)
The Foghorn Echoes by Danny Ramadan; design by Jennifer Griffiths (Viking Canada / August 2022)
Kiki Man Ray by Mark Braude; design by Jaya Miceli (W.W. Norton / August 2022)
(Sorry about the image size — if anyone at Norton would like to send me a higher res version, I’ll be happy to update it!)
The Last White Man by Mohsin Hamid; design by Ahlawat Gunjan (India Hamish Hamilton / August 2022)
You can listen to Ahlawat Gunjan talk about his life and work in this charming TEDx talk from 2020.
The typographic cover of the UK edition of The Last White Man, also published by Hamish Hamilton this month, was designed by Chris Bentham.
The Lovers by Paolo Cognetti; design by Etta Voorsanger-Brill (Harvill Secker / June 2022)
The cover of the US edition, published by HarperVia, was designed by Alicia Tatone:
Mother Noise by Cindy House design by Catherine Casalino (Scribner / May 2022)
Sharp Edges by Leah Mol; design by Jennifer Griffiths (Doubleday Canada / August 2022)
Till the Wheels Come Off by Brad Zeller; design by Alban Fischer (Coffee House Press / July 2022)
You can read about Alban’s process for this cover at Spine Magazine.
We Move by Gurnaik Johal; design by Jack Smyth (Serpent’s Tail / April 2022)
Pink and orange — and pink and orange combinations — are definitely a thing at the moment.
Whatever Happened to the C86 Kids? by Nige Tassell; design by Steve Leard (Bonnier Books / August 2022)
Yoga by Emmanuel Carrère; design by Rodrigo Corral (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / August 2022)
Comments closedI’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 David 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.
Comments closed“Today is wretched and plain. And it is not the bottom, as many people may feel it is. It will get worse; we will go lower. As the Court’s dissent insists, correctly, ‘Closing our eyes to the suffering today’s decision will impose will not make that suffering disappear.‘
And so, with all this laid out, ugly and incontrovertible, the task for those who are stunned by the baldness of the horror, paralyzed by the bleakness of the view, is to figure out how to move forward anyway.
Because while it is incumbent on us to digest the scope and breadth of the badness, it is equally our responsibility not to despair.
These two tasks are not at odds. They are irrevocably twined. As Dahlia Lithwick wondered just a few weeks ago, after the massacre in Uvalde, another clear and awful day: ‘What does it mean, the opposing imperative of honoring the feeling of being shattered, while gathering up whatever is left to work harder?’
It means doing the thing that people have always done on the arduous path to greater justice: Find the way to hope, not as feel-good anesthetic but as tactical necessity.“
Rebecca Traister, ‘The Necessity of Hope’, The Cut
Here are this month’s book covers…
After the Lights Go Out by John Vercher; design by Alex Merto (Soho Press / June 2022)
I’m not quite sure this image does justice to just how pink this pink is. (I love this cover)
Asylum by Edafe Okporo; design by Ryan Raphael (Simon & Schuster / June 2022)
A Calm & Normal Heart by Chelsea T. Hicks; design by Jaya Nicely (Unnamed Press / June 2022)
Chéri and the End of Chéri by Colette; design by Sarahmay Wilkinson (W. W. Norton / May 2022)
Cult Classic by Sloane Crosley; design by June Park (MCD / June 2022)
The Fight to Save the Town by Michelle Wilde Anderson; design by Henry Sene Yee (Avid Reader Press / June 2022)
Horse by Geraldine Brooks; design by Lynn Buckley (Viking / June 2022)
I have stopped keeping track of Lydian covers but if anyone else is still keeping score…
Jerks by Sara Lippmann; design by Ian Anderson (Mason Jar Press / March 2022)
This cover kept catching my eye on social media. Thanks to Sara for confirming the design credit.
Lapvona by Ottessa Moshfegh; design by Stephanie Ross (Penguin Press / June 2022)
For my art history friends, I believe the painting is “Agnus Dei” by Spanish Baroque artist Francisco de Zurbarán.
IIRC the cover of Moshfegh’s novel My Year of Rest and Relaxation was designed by Darren Haggar. The painting is by French Neoclassical artist Jacques-Louis David.
A Little Piece of Mind by Giles Paley-Phillips; design by Tree Abraham (Unbound / June 2022)
Nightcrawling by Leila Mottley; design by Greg Heinimann (Bloomsbury / June 2022)
Is pink the new orange?
Paradais by Fernanda Melchor; design by Oliver Munday (New Directions / May 2022)
Tree Thieves by Lyndsie Bourgon; design by Lucy Kim (Little, Brown Spark / June 2022)
Walk the Vanished Earth by Erin Swan; design by Elizabeth Yaffe (Viking / May 2022)
Ways of Being by James Bridle; design by Pablo Delcan; illustration by Jon Han (Farrar, Straus and Giroux / June 2022)
Comments closedI compile these posts over the month and then write this bit at the end if I have anything to say. I really don’t have the words at the moment. Posting about the most superficial of subjects feels faintly ridiculous at the end of yet another awful week. But here we are. I am just going to refer you to Wednesday’s Today in Tabs and say that there a lot of really nice covers this month if you are need of distraction…
Appliance by J. O. Morgan; design by the author (Jonathan Cape / May 2022)
City of Orange by David Yoon; design by Eric Fuentecilla (G. P. Putnam’s Sons / May 2022)
Elektra by Jennifer Saint; design by Joanne O’Neill (Flatiron Books / May 2022)
The cover of Ariadne by Jennifer Saint, also designed by Joanne O’Neill, was on my Notable list last year.
The cover of the UK edition of Elektra, published by Headline imprint Wildfire last month, was designed by Micaela Alcaino who recently won Designer of the Year at the British Book Awards.
España by Giles Tremlett; design by Jessie Price; art by Oscar Dominguez (Head of Zeus / April 2022)
The type is apparently Ohno Blazeface if you are curious.
Finding Me by Viola Davis; design Stephen Brayda; photograph by AB+DM (HarperOne / April 2022)
The Illusion of Simple by Charles Forrest Jones; design by Derek Thornton / Notch Design (University of Iowa / May 2022)
Insomnia by Sarah Pinborough; design by Juliana Lee (William Morrow & Company / April 2022)
I like the wobbly type.
The Life of Crime by Martin Edwards; design by Steve Leard (HarperCollins / May 2022)
I was reminded of Jon Gray‘s cover for Ilustrado by Miguel Syjuco from what seems like ages ago (2010)… Of course they look nothing alike. I had completely forgotten the pen was at jaunty angle.
Linea Nigra by Jazmina Barrera; design by Gabriele Wilson (Two Lines Press / May 2022)
Losing Face by George Haddad; design Josh Durham (University of Queensland Press / May 2022)
Mean Baby by Selma Blair; design by Janet Hansen; photograph by Peggy Sirota (Knopf / May 2022)
I don’t post a lot of celebrity memoirs here, but I thought these were an interesting pair to compare and contrast. Similar but different…
My Phantoms by Gwendoline Riley; design by Jack Smyth (Granta / May 2022)
Vladimir by Julia May Jonas; design by Katie Tooke (Picador / May 2022)
This made me think of Rafqa Touma’s piece for The Guardian earlier this year, ‘Well-dressed and distressed: why sad young women are the latest book cover trend’.
An Olive Grove in Ends by Moses McKenzie; design by Jack Smyth (Headline / April 2022)
The Premonitions Bureau by Sam Knight; design Jack Smyth (Faber & Faber / May 2022)
A very Saul Bass / Vertigo vibe to this.
Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel; design by Abby Weintraub (Knopf / April 2022)
I think this is possibly my favourite of the recent Emily St. John Mandel covers.
Sedating Elaine by Dawn Winter; design by Janet Hansen (Knopf / April 2022)
The endless possibilities of a banana and sharpie… (the cover of Come On Up was designed by the multi-talented Roman Muradov)
Son of Elsewhere by Elamin Abdelmahmoud; design by Jennifer Griffiths (McClelland & Stewart / May 2022)
The cover of the US edition was designed by Rachel Ake Kuech using a illustration by Grant Haffner. The difference between how Canada represents Canada and how the US represents Canada is…. interesting.
Big vertical light leaks might also be a thing… (Freedomland designed by Henry Sene Yee for Cornell University Press)
This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub; design by Grace Han (Riverhead / May 2022)
True Biz by Sara Novic; design by Jack Smyth (Little, Brown / April 2022)
Apparently this is Jack Smyth month on the blog…
You Have a Friend in 10A by Maggie Shipstead; design by Kelly Blair; illustration by Toby Leigh (Knopf / May 2022)
The cover of the UK edition, published by Doubleday, was designed by Irene Martinez:
I picked a lot of orange covers this month. I did say it was a thing.
The combination of pink and orange maybe a thing within the thing…?
A speaking of pink and orange…
You Made a Fool of Death With Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi; design by Anna Morrison (Faber and Faber / May 2022)
The cover of the US edition, published by Atria, was designed by Laywan Kwan.
