Tag: covers

Posted in Book Talk

Top Ten Tuesday: Lovely Wordy Covers 😍

Posted on by Jennifer

Hey y’all! Top Ten Tuesday is a bookish question idea that was originally created and hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, from way back in June 2010! Since January 2018, Top Ten Tuesday has been hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. Thanks for taking it over! The idea is to make a list of ten books or bookish things on different topics each week. Check out her site for details on how to join and what the upcoming prompts are. 😊 You can also see all the posts from other bloggers linked on each weekly post on their main site.

This week’s prompt is typographic covers. Covers where words are the winner, and that’s all there needs to be. Covers where the title is the focus, and maybe it’s done creatively or just smashed in huge letters so you can’t miss it. I ADORE this topic because I think making an attractive, interesting cover without any usual visuals is an impressive skill, and can be done so well. I found a bunch below!! 😀

The books

The covers are more giant than usual this week since the focus is entirely on the cover!


That’s it for this week! Have you read any of the above books? Link to your posts this week in the comments as well 🙂

Posted in A Picture's Worth

A Picture’s Worth: Roma, Juliette, and Mina Lee

Posted on by Jennifer

Words have always carried more weight with me than images – give me a book over its movie any day – but I do love to see the beautiful images other people create when they’re in love with a book. That’s not my strength, but I can certainly appreciate it in others! So here’s a few of my faves based on what I’ve been reading recently.

These Violent Delights

I chose These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong as a Book of the Month because I had never heard of it before. And then promptly was told by others that they had been hearing about it everywhere for ages. 🤣 Not sure where I’ve been, but it was new to me! 1920s Shanghai combined with Romeo and Juliet and also gangs — yeah, I’m into that.

Ughhhh THE COLORS! They’re so pretty together! I love the high contrast on this one making the drama of the book cover’s details really stand out.

It was nice enough recently for me to chill on the deck again and enjoy some citrus while reading my delicious new book 😍

Continue reading “A Picture’s Worth: Roma, Juliette, and Mina Lee” →
Posted in Cover Roulette

Cover Roulette: Eragon

Posted on by Jennifer

I did my first cover roulette post a while ago for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, and it was so fun I wanted to do another! Luckily I found another popular book that has had many different editions made, and I wondered…

What other awesome covers have I missed?

Alright, I know, I know I’m talking about Christopher Paolini a lot. But it’s because what he writes is fantastic, and was personally formative for me growing up. I’m dying of happiness reading To Sleep In A Sea of Stars right now (releasing Sept. 15), and wanted to do a cover tribute to the book that really introduced me to the joy of dragons and epic adventures and fantasy.

Eragon.

Let’s begin.

The cover I know

This is the cover I came to know very very well. It was the cover I pulled off my shelf many times to read it again. It’s still the most immediately related in my mind to the idea of “dragons.”

2008 Russian: with doodles!

Alright, this seems a bit more whimsical than I would expect for this book or for Russians. I see maybe a fairy and a gnome in those doodles, as well as an angry sun. I can’t immediately think of how any of those would relate to this book…

2006 Persian: coy Saphira

This super close up of the dragon Saphira with the extreme black vignette makes her look shy. Like she’s hiding a bit out of sight, just coming out enough to say hi.

That is not who Saphira is. 😂

Continue reading “Cover Roulette: Eragon” →
Posted in A Picture's Worth

A Picture’s Worth: Secrets & Truth

Posted on by Jennifer

Words have always carried more weight with me than images – give me a book over its movie any day – but I do love to see the beautiful images other people create when they’re in love with a book. That’s not my strength, but I can certainly appreciate it in others! So here’s a few of my faves based on what I’ve been reading recently.

Zahra’s Paradise

Ahhhh, this was one I’ve been wanting to read for a while. Zahra’s Paradise is published semi-anonymously, with only pen names to the title. The reason being exposure of corruption and evidence of coverups, hacking, stolen information, torture, and all sorts of horrific depressing crimes. It was originally written as an illustrated web series after the fraudulent elections in Iran in 2009. Protestors were arrested and vanished. The history included in the book is brilliantly helpful, but the emotion and the story is what really packs the punch.

Holding the book in front of the city streets reflects the spirit and nature of the story. Go out, fight, be heard. You CAN’T just stay in the comfort of home and take what’s given; you must brave the cold (snowy) reality outside.

Continue reading “A Picture’s Worth: Secrets & Truth” →
Posted in A Picture's Worth

A Picture’s Worth: Vampiric Memories & Jellyfish Aliens

Posted on by Jennifer

Words have always carried more weight with me than images – give me a book over its movie any day – but I do love to see the beautiful images other people create when they’re in love with a book. That’s not my strength, but I can certainly appreciate it in others! So here’s a few of my faves based on what I’ve been reading recently.

To Sleep In A Sea Of Stars

I’ve been ranting about how excited I was to get this ARC for a while now, and I don’t expect to stop for a while on yet! Christopher Paolini’s book outside of the Inheritance world is just as epic, but in space this time. Science is the magic TSIASOS (that is a rough acronym. Will keep working on a way to abbreviate this title. Stay tuned.).

This one is mine, because the second I got this ARC in the mail I danced around the kitchen squealing and clutching it to my chest, and then went outside to read and take some gorgeous photos of this gorgeous book on a gorgeous day. Check out my insta for a few more — because this book is so pretty and startlingly gigantic.

You really just can’t go wrong with the simple and gorgeous display of book + flowers. Especially when the cover is this stunning on it’s own. I know. I’m not going to shut up about it. *swoon*

Continue reading “A Picture’s Worth: Vampiric Memories & Jellyfish Aliens” →
Posted in A Picture's Worth

A Picture’s Worth: dark fantasy & light reality

Posted on by Jennifer

Words have always carried more weight with me than images – give me a book over its movie any day – but I do love to see the beautiful images other people create when they’re in love with a book. That’s not my strength, but I can certainly appreciate it in others! So here’s a few of my faves based on what I’ve been reading recently.

The Obsidian Tower

I was absolutely delighted when I was offered a copy of The Obsidian Tower by Melissa Caruso after posting about how excited I was for its release. I’ve dived right in and am loving the rich world of magic so far! It’s a new release, but I’m excited to see some wonderful bookstagram posts for it already. ^.^

Such a dramatic and striking cover on this one! The details of it are impressive, and the flurry of items in this one complements it so well.

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Posted in Cover Roulette

Cover Roulette: The Joy Luck Club

Posted on by Jennifer

I did my first cover roulette post a while ago for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, and it was so fun I wanted to do another! Luckily I found another popular book that has had many different editions made, and I wondered…

What other awesome covers have I missed?

The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan just had it’s 30 year anniversary in 2019. In her preface to the 30th anniversary edition, Tan says that she expected her little collection of stories to disappear off shelves by six months after publication, as most debut books do. And, well… now she’s writing a 30 year anniversary preface for yet another re-publication. Pretty awesome.

I’m also finally picking this book up. It’s one of those “been meaning to for years” books that I’ve been interested in, but just never got around to. Well, now I’m around to it! Which made it feel like the perfect pick to check out some of the many covers it’s had from 30+ years of popularity.

The Cover I Know

In my college library basement, I stumbled on the “Amy Tan” section. Loved the gorgeous simple covers, already knew I’d probably love her works. Finally reading it now. ^.^

2016 Russian: A Takeover / Merge

I adore this cover interpretation. The Chinese dragon wrapping around the Statue of Liberty, such an American symbol. I love the way it shows the cultures blending, as the fire from the torch becomes like the dragon’s fire, and I just absolutely love it entirely.

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Posted in Book Talk

The guy you see on the most romance novel covers

Posted on by Jennifer

I recently saw this comment on a book on Goodreads:

apparently his name is Dylan

Besides giving me a good laugh, it also made me wonder who the people on book covers are. How do they get to be the person representing that character? How can the author ever find the perfect match in a real person to how they’ve imagined the character while writing? How do you get into the business of being a cover model?

The classic names

Apparently there are two main names when people think of cover models: Fabio and Cindy Guyer. You can probably guess which is which.

Cindy was a new name to me, but Fabio made a lot of things from the past click; jokes from TV shows and such suddenly made sense. He’s so famous that most of his movie or tv show appearances just cast him as “Himself.” One was even for a role titled “Handsome Man.” Also, wasn’t he the Beast Master or something? You can get a pretty good idea of the kind of characters he typically got cast for in the example cover for “Warrior’s Woman” below. 😏

Romance novels = 100% judging by the cover

They both primarily starred in covers for romance novels, which honestly sounds so fun. You get to dress up in gorgeous or unique or sexy clothes (or dress down in maybe minimal clothes), and have a professional take super flattering photos of you. Then on top of that, they get to be used for BOOKS!

I’m fairly sure Fabio had the record for most number of books using him as their cover model, set at 500. But times have changed, and apparently so have tastes, because there’s was a new man around in the 2010s who sought to shatter that record — and did.

Continue reading “The guy you see on the most romance novel covers” →
Posted in Cover Roulette

Cover Roulette: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Posted on by Jennifer

I did my first cover roulette post a while ago for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, and it was so fun I wanted to do another! Luckily I found another popular book that has had many different editions made, and I wondered…

What other awesome covers have I missed?

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins is over a decade old now, which was a startling realization. This book was probably the first dystopia novel I read, and as far as I can tell set off a whole chain of young adult dystopia novels coming out around the same time. It blew me away. Judging by all the other cover versions I found for various years and countries, I wasn’t the only one. ^.^

*A note on this set: some of the images I could find were smaller than the others, but they were so interesting that I wanted to include them anyway. Please forgive the inconsistency in sizes and enjoy the range of styles!

The Cover I Know

Identifiable primarily by the mockingjay symbol with the arrow, the mostly-black cover, and the blocky text for the title.

2009 Serbian: not that different

This is pretty similar to what I know. The author’s name is even the same sound if you said it aloud, so I’m sure I’d know what this was if I saw it at a bookshop or at the airport.

Continue reading “Cover Roulette: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins” →
Posted in A Picture's Worth

A Picture’s Worth: Yugoslavian Trains & Hawaiian Islands

Posted on by Jennifer

Words have always carried more weight with me than images – give me a book over its movie any day – but I do love to see the beautiful images other people create when they’re in love with a book. That’s not my strength, but I can certainly appreciate it in others! So here’s a few of my faves based on what I’ve been reading recently.

Murder on the Orient Express

Remember that time I said I was going to read this book? Well I am, and I don’t regret it. Plus, my god, there so many gorgeous photos since it’s been around forever. The resurgence in popularity when a movie was made semi-recently didn’t hurt either. It also made me realize I definitely have to do a cover roulette for this title!!

Perfectly capturing the feel of the story!!

https://www.instagram.com/p/B9lFZZsgvLj/hidecaption=true

I love the original covers from old stories

Continue reading “A Picture’s Worth: Yugoslavian Trains & Hawaiian Islands” →