Another month of books, another month of book covers. July brings us a fresh summer basket of juicy, saturated colors, clever concepts, and weird peek-a-boos. Here are some of my favorites from the month that was:
Ruben Reyes, Jr., Archive of Unknown Universes; illustration by María Jesús Contreras (Mariner, July 1)
Love the font, love the frame, but what I find most pleasing is that an illustrated cover can look so matte and so juicy at the same time. (Contreras also illustrated the cover of Reyes’ There Is a Rio Grande in Heaven which pulls off a similar effect.)
Helen Schulman, Fools for Love: Stories; cover design by Janet Hansen (Knopf, July 8)
I have seen many many many mouths on book covers (people like mouths, I wonder why?), but never quite like this—I love both the concept and the restraint. I also appreciate that Hansen carried over the font for the supplementary text from her design for Schulman’s Lucky Dogs.
Daniela Catrileo, tr. Jacob Edelstein, Chilco; cover design by Charlotte Grimm (FSG Originals, July 15)
I can go either way on faux-distressing these days, but the colors and balance are really doing it for me here.
Kyung-Ran Jo, tr. Chi-Young Kim, Blowfish; cover design by Giacomo Girardi/Rodrigo Corral Studio, based on the Korean edition (Astra House, July 15)
This art might have made for a thousand good covers, but the title placement, on its little faux-sticker, makes it great.
Carrie R. Moore, Make Your Way Home; cover design by Beth Steidle (Tin House, July 15)
Holy saturation, Batman. I love the intensity of the colors, the takeover pattern, the text treatment on the edges (with, for contrast, its subtle gradation).
Laura Poppick, Strata: Stories from Deep Time; cover design by Steve Attardo (Norton, July 15)
Just perfectly what it needs to be. Love the font.
Hélène Bessette, tr. Kate Briggs, Lili is Crying; cover design by Jamie Keenan (New Directions, July 22)
The paper tear/tear with the title in it! The face just barely visible! Brilliant.
Michael Clune, Pan; cover design by Janet Hansen (Penguin Press, July 22)
As Dan at Casual Optimist pointed out, peephole eyes are weirdly prevalent this month. But I particularly appreciate this one for how unabashedly creepy it is.
Kate Broad, Greenwich; cover design by Olga Grlic (St. Martin’s Press, July 22)
What can I say, I love a drip.
Eloghosa Osunde, Necessary Fiction; cover design by Lauren Peters-Collaer, art by Affen Segun (Riverhead, July 22)
Another great frame, another great color story, another great piece of art.
Tre Johnson, Black Genius; cover design by Dominique Jones (Dutton, July 29)
And one with no color or art at all, that manages to be just as impactful, in its own way.
