(Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme brought to you by The Broke and the Bookish.)
Book covers are one of those things that I don’t really think I pay much attention to…until I start paying much attention to them. Obviously they’re responsible for catching your eye in a bookstore, but since I often hear about a book before I see a copy of it, it’s harder for me to think of covers that have drawn me in. Looking back, though, I can think of some.
Something Missing (Matthew Dicks) – Great color palette, teases the plot nicely.
Stiff (Mary Roach) – I discovered Mary Roach because I saw this cover from across the store. It tells you exactly what it’s about.
Bonk (Mary Roach) – Love the ladybugs. Gets the point across without being crass (plus it’s a little funny).
Graceling (Kristin Cashore) – Bad-ass chick. With a sword. Also, I love the snowflake pattern around the edges.
Fire (Kristin Cashore) – Another bad-ass chick. With a bow and arrow and a slammin’ dress.
Big Red Tequila (Rick Riordan) – The skeleton is wearing cowboy boots and drinking booze. What’s not to love?
Gods Behaving Badly (Marie Phillips) – Two words: Happyface. Underwear.
Graveminder (Melissa Marr) – Possibly my favorite cover on this list. The building is all kinds of foreboding, and I love the colors and how the photo gets a bit fuzzy around the edges. And that quote? Shudder!
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland… (Catherynne M. Valente) – Beautiful colors, and beautiful illustrations that are sprinkled through the entire book.
Let’s Pretend This Never Happened (Jenny Lawson) – It’s a taxidermied mouse dressed like Hamlet — skull, cape, and all. I also love that its subtitle is “A Mostly True Memoir.”
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Great covers. I actually walked past Let’s Pretend This Never Happened, then turned around and laughed out loud. The B&N Nook guy looked at me like I was a crazy lady.
Some of my favorites:
I Was Told There’d Be Cake by Sloane Crosley- It is so pretty, I want it as wallpaper.
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Joyce Rachel- The cover represents the distance so well.
Bossypants by Tina Fey- Make me laugh because I knew of Fey’s fear of man hands.
Devil in the White City by Erik Larson- Dark cityscape, that font, how its framed. Gorgeous.
It’s weird to think of a picture of a taxidermied mouse as funny, but it is. Have you read the book? It’s hilarious. 🙂
I wish Crosley’s book had been as good as its cover. Agreed totally on Fey and Larson’s covers, but I hadn’t heard of Rachel’s — just looked it up, and I think it’s great!
Thanks for stopping by, and happy reading. 🙂
I loved Let’s Pretend, I finished it in a day and would really love it if she did another or even did a podcast.
That would be an insanely…insane podcast. You do know she has a blog, right? Enjoy the craziness daily. 🙂
Lovely covers! kelley—the road goes ever ever on
Thank you, ma’am!
I’m not able to comment on your blog, but I love the covers for The Goose Girl (so old-fashioned) and of course Graceling.
I have the US version of Graceling on my list, but I love that you included Mary Raoch’s covers – she is vastly under appreciated. 🙂
I love seeing Graceling on so many lists! A great novel behind a great cover.
So glad to meet another Mary Roach fan! She is under-appreciated, and I recommend her books to pretty much everyone.
Oh! Let’s Pretend This Never Happened is a great pick! I have never seen those Cashore covers, I like them a lot! Here are my picks http://wp.me/pzUn5-1uD
Any book cover that includes a dead mouse dressed like Hamlet should automatically be included on this list. I’ll hop over to your blog right now!
Count me in as another Mary Roach fan! I adore Packing for Mars, but Stiff is quite the classic too! I have a different cover for Graceling, but I like this one a whole lot. I’ve really been wanting to get to the Fairyland book as well. Great list! This has been a really fun topic. 🙂 Thanks for stopping by!
Lisa
Yay for Mary Roach! I enjoy her older books more than Packing for Mars, mainly because space has never been my favorite topic. But I’ll read and love anything she writes, including a shipping label or directions for using toothpaste. 🙂
Oh, you should definitely check out Valente’s book — it’s so wonderful! Lovely illustrations, great story.
Great picks! I love these covers of the 7 Kingdoms, as well as the Valente cover 🙂
Thanks for stopping by, Aleksandra! The Valente cover is a popular one, I see. The story inside it is just as whimsical and wonderful.
I love that you’re reading Dan Wells’ trilogy! 🙂 I just finished I Am Not a Serial Killer, and am looking forward to diving into the next two books.
Your Kristin Cashore covers are different than mine. It’s hard to say which I like more. I love these other ones too. I will have to track down the one with the mouse dressed as Hamlet. That’s just too good to pass up.
Thanks for stopping by my blog!
I like all of the Cashore covers I’ve seen, but I like these a little more. They just feel stronger to me than the ones with the knife. I’m not sure if they’re European vs. American covers, or if they’re all American, just different additions. Love the stories no matter their covers, though.
The mouse’s name is “Hamlet Von Schnitzel.” 🙂 Lawson’s book is hilarious, but terribly irreverent…bordering on blasphemous at some points. Just a warning for ya.
Thank you for coming by and sharing your thoughts!
Brilliant list! All your choices have really attention-grabbing titles as well as covers.
You’re right, Julianne, the titles are all pretty eye-grabbing. The stories themselves are great too!
That Lawson cover’s still calling my name; does the memoir live up to its facade?
On my list of alluring covers? Olivia (the children’s book), Griffin and Sabine, Love in the Time of Cholera, and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. (Didn’t participate in this particular top 10, but those titles leapt immediately to mind.)
Lawson’s book is amazing! Hilarious and vaguely blasphemous and wonderful. You can check out my review here.
Aw, Olivia. I’ve never read those, but I know their covers well. Very fun and light and sweet. Thanks for stopping by, Laurie!