Friday Miscellany, July 24

/1/ Over at Boing Boing, there's a fascinating, scary story surrounding the cover design of Justine Larbalestier's forthcoming Liar. Cory Doctorow's headline says it all: "Why is there a picture of a white girl on the cover of this book about a black girl?"

/2/ Unrelated but similar, from The Millions: "I love it! But why is the woman white?"

/3/ What doesn't Kindle provide? A nice hiding place for your ephemera. (Via Moby Lives.)

I'm Down

Design by Rob Grom

I had to ask designer Rob Grom about his cover for Mishna Wolff's memoir of "(growing) up in a poor black neighborhood with her single father, a white man who truly believed he was black."


Says Rob: "I was provided with a bunch of photos from the author and the classic school portrait stood out from the rest. I originally wanted have a custom made gold chain with the title on it, or an embroidered hat with the title on it, but my creative director Steve Snider thought that it should have the same feel as the book cover for Born to Kvetch. So, we brainstormed and decided an afro was the way to go."

Jennifer Carrow's design for Born to Kvetch appears below. Both make me smile.