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Celebrated in pre-WWII France for her bestselling fiction, the Jewish Russian-born Némirovsky was shipped to Auschwitz in the summer of 1942, months after this long-lost masterwork was composed. Némirovsky, a convert to Catholicism, began a planned five-novel cycle as Nazi forces overran northern France in 1940. (description from Amazon.com) Two things about this cover: Is it me, or does the photo look staged? I would be surprised if this photo really did date from the '40s. The two main figures are especially suspect. Secondly, anyone know what typeface that is? No doubt chosen for its mid-century, Deco-ish feel, but I think it's just awful. 
I majored in philosophy, and I can't remember anything about elephant trunks and cowboy boots. Can anyone help a brother out?
(from the NYT Review): The cover art for Wendy Wasserstein's "Elements of Style" makes this book look like an expensive present. The design cruelly underscores that there will be no more gifts from Ms. Wasserstein, the endearingly funny and much-admired Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright. She died in January at 55. Her first novel is her last. 
Diagnosed w/ autism, Nazeer tries to find four of the "Idiots" with whom he went to school.
The simplicity of this is growing on me. Four friends, four chairs; I've been told different color chairs are pretty normal in settings such as a school for people with special needs. And the chairs are empty. Where did the students go? That's what the book is about.
Think about some of the photos used on books which are attractive but which just don't feel right, even after you've read the book. The feet, the shoes, the hem of the dress, etc. And then think about this photo.
I really didn't know what Gay Talese looked like, but the NY Times calls him "America's nattiest author" (take that, Tom Wolfe!) And indeed, he's one natty dude.
But I digress...It's a shame that such a great photo (I mean, c'mon...don't you want to have a drink with this guy???) is paired with such uninspired type and layout.
Love this. The upside-down house could have been too much, but it's not. A really nice lesson in taking care with the edge of the format. Seventeen-year-old Angie has just routed the competition in the individual medley, and she's acting strangely, babbling to her teammates at the pool's edge. Her parents, Jordana and Pieter, wonder if she's on drugs — or maybe the pressure of college applications has gotten to her. Then, during her younger brother's race, Angie throws herself into the pool, swims to the bottom and stays there. Angie has had a psychotic break... 
Quite different approaches, and based on the description of the book, it's the paperback (top) that gets it right:
Jasira, the 13-year-old narrator of Erian's bluntly erotic first novel, can't hide her budding sexuality. When her mother sends her to live with her Lebanese-born father in Houston, she endures anti-Arab slurs, the attentions of a predatory neighbor, and her father's mix of Old World Dignity and undisguised hostility.  
That's the palm of a hand. What's it got to do with this book? Junger's parents hired Albert DeSalvo, the alleged Boston Strangler, as a builder when he was an infant.
What a great concept (this cover, of course; not strangling people).
Last year's hardcover was one of my favorites. I'm pretty surprised that they went w/ something different for the paperback. (The new paperback is on top, the hardcover below it):
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