The Last Jew

I absolutely love stuff like this. Not the type -- it's seriously lacking -- but the main illustration. Read a brief description from the Washington post and see if you agree:

A man mourning the loss of his son, Menahem, in Israel's 1948 War for Independence meets a veteran who offers him a poem that he says Menahem wrote.

The Madonna of Excelsior

There's a great article in the Sunday Magazine about post-Apartheid fiction. Zakes Mda is one of the authors discussed.

Freedom and Neurobiology

I guess that if you're looking to depict choice between two things, chocolate and vanilla probably do the trick.

The Secret of Scent

I wonder if the good people at Chanel have seen this yet. It really looks like an official publication.

Love Don't Live Here No More

Snoop Dogg, novelist. Actually, this doesn't get such a bad review. And y'know what? I like the cover. It would have been easy to thrown down a graffiti font and say "there you go...that's urban enough." But the designer didn't, so kudos to her or him.

Mr. Ding's Chicken Feet

Chinese and American culture meet. I liked this cover for a book that's sort of similar; this one looks like design-by-committee.

Heston Blumenthal: In Search of Perfection

This is a cook book. This is a scary cook book, or at least a scary chef. And it's nice to know that architects don't have a monopoly on over-the-top artsy eyewear.

Eureka!

After almost two years of writing this blog, we have finally come to a clear understanding of the difference between US and UK covers. To make a cover ready for the UK market, simply add chips. :-)

(The US version has the tiny, tiny fish.)

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The Body Hunters

This wouldn't make the same kind of sense if the pills were any other color than white, would it?

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Eat the Document

A great redesign. I didn't think so at first, but then I looked at it a bit harder.

Here's what it's about:

The main characters (are) fugitives after executing a political bombing in the '70s that went awry...Now, in the 1990s, Mary's 15-year-old son Jason (a '70s music buff) begins to uncover his mother's dangerous secret.

So why does the redesign work? Because I'm willing to bet the majority of the book doesn't take place in the 70s but in the 90s, and therefore the image of the main character riding a bus, looking so lonely and clearly disguised (gotta be a wig, right?) is so much more appropriate than the retro-70s hardcover design. Sounds like this book is about who she has become, not necessarily who she was. If so, the paperback nails it.