Buda's Wagon: A Brief History of the Car Bomb

Design by http://designedbydavid.co.uk/

Nice that the image of the yellow car (and it does appear that it's a single image that's repeated) is occasionally flipped -- some point up, some point down. Makes your eye bounce around the cover more than it normally would.


The taxi-cab yellow immediately makes me wonder if taxis are used in a significant amount of car bomb attacks -- although it's the white car that's going boom.

And today's history lesson: Anarchist Mario Buda exploded a horse-drawn wagon in the Financial District in NYC in 1920 -- the world's first car bomb.

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The Nipple Post

Sometimes you get lucky. Sometimes the stars align in exactly the right way. Sometimes after blogging on covers for over two years you're lucky enough to write The Nipple Post. (Having written The Merkin Post, I feel doubly blessed.)

I won't insult your intelligence by telling you which of the Ines covers is the American one.




It's the cover for the Porizkova book -- yes, by the model -- that's got me scratching my head. I'm old enough to remember the good old days when nipples were always covered by stars, but there's absolutely nothing salacious about the photo that warrants the star: it's not covering anything. Is it me, or is this just bizarre? I want the text in the star to read "A Nipple" instead of "A Novel." ;-)

The N Word

Design by Michaela Sullivan

This says it all, doesn't it? I could quibble and say that perhaps there should be some interaction between the N and the scratch marks to highlight the premise of the book (instead of the N laying on top), but that would make me a jerk. This is a fantastically simple solution to what I hope is a pretty nuanced booked.

Sick

Jacket photo by David McGlynn

Nothing surprising about the image given the subject of the book, but the reminiscent-of-money title type is a nice touch.


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Woman of Ill Fame

I've had the chance to exchange email with the author of this book, which sounds great for anyone who likes historical fiction, histories of cities (in this case, San Francisco during the Gold Rush), and oh yeah, prostitution, sex, serial killers and the like. It's always great to speak to authors and ask them what role they've played in the design of their books. I asked Erika about the wonderful photo; here's what she said:

"That woman is a Dodge City prostitute named Timberline--I found her photograph in several nonfiction books about prostitution. As I wrote the novel, she was always the woman I pictured as my main character...I really love her image...her feistiness/vulnerability helped me write the book."


The type doesn't do much for me and there are a few issues with the general layout, but wow, that photo...

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African Psycho

It's Exorcist-riffic! (That's a compliment.)

Black Shirt: Sir Oswald Mosley & British Fascism

Designer unknown -- UK title


My history education is a bit lacking -- seven years of college down the drain! -- so I don't quite know who Oswald Mosley was. But thankfully we have Wikipedia and this book cover, which pretty nicely captures the fascist vibe, whatever that is (I'm pretty sure it has something to do with gesticulating wildly and with facial hair). Surprised, but not disappointed, that a little red didn't find its way into this. Nothing says fascism like black and red.

PS: The lightning bolt is from the flag of the British Union of Fascists.

Mamarama

May the hipster parenting book phenomenon die a quick death.

And may the stock photo + photoshop tattoo die as well. If someone can point out an example of it working, I would love to see it.



UPDATE: Reader April counters with this:

Everyman, paperback, US and UK

UK edition on top, US on bottom.

A fantastic example of the different ways the same elements can be laid out. (The US blurb is longer and has the lovely medal, but those are about the only differences.) To my eye, the UK edition is the much stronger design.

Anonymous Lawyer

Long-time readers know that I'm a sucker for hand lettering, so this works for me.