Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly linkup of book bloggers hosted by The Broke and The Bookish! This week’s topic is All About Visuals. I had a hard time with this initially, since I’m not a graphic novel person, but I decided for this week I’d highlight some of my favorite book covers! A great cover can really make a book stand out…even when I’m browsing through NetGalley and Edelweiss, I find myself drawn to covers when I’m thinking about what I might want to read next, sometimes even more than the authors! And I’m just going through trade editions for this purpose…the fancy special edition hardcovers are just not fair to compete with.
The Great Gatsby: This cover is just iconic. The woman’s face superimposed over the city sky, the single tear, the naked ladies inside the eyes…instantly recognizable.
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil: That statute, which actually existed in the Savannah cemetery, was apparently removed because people were tromping through so much to see it (at least, that’s what my husband told me based on a childhood visit to Savannah).
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo: So bright, so bold, so eye-catching.
To Kill A Mockingbird: That tree, so symbolic in the story, is a perfect cover. Striking in its simplicity.
Twilight: Two pale hands, offering an apple. The apple and its connotation of falling innocence, gives you a subconscious clue to what you’ll find inside. I know there is a lot of disdain for the content of the book, but the cover design is amazing.
Life of Pi: It’s so straightforward- a dark skinned boy, curled in the fetal position, in a small boat with a tiger, surrounded by fish. But doesn’t it promise one heck of a story within the pages?
The Hunger Games: Considering how deeply the role and power of symbols is explored over the course of this series, that the first cover is essentially just the mockingjay pin, arrow in its beak is perfect.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone: A dorky looking boy on a broomstick, with a visible scar on his forehead, trying to catch…something. A unicorn racing by. Three dog faces in the corner. All of this sets you up for a magic story unlike any you’ve ever read before.
The Handmaid’s Tale: Those two figures on the cover are so ambiguous. You can’t tell who they’re supposed to be, not even if they’re boys or girls. It’s the kind of thing that makes you look again.
A Million Little Pieces: This was actually the inspiration for the direction I chose this week. Even though it turned out the book was a bunch of crap, that image of teeny sprinkles clinging to fingers is so evocative and intriguing.