CRP's Blog

We’ve got some cover fanatics in the house. Read below to discover the quirky, nostalgic, and striking covers that CRP goes crazy over. We’ve also discovered that the word “sucker” is essential when talking about covers. #CRPreads

Favorite cover ever? I’m having too hard a time with that one, so I’m going to go with “favorite cover I’ve seen this week,” which is Jessica Koslow’s forthcoming cookbook, Everything I Want to Eat. Cookbooks, as a category, probably win for best covers overall too, IMHO. It’s hard to beat photos of beautiful food.

I’m also a huge fan of the all-text cover. When Miranda July’s book of short stories, No One Belongs Here More Than You, came out, the publisher released it simultaneously in four different solid neon colors, with black text. Talk about leaving an impression. I don’t think I’ve seen a publisher be so playful (and strategic) with a cover since. Every time someone was carrying the book around the city that summer, I noticed. Here’s the author’s photo of all four versions (and in case you’re curious, the copy I have at home is pink). —Caitlin Eck, publicity manager

My mind instantly goes to this cheapo Penguin UK paperback edition of Mrs. Dalloway that I bought when I was studying abroad in London during college. I’m sure it’s mostly due to its sentimental association with that time in my life, but I just love the warmth of the photograph and the simplicity of the type. —Allison Felus, production manager

I’m a sucker for illustrated covers, and I’ve always particularly loved the one for the original paperback edition of Michael Chabon’s The Yiddish Policeman’s Union. Not only is it beautifully drawn and laid out, it’s also printed on a thick, textured cover stock that feels great to hold in your hands. —Geoff George, publicist

If I had to pick just one cover, I couldn’t do it! But pretty much anything that Chip Kidd and Rodrigo Corral do is amazing, especially their covers for authors Haruki Murakami and Chuck Palahniuk, respectively. They both know how to boil down a book to a single image and make you want to pick it up! —Jon Hahn, designer

I should preface this by saying I am a total sucker for covers and have bought many a book simply because I was seduced by the design. And don’t even get me started on a nice matte finish. Anyway, from CRP’s own list, I recently swooned over the cover of The Real James Dean. As for non-CRP covers, I love the striking type treatments used for Zadie Smith’s books (NW comes to mind, as well as her forthcoming Swing Time). On recent trips to the bookstore, I’ve stopped and stared at The Girls, Sex Object, Radiance, Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl, Lovers at the Chameleon Club, Paris 1932, and many, many others. I have a problem, as you can see.  —Ellen Hornor, project editor

I know you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but I totally picked up No One Else Can Have You for the cover, and if the *inside* of the book had lived up to the darkly funny cover (it’s like a YA-ified Fargo!), I could recommend both. But I can’t. The cover, with its spot-on Upper Midwest winter sweater pattern is brilliant. As a knitter myself, I give major props to the color work.

Great covers of other books I liked: The Martian’s cover of the astronaut caught up in a red dust storm on Mars is a great mix of science fact as well as fiction and touches on Mark’s lone-man-on-Mars story. My Best Friend’s Exorcism is both creepy and spot-on, with the ’80s hairstyles, the neon colors, and the main girl with her back to us and her hunched shoulders. At first glance the cover of The Last Boy and Girl in the World is great, almost like a paper-cut illustration. But then you see that the partially submerged letters are bleeding ink (because they’re wet) and it’s even better. —Mary Kravenas, marketing manager

I’m a sucker for starry skies. When I saw the cover of Station Eleven for the first time, I remember thinking “this book will be different than the others.” And it was. The scenic cover really enhanced the immersive qualities of the book for me. I’ve also noticed a YA starry sky trend recently which I’m happy with: Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock’s The Smell of Other People’s Houses, Maria Dahvana Headley’s Magonia, and Marie Lu’s The Midnight Star have been some of my favorites.  —Emily Lewis, editorial and marketing assistant

I don’t know about my favorite ever, but the chillingly abrasive cover for Merritt Tierce’s  Love Me Back grabbed me when I saw it on the shelf (after reading a stellar review) at the amazing The Wild Detectives in Dallas. —Meaghan Miller, senior publicist

I was captivated by the cover of The Queen of Whale Cay, which showed a portrait of Marion “Joe” Carstairs and the odd doll that was her constant companion in later life, Lord Tod Wadley. For fun, when she wasn’t racing power boats, Carstairs would dress Lord Wadley up for elaborate staged photos, some of which depicted him in compromising situations. That doll had more fun than most humans. —Jerome Pohlen, senior editor

I have to request an allowance for two favorites because the reasoning is so different. I bought If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things almost entirely for the cover, completely ignoring the old adage about books and covers and judgments. I also quite liked the title. I decided that even if I didn’t care for the story, I’d enjoy having the cover to look at, placed artfully on a side table perhaps. Luckily, I did enjoy it and have even reread it on occasion.

I likewise bought a copy of A Wind in the Door with this cover, even though I already owned two other copies. One copy was of the pretty updated illustrated cover, which is perfectly nice. But the other copy was the one I’d read first, with the cherubim cover . . . which had been completely loved right off the spine at some point in its life in a house of voracious readers. I simply had to get another copy with the “right” cover on it. —Michelle Williams, managing editor