The 13 Best Book Covers of May
Another month of books, another month of book covers. This May, it was all about playing with scale: we got enormous rabbits, even bigger pills, tiny foxes, layered torsos, and of course, the endless maw of space-time. All made for very good book covers, and my favorites from the month-that-was are below.
Binnie Kirshenbaum, Rabbits for Food, design by Soho Press (Soho Press, May 7)
That rabbit, you guys. The rabbit itself, and also the scale of the rabbit, and also the irreverence of the typeface—all these things get me good.
Ted Chiang, Exhalation, design by Na Kim (Knopf, May 7)
Are the stars—or space particles—aligning to form the title and author name? Or is the text dissolving into the ether? In the endless vacuum that is space, it could be both at once.
Chia-Chia Lin, The Unpassing, design by June Park (FSG, May 7)
This might as well be a gorgeous, textured, impressionist painting of a sea, merely signed and annotated by the artist. I want to hang it on the wall.
Joanne Ramos, The Farm, design by Lynn Buckley (Random House, May 7)
At first it looks like another one of those brightly patterned backgrounds with big block text—until you see the simple but evocative rendering of pregnant bellies. A cover perfect for the book at hand.
Ma Jian, China Dream, design by Ai Weiwei (Counterpoint, May 7)
Weird and wonderful, like pretty much everything Ai Weiwei does.
Julie Orringer, The Flight Portfolio, design by Abby Weintraub (Knopf, May 7)
The color saturation here is magic—and so is the way the light blurs at the far end of the row of trees, bending reality, misting everything over in an eerie and compelling glow.
Karen Russell, Orange World, design by John Gall (Knopf, May 14)
John Gall is playing with scale in interesting ways here—notice the way the text bleeds off the edges, which contrasts with the relatively small image, an irreverent collage that is textbook Gall (and textbook Russell, too).
Xuan Juliana Wang, Home Remedies, design by Elena Giavaldi (Hogarth, May 14)
What are those cherries doing in her hair?
Adam Ehrlich Sachs, The Organs of Sense, design by Alex Merto (FSG, May 21)
Strong contender for my favorite book cover of the year, because it combines three of my favorite things: irreverent collage, artfully obscured faces, and that dope green (last seen on another great fave, Sudden Death). Please note that the book inside is also very good.
Charles Wheelan, The Rationing, design by Jason Ramirez, Art Direction by Sergei Korolko (Norton, May 21)
Talk about scale—and color, too.
Ryan Chapman, Riots I Have Known, design by Oliver Munday (Simon & Schuster, May 21)
Oliver Munday is a very reliable source for excellent book covers—this one suits its source material in that it looks a little like a handcrafted zine passed from hand to hand. Only quite a bit more striking.
Marin Sardy, The Edge of Every Day, design by Kelly Blair (Pantheon, May 21)
A very on-trend representation of schizophrenia (or maybe just an interesting image). Again, a book cover that could double as a piece of art.
Laurence Scott, Picnic Comma Lightning, design by Matt Dorfman, Art Direction by Ingsu Liu (Norton, May 28)
Did you even notice that the symbols and icons are mismatched? Brain exploding emoji.
