Novel Conversations: Favorite Covers of 2024

As was true last year, I don't think a "best books of 2024" list from me would mean much, since I have only written about a few books that I liked all year. So again I think I'll share some covers I liked. These are all books I read this year, so I haven't looked at all the books published this year (or confined myself to this year) as the folks at, say, The New York Times probably have. It's interesting to think about how covers, titles, and the interaction between the two affect what book you reach for on the library or bookstore shelf. I think they affect me less than they used to because I'm more likely now to be looking for something specific on my TBR list than just browsing--but sometimes you find the best stuff when you aren't looking for it!

Some of what I thought were trends last year are still around this year: women depicted from the back, vivid skies, flowers (see below for a flower design with a mostly light mood and another with a darker ambiance). Maybe they're perennial features--after all, there is a limit to how much can be done with limited space that has to be shared with type.

When you think of it like that, it's amazing that designers come up with new and engaging ideas--and when the cover also reflects something about the book's content in a way that is more than "oh, this book is about a woman, so we'll put a woman on the cover," it's an achievement. Here are a few that fit that description. The first two are mysteries that make the connection to the content without resorting to the easy "dead body in the street" kind of image (dimes are a clue in Fall, while What Meets the Eye is about crimes that occur in the art world). The imagery in the second two, both works of nonfiction, may be obvious but is no less effective for that. The cover on the bottom left is something I don't normally like--simple or cartoonish line art--but this one captures the essence of the book so simply that I couldn't help liking it (spoiler alert: every time a husband goes into the attic, a different one comes back down). The cover on the bottom right is maybe my favorite of the year, mostly because of the use of color, but the visual reference to the butterfly effect is also thought-provoking, as is the book.

A designer that can do interesting but related things with the covers of a series has a particular skill in my view. Here's an example of that--a mystery series featuring an unusual nun as the protagonist. I really love these, in large part because of the colors.

Last year I mentioned that I'm often perplexed by the changes of covers from edition to edition. But here are three different editions of the same book and I like all of them, even though they're quite different (Mrs. March is a book about a housewife losing her mind).

Another topic I mentioned last year is why designers choose the photographs of people--authors or subjects of the books--that they do (and why, in some cases, the person agrees to it). What do you think of these choices? Although the photo of Dr. King is not the most flattering or exciting, I think the close-up is appropriate to the book, which is a close look at the good and less good of his life. The Nikki Giovanni photo is, to my mind, perfect, and I like the Brittney Griner photo as well; the two are similar in that they are both three-quarter profiles with the subject looking up, but the facial expressions give them very different "feels." I don't care for the picture on the cover of We Should Not Be Friends, perhaps influenced by the fact that I didn't love the book. But I think the photo is too small and says very little about the friendship on which the book focuses.