Recently, we polled book jacket designers on their favorite book covers of the year, and we were dazzled by what they came up with. But Peter Mendelsund (who happens to be one of our very favorites) had a bit more to say on the subject than we could fit into our other roundup. Here we give you his full report on the state of book jacket design (and his favorites of the year!) … Read More
Leanne Shapton
10 Great Books for the Nonreaders on Your Holiday Gift List
If you’re a reader, you understand. For the holidays, all you want is a stack of books, so sometimes it can be hard to figure out what to get for your less literary-minded loved ones. Well, you can still give them books. But you have to choose carefully. Just as we did last year, this holiday season we’ve put together a helpful guide of new books that even your most prose-averse friends will love — whether they admit it to you or not. Click through to check out the gift guide, and let us know what you’re giving the nonreaders on your list in the comments. … Read More
10 Great Off-Kilter Love Stories in Literature
If you’re anything like us, you like a little quirk with your romance. Or, um, make that a lot of quirk. This week saw the release of Joe Meno’s newest novel, Office Girl, an off-kilter love story between two meandering artist-types trying to make it in Chicago on little more than fumes, awkward sex, and half-baked schemes — until they find each other, of course. After reading the short novel, we had a hankering for some more weird tales of love, so we put together this list of some of our favorite off-kilter romances in literature, from the dark and strange to the relentlessly whimsical. Click through to check out our picks, and as always, be sure to let us know your own favorite book in this vein in the comments. … Read More
The Very Best of Book Cover Design
There’s nothing we love more here at Flavorpill HQ than judging books by their covers. Be it plausible-seeming but tonally inappropriate covers or dust jackets that scream “don’t date me!”, we admit that it’s awfully fun to pooh-pooh the cliché adage. Dear readers, mark your calendars, for today — thanks to your help — we’re going to set all snark and judgement aside and take a look at excellent reads that also happen to have extraordinarily well-designed covers.
In honor of the adorably outfitted, exceptionally designed (inside and out) Prius c, design love is all around, so join us as we round-up engaging prose combined with exceptional design. Showcasing the work of legendary typographers, art directors and graphic designers alike, click through to see what stunning contributions the literary world has made to design, and vice versa. Tell us your favorite from our selection in the comments below! … Read More
10 Wonderful Love Stories Told in Unconventional Ways
Valentine’s Day is approaching, and if you’re like us, you’re feeling a little bogged down by all the red hearts and pink balloons — not to mention the swooning romantic novels popping up everywhere. If you’re feeling like a love story on this most ruddy of holidays, but looking for something a little different, we’ve got you covered. Click through for our list of our favorite unconventional love stories — told through diagrams, musical notation or some other interesting format — and let us know if we’ve left off your favorite in the comments. … Read More
Rejected Book Covers vs. The Finished Product
When you’re dealing with the release of a high-profile book, the stakes are high, so it can take an insane number of drafts to get the cover just right for everyone involved. To that point, last week the Sunday Book Review ran a feature on book covers that “got away”; we’ve selected a handful of our favorites from their roundup, and paired them with the covers that ended up making the cut. Click through and let us know in the comments in which cases you agree with the publishers’ decisions. … Read More
Exclusive: Leanne Shapton’s Catalog of Very Romantic Stuff
If you’ve ever experienced a breakup then you’ll connect with Leanne Shapton’s latest (and awesomely, absurdly titled book, Important Artifacts and Personal Property from the Collection of Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris, Including Books, Street Fashion, and Jewelry. The art director of the New York Times op-ed page and a co-founder of J&L Books (a nonprofit publisher that focuses on photography, art, and fiction), Shapton has the visual acuity to distill a romance into a catalog of seemingly insignificant objects that when laid out together, magically create a narrative that’s bigger than you’d imagine is possible.
In other words, she has effortlessly explained why digging through that box of random stuff your ex left behind can sting more than your final argument. Or why we once found ourselves keening at the sight of a hoagie sandwich. It’s ridiculous when you’re not in the moment.
After the jump, we talk to Shapton’s about the real people behind Lenore and Harold, her gift for crafting mix-tapes, and the strange objects she places the most personal value on. … Read More
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