Top Ten Favorite Book Covers

I'm linking up with The Broke and the Bookish for another Top Ten Tuesday.

This week is all about book covers! Here are ten of my favorites.

1. An Abundance of Katherines by John Green
There was a contest to redesign the cover after The Fault in Our Stars came out, but I like this original cover better. It appropriately captures the mathematical nerdiness of the main character and his attempt to define love and relationships in a single formula.

2. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz
This cover is just beautiful, plus I think it appropriately captures the grand nature of the title, while grounding it in reality with Ari's red truck.

3. Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo
This is a book about a Mumbai slum, and the cover doesn't shy away from that fact, but neither does it reduce it to a kind of a tragedy porn. The individuals depicted in the book continually have hope that they can create a better life for themselves, even just by a tiny bit, and that hope is also reflected here.

4. Citizen by Claudia Rankine
The image on the cover is actually of a work of art from 1993 by artist David Hammons, who mounted a hoodie on the wall like a hunting trophy. This was almost two decades before the shooting of Trayvon Martin, showing in a single image how little progress we've made as a country, a theme woven throughout Rankine's book.

5. I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
This is the only book on the list I haven't yet read, but I find myself drawn to the cover every time I see it. I think it's because it conveys action so clearly where most book covers are of still images.

6. I Had Brain Surgery, What's Your Excuse? by Suzy Becker
This is one of the books I picked up on a whim because the cover caught my eye. Since the author is a humorist and cartoonist, it also accurately captures the tone of the book.

7. Made to Stick by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
This book was introduced to me by one of my fellow TAs in graduate school, who hadn't read it but just loved that "they put real duct tape on the cover!" Which, no, they didn't actually, but it makes me laugh every time I think about it. It is pretty cool how they printed a textured cover!

8. Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan
The fact that the hardcover version of this book glows in the dark is a sly nod to the book's message that digital isn't always better. Of course, I didn't learn this until later, since I read it on Kindle (ha!).

9. We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler
Even though the cover hints at one of the book's big reveals, I would guess that many readers — like me — still manage to miss the clue.

10. The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
Even though many of Didion's covers follow the same design, this one includes a secret message telling you who the book is about: her husband, John. (Do you see it?)

What are your favorite book covers?

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