A Closer Look at the Book Covers From 2022
Time to judge that book by it's cover
This week’s post is a little late - I went down a research rabbit hole and the article kept expanding! Instead of a specific nonfiction topic this week, I decided to highlight some of the coolest nonfiction book covers from this year.
Great book cover design is so much more than art – it’s also marketing. It's job is to catch your eye, compel you to read the book, and make you want to buy the book. Book Cover designers need to capture the essence of the story while making potential readers curious with a distinctive design that makes a statement.
Remember, a cover is advertising first, a piece of art second. An ugly cover that sells a ton of books wins over a gorgeous cover that sells ten copies. Every. Time.
I’m certainly not a graphic designer, so my observations and comments come solely from my personal preferences. For this post, I randomly selected nonfiction book covers published in 2022 that were appealing or unique or eye-catching and polled my Instagram followers to help narrow the field and get a wider perspective. These were the covers I chose to look at more closely and I’m sharing my observations on the patterns and trends I noticed.
Note: Where possible, I noted the cover artist but I wasn’t able to find artist information on every title. In my research, there are a lot of variables when it comes to book cover design and whether a cover is illustrated or a photo shoot has been commissioned. Do we have any experts in the audience?
FLORALS
Flowers, flowers everywhere! These covers have gorgeous flowers and bright colors which can represent a wide variety of themes - from youth to death, beauty and femininity and elegance.
Shine Bright: A Very Personal History of Black Women in Pop by Danyel Smith - (Roc Lit 101) Book design by Debbie Glasserman - A weave of biography, criticism, and memoir, Shine Bright is Danyel Smith's intimate history of Black women's music as the foundational story of American pop.
Black Women Will Save the World: An Anthem by April Ryan (Amisted Press) - In this cover a brown female face appears in profile, partially obscured by dogwoods. She looks toward the horizon, presenting an image of the gentle fortitude of Black womanhood. The artist, Jeff Manning, designed the image as a tribute to the extraordinary women featured in the book and the selfless women who raised him. Read more about his inspiration here.
What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma by Stephanie Foo (Ballantine Books) Susan Turner - The cover of Stephanie Foo’s memoir shows an assortment of plants and fruit, including ferns, wood sorrel, rambutans, mangoes and orchids, against a navy background. Over this are two bones, crossed in the shape of an X.
Inciting Joy: Essays by Ross Gay The cover was designed by Algonquin creative director Christopher Moisan and he describes his design goals below. Read more about his personal connection to Gay’s work here.
Nothing slick, overly trendy, or unfriendly. But a happy, sunshine-y, purely pretty cover didn’t seem right either. The short word “Joy” with the long word “Inciting” is such a challenge, but the only possible solution here was to make “Joy” as LARGE as possible—which somehow seems apt.
No One Crosses the Wolf: A Memoir by Lisa Nikolidakis (Little A) Cover design by Rex Bonomelli - This cover features torn wallpaper covered in red anemones, black background, the seam peeling at its center. “This is a powerful memoir about the traumas of a perilous childhood, a shattering murder-suicide, and a healing journey from escape to survival to recovery.”
Healing: When a Nurse Becomes a Patient by Theresa Brown (Algonquin) Design by Steve Godwin - When an oncology nurse is diagnosed with cancer, she has to confront the most critical, terrified, and angry patient she’s ever encountered: herself. The flowers coming out of the syringe show the two sides of her medical experiences.
Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times by Katherine May (Riverhead Books) Jacket design: Lauren Peters-Collaer. - The snow-becoming-leaf imagery on the cover of Wintering was inspired by the alchemy that the act of wintering gives us.
Animals
The magic of the animal kingdom comes to life in these covers.
Year of the Tiger: An Activist's Life by Alice Wong (Vintage) Madeline Partner - On the right side is an illustration of a crouching tiger in red in the style of Chinese paper cuttings with delicate cutouts in various shapes giving form and definition to the tiger.
All the Living and the Dead: From Embalmers to Executioners, an Exploration of the People Who Have Made Death Their Life's Work by Hayley Campbell (St. Martin’s Press) - As the daughter of the artist who created the classic graphic novel From Hell, which fictionalizes the brutal Whitehall Chapel murders, Campbell grew up fascinated by death. In All the Living and the Dead, she takes readers on a tour of the professionals of the death industry, interviewing embalmers, executioners, midwives who work exclusively with stillbirths and more.
Bitch: On the Female of the Species by Lucy Cooke (Basic Books) Cover design by Ann Kirchner - A fierce, funny, and revolutionary look at the queens of the animal kingdom. On the cover, a female spotted hyena1 holds a ripped piece of the title in her mouth.
No Country for Eight-Spot Butterflies: A Lyric Essay by Julian Aguon (Astra House). Design by Richard Oriolo - Part memoir, part manifesto, No Country for Eight-Spot Butterflies is a collection of essays on resistance, resilience, and collective power in the age of climate disaster; and a call for justice—for everyone, but in particular, for Indigenous peoples.
An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us by Ed Yong (Random House) Book Design by Barbara M. Bachman - In An Immense World, Ed Yong coaxes us beyond the confines of our own senses, allowing us to perceive the skeins of scent, waves of electromagnetism, and pulses of pressure that surround us.
How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures by Sabrina Imbler (Little Brown & Company) Illustrations by Simon Ban - A fascinating tour of creatures from the surface to the deepest ocean floor, inviting us to envision wilder, grander, and more abundant possibilities for the way we live.
Ripped Paper
The torn edges give these covers a rough, artistic look and the curled edges give a 3-D effect.
Stolen: An Adolescence Lost to the Troubled Teen Industry by Elizabeth Gilpin (Grand Central Publishing) Cover design by Sarah Congdon - A gripping chronicle of psychological manipulation and abuse at a "therapeutic" boarding school for troubled teens, and how one young woman fought to heal in the aftermath.
Why Didn't You Tell Me?: A Memoir by Carmen Rita Wong (Crown Publishing Group) Cover design by Donna Cheng - The cover photo belongs to the author and shows her mother standing next to a man whose face is obscured by the curled edge which is very significant to her story of family secrets and lies and cultural identity.
“My youngest sister only recently gave me a photograph that she had found in our dad’s closet. If I had seen it at any point in my first three decades on this earth, it would have burst my life—and our family’s lives—wide open.”
Illustrations
Illustrated covers are unique and eye-catching and artistic. There are many factors that go into book cover art including budget, schedule and target audience.
But in general, it’s the desired target audience that most dictates the style of the cover.
The Swedish Art of Aging Exuberantly: Life Wisdom from Someone Who Will (Probably) Die Before You by Margareta Magnusson (Scribner)
Hysterical: A Memoir by Elissa Bassist (Hachette Books) - Cover Design by Amanda Kain - Writer Elissa Bassist shares her journey to reclaim her authentic voice in a culture that doesn't listen to women in this medical mystery, cultural criticism, and rallying cry.
Foreverland: On the Divine Tedium of Marriage by Heather Havrilesky (Ecco Press) Designed by Paula Russell Szafranski - An illuminating, poignant, and savagely funny examination of modern marriage from Ask Polly advice columnist Heather Havrilesky
Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe (Oni Press)
The Last Resort: A Chronicle of Paradise, Profit, and Peril at the Beach by Sarah Stodola (Ecco Press) A captivating exploration of beach resort culture—from its roots in fashionable society to its undervalued role in today’s world economy—as the travel industry approaches a climate reckoning
Cook as You Are: Recipes for Real Life, Hungry Cooks, and Messy Kitchens: A Cookbook by Ruby Tandoh (Knopf Publishing Group) Jacket illustration by Sinae Park and Jacket design by Linda Huang - Not simply a recipe book, but a warm invitation to relax into and enjoy the experience of cooking and eating
Novelist as a Vocation by Haruki Murakami (Knopf Publishing Group)
Cool Typography
Typography represents the message and idea you want the reader to grasp by only taking a quick look at the letters on a book cover. The font helps to stress and highlight the meaning and value of words, phrases, and sentences. The font helps create a first impression.
What feelings and emotions should the words on the book cover express?
Foreverland: On the Divine Tedium of Marriage by Heather Havrilesky (Ecco Press)
Fatty Fatty Boom Boom: A Memoir of Food, Fat, and Family by Rabia Chaudry (Algonquin Books)
The Last Resort: A Chronicle of Paradise, Profit, and Peril at the Beach by Sarah Stodola (Ecco Press)
Sweat: A History of Exercise by Bill Hayes (Bloomsbury Publishing)
The Facemaker: A Visionary Surgeon's Battle to Mend the Disfigured Soldiers of World War I by Lindsey Fitzharris (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
Rise: A Pop History of Asian America from the Nineties to Now by Jeff Yang and Phil Yu (Harper)
I think it’s so interesting that different fonts evoke different moods. Serif fonts represent eternity and formality. Modern serifs are associated with gloss and haute couture. Slab serifs are used to grab attention and highlight the content’s importance. Sans serif fonts are neutral and simple. The concise font is more authoritative and intense. Bold fonts relate to importance and strong key messages. Handwritten fonts are mostly elegant and distinctive. Geometric fonts go well with kids’ topics and have a retro vibe to them. Mono-spaced fonts send a clear and sharp message. Rounded fonts are friendly and lively. Vintage typography is trendy and cool. Grunge font refers to something mystical and magical.
…But that’s a post for another day!
Are you a book cover designer? I’d love to talk to an expert - I have lots of questions! Leave a comment if you can point me towards any relevant resources.
All the books listed in this post are available at my Bookshop.org online storefront. Every purchase supports independent bookstores!
Links: Down the rabbit hole….
41 Gorgeous Illustrated Book Covers Featuring People of Color - Epic Reads
Allison Saltzman is the Senior Art Director at Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollins. Here she tells us her process for creating an exceptional cover for Kevin Wilson’s Nothing to See Here.
Top Ten Book Covers with Typography That Steals the Show - That Artsy Reader Girl
Cover versions: why are UK and US book jackets often so different? - The Guardian
Have you ever googled the female, spotted hyena? I’ll wait.