Ben Gibson: Shining at the Bottom of the Sea

An anthology of pamphlet-literature-stories written by prominent writers from the imaginary island nation of Sanjania. The author creates an evolving dialect for his stories as they span the 19th and 20th centuries and the island goes from British colonialism to a post-colonial dictatorship. A very tall order for a book cover - but the scroll and background diagrams definitely evoke the 19th century while the font looks modern. Still, without knowing anything about the book, the cover just looks plain awesome.

Evan Gaffney: A Mind of Its Own

A beautiful cover you can proudly show off in the subway, without anybody knowing what you're reading. Just perusing the Amazon description, I feel light years wiser. Did you know that many Greek statues had full-blown erections? And that Roman generals promoted soldiers based on penis length? The book then glides through the dark ages, where the penis was seen as a dark tool of the devil, to the Rennaissance, where it was lifted out of hell by the likes of Leonardo da Vinci. And on to psychoanalysis, with Freud placing the penis in the "fulcrum of society", all the way to feminism, and ending in Viagra. OMG, OMG, You Guys!

The Road: Movie Stills and Poster!!!!

OMFG, Gossip Girl!!!!

Frozen Tracks

A Swedish thriller about a detective hunting down a child-abductor in the "parched prairies of rural Sweden, whose inhabitants are every bit as bleak and desperate as the landscape." I think the cover conveys this and "...days of dwindling daylight" perfectly, cinematically, and the type rox.

Goodloe Byron: Suzy, Led Zeppelin and Me

This was a lovely surprise at the bookstore the other day. Totally refreshing in its simplicity and retro aesthetic. I'm not sure I love the author type, but this still gets high marks for sheer fun. As far as my googling goes, the designer, Goodloe Byron, might be a writer, the author of the novels The Abstract and i.

This book takes place in 1972, when the author, a 15 year-old nerd in love with the unattainable Suzy, gets to see a Led Zeppelin concert in Glasgow and learns that "love may break your heart, but Led Zeppelin will never let you down. "