Jen Wang/Jason Freedman: The Vivisector

Happy Halloween! Jen Wang designed (based on the series design), Jason Freedman created the collage.

From Penguin: " Hurtle Duffield, a painter, coldly dissects the weaknesses of any and all who enter his circle. His sister’s deformity, a grocer’s moonlight indiscretion, the passionate illusions of the women who love him—all are used as fodder for his art. It is only when Hurtle meets an egocentric adolescent whom he sees as his spiritual child does he experience a deeper, more treacherous emotion in this tour de force of sexual and psychological menace that sheds brutally honest light on the creative experience."

Susan Mitchell: Sea of Poppies

Beautiful cover printed on super-dooper matte watercolor-paper-y paper. I love that the poppies have assumed this watery quality - they look like underwater plants or tentacles. The font is gorgeous. The book is about a ship called the Ibis, that is sailing from India to fight in the Opium Wars. It's an epic reflection on Asia in the mid 1800s and is supposed to be amazingly well-written.

Peter Mendelsund: A Quiet Adjustment

From Alibris: "Inspired by the actual biography of Lord Byron, Markovits reimagines Byron's marriage to the capable, intellectual, and tormented Annabella and the scandal that broke open their lives: Byron's incestuous relationship with his impetuous half-sister, Gus."

The cover looks great - the frame is metallic I think. I'm thrilled that we're moving past the olde paper look. The cover looks like an off-kilter broach. The back cover is the back of the broach, with the type at an angle. And the spine is gorgeous - there's a small oval with the face in it and lots of concentric dotted circles expanding from it.