Peter Mendelsund: Peace

Is this gloriously beautiful or wha? Dropping April 15. From Glamazon:

"Italy, near Cassino. The terrible winter of 1944. A dismal icy rain, continuing unabated for days. Guided by a seventy-year-old Italian man in rope-soled shoes, three American soldiers are sent on a reconnaissance mission up the side of a steep hill that they discover, before very long, to be a mountain. And the old man’s indeterminate loyalties only add to the terror and confusion that engulf them on that mountain, where they are confronted with the horror of their own time—and then set upon by a sniper."

Chip Kidd: Divided Kingdom

I'm kinda lovin this cover. From the New Yorker:

"In this dystopian novel, the population of the United Kingdom has been divvied up into color-coded sectors determined by humor: the phlegmatic, the melancholic, the choleric, and the sanguine. Under this system, temperament trumps kinship—in a neat twist, the family unit is now considered responsible for "society's disintegration"—and separation is enforced by border guards and government informers."

Vintage Classics

This is a an interesting series of classic reprints at budget prices. I think they're designed in the UK. You can check out a bunch of them here:

http://www.randomhouse.co.uk/vintage/vintageclassics/catalogue.htm?id=new&from=1

Chip Kidd Promotional Video

Who knew he did impressions?

Gray 318: The Lodger Shakespeare

I love the image and font choice on this one - it totally reminds me of the rickety drawings in the shakespeare books I read in high school. It's like a 60s English look that I suppose borrows from the 1600s. I'm a little unsure about the letters being so tight inside the boxes, but as a whole, this cover stands out and looks entirely different than the others around it.

The book "...re-creates the physical and cultural circumstances of the two-year period of 1603–1605 when Shakespeare, around 40 and at the peak of his profession, was a lodger in the home of a sexually lax Huguenot family who provided raw material for All's Well That Ends Well and other works" (Amazon)

Roberto de Vicq vs. Brooke Shields

Wow. When I saw the book (top) at the bookstore, I thought I'd ask Ali who designed it. Little did I realize it was a reprint of the novel originally published in 1981 (?) that was the basis of the Brooke Shields film. OMG! Needless to say, we've come a long way since the 80s. Still, I totally LOVE the movie poster. Thing is, the book is about two teenagers in love. The guy is OBSESSED with the girl, to the point where his love is a disease and causes him to commit crimes. I love the way he's totally lost in fantasy, while Brooke's eyes are open, as if she's thinkinig "something's weird here...". Or maybe she's thinking "I wonder if I'll ever work with Kathy Griffin..."

What I love most about the cover is the endless kerning of the title.

Paul Buckley: Blood Kin

This scan sux - it looks better if you click on it. I believe this is case bound, and that the red is metallic. But I may be wrong. This is a well-received first novel about a military coup in an unnamed country, told from the POV of the president's barber, chef, and portraitist. I suppose the three heads on the throne represent these characters.

Rodrigo Corral: Ravens in the Storm

This is totally attention-grabbing at the bookstore. Interesting mesh of paintbrush font with newspaper-font. The dots in the background are a great touch - they make it feel newspaper-y and are cooler that a plain solid background. And who doesn't love a great-looking capital "R"?!

Evan Gaffney/Darren Haggar Fangland!!

Two wonderful covers for a gentle children's book about a little boy's teething experience. Actually, it's a modern re-telling of the Dracula story, where a news reporter goes to Transylvania and meets you-know-who! The reviews are great.

Top is hardcover designed by Evan Gaffney, bottom is paperback by Darren Haggar.

http://www.amazon.com/Fangland-Novel-John-Marks/dp/B00127SHRS/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1203043325&sr=1-1

Stock Photo of the Day

Snuff by Chuck Palahniuk

Drop date is 5/20/08.

Blackboard Jungle

Me Talk Pretty One Day - Michael Ian Kaye & Melissa Hayden
Abstinence Teacher - Steve Snyder

Pet Shop Boys

Pet Shop Boys have been cranking out some amazing modernist CD packages for as long as they've been around. Here are some relatively new ones I haven't seen.

Check out their website for more visual stimulation AND lots and lots of free PSB music:

http://www.petshopboys.co.uk/

From Darren Haggar

Found these lovelies on Darren Haggar's revamped website, under "Points of Reference".

http://www.dhaggar.com/

Keith Hayes - Christine Falls

I have to say, this green is kinda hot. Oh I get it! It takes place in Ireland:

Quirke, an alcoholic, angry and acerbic coroner, drags himself into solving the mystery of Christine Falls's death in childbirth and the disappearance of her newborn. The novel is set in 1950s Dublin and Boston. Sounds happy!

Vintage Mystery Covers

Thanks, Cat! From Boing Boing, check out this Flickr site for some eye-popping vintage mystery and children's book covers:

http://www.boingboing.net/2008/02/07/vintage-paperback-co.html

Shepard Fairey Wants You To Do The Right Thing

So do we! Work it tomorrow at your local polling place (that means you, Tal).

Peter Mendelsund

I know this has been out for a while, but it's still one of my favorite jackets of all time. Check out Peter Mendelsund's site for more amazing design.

Grand Central Improv

Check this out to see what happened at Grand Central yesterday--amazing. This is the same group responsible for the amazing Union Square window choreography called Look Up More. Check out their site: http://www.improveverywhere.com/

John Gall's Remainder

The cover of this book made me pick it up. The back cover made me read it. Although many sections are so creepy they feel like scratching your nails on a blackboard, the book is original, thought provoking, and totally weird. A man who is hit by a falling object before the book starts is awarded $8.3 million by the company responsible for his mysterious accident. Having spent seven months in the hospital, first in a coma and then in physical therapy having to re-learn how to move, the man is joyless and missing many of his memories. Upon seeing a crack in a friend's bathroom wall, the man remembers an identical crack in an apartment he may have once lived in, and slowly reconstructs this missing memory starting from the crack. Ultimately, he buys a building and hires an army of "actors" and crew to endlessly re-enact his memories of living in this lost place. And that's just the beginning.

Sharon Jones Covers

Hot

The Host

I don't care! This is a great photo. Don't even tell me we've all seen this type of thing before. Wait, who am I talking to? Must be the voices in my cat's heads.

This upcoming novel is by the author of the Eclipse books, a popular YA series about vampires and romance. This novel for adults is sci-fi! Its about how in the future, an alien species invades our bodies and takes over our minds. One woman is resisting her host, and thinking about the man she loves, who is hiding out somewhere. The host falls in love with the man as well, making this the first love triangle story involving only two bodies! Far out, sister!

Upcoming Books, Part II

Coming in February from Houghton Mifflin, this is a novel based on the real-life character Frantz Fanon (1925–1961), a psychiatrist and revolutionary who wrote The Wretched of the Earth, an influential anti-colonialism work.

Herb Thornby - A Person of Interest

The book is about an Asian-American university math professor who's behavior leads the FBI to label him a "Person of Interest", a suspected unabomber-like terrorist.

Purdy

In Memoriam

Stolen from H&FJ

Thanks, Jennifer.

Repro Lab of the Day

I don't know much about history, but there's something East-Germany circa 1960 about Murray Hill. Across from a towering soviet-style apartment building, I found this little gem.

Drown Your Sorrows