Summer Reading . . .

image from shelf-awareness.com

My reality TV obsessions are finished for the season and the Revolution ends July 6, so my DVR is down to General Hospital and Jeopardy.  That means it's time to hit the summer books.  I've been reading a lot of blog posts and magazine articles about "beach reads".  Some categorize summer books as "lighter", some see it as a chance to delve into re-reads of old favorites, some poo-poo the idea entirely, saying their reading choices are not affected by changing seasons.  I fall into the first group - the light reader.  Not that these books are fluff - but subject matter, writing style, and setting make them less strenuous reads.  Hot weather puts me off of anything too weighty or difficult - I don't want to work that hard. 

For summer, I tend towards cozy mysteries, humorous stories, books that feature women's friendships, and anything set on the beach.  Pretty, cheery covers also play a part in my summer selections more than other seasons.  Here's what's on my Summer Reading List:

Brownies and Broomsticks by Bailey Cates

Porch Lights by Dorothea Benton Frank - out June 12th

Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake by Anna Quindlen 

The Uninvited Guests by Sadie Jones

Wallflower in Bloom by Claire Cook - pub. date June 5th

Then Came You by Jennifer Weiner

Wicked Business by Janet Evanovich - due out June 19th

Stardust by Carla Stewart

                                

So far, I only own three of these books, but I've got an inkling that some birthday gifts may add to the collection, and a few will be available at the library.  There are several books waiting in my TBR that may get substituted in, so the lineup is open to change.  But this is the general direction I'm headed.  What are you reading this summer?

Apologies!

If you follow our little blog in a reader or some other form where the content is automatically sent to you, first off - thank you!  Secondly, my apologies for my inadequacies at using Blogger.  Every time I try to use the quote function, Blogger kindly (or not) rearranges my paragraphs when it publishes.  I'm sure this is some shortcoming on my part and no fault of Blogger, but it's incredibly annoying and makes me look like a Loser. 

So - if you received a copy of the post below, entitled ...and Again, and it makes even less sense than usual, then you may have received one of the six - count em, SIX - attempts I made to publish that post with indented quotes.  I eventually exhausted my cuss word vocabulary and removed that function.  I ask that you please hit the link to the actual blog site and read it in the order it was intended. 

Again, thank you so much for stopping by and my apologies for any confusion I may have caused.

...And Again

After writing an earlier post about book covers, I went in search of more Trashionista posts about, and examples of, similar book covers.  Naturally, I couldn't find the particular one that was stuck in my head.  After all, this was in 2008/09(?) that I was regularly reading that site.  However, as is typical to net-surfing, I wandered from link to link until I found some other interesting tidbits.

One was an article from British news site The Guardian entitled Jackets Required:  Why Cover Art Matters.  In the article, Emma Barnes, co-founder and managing director of  Snowbooks talked about using cover art to grab a reader's attention: 

"Blurbs and quotes and endorsements all require a bit of scrutiny; a cover is something you can see from 15 ft. away, for half a second, and think "ahhh, techno-thriller". Assuming you're wearing your specs."

Ms. Barnes went on to contradict my thought that every cover should be unique (one of many reasons why she runs a publishing company and I don't).

"When we started doing cover design we were tempted to make every book look unique. Otherwise we'd be plagiarising - and then might'nt readers think we were trying to trick them?...Each cover design has to be individual enough that readers don't pick it up (and subsequently drop it) thinking it's something else. But we need it to be reminiscent of all the things it's like so that its potential readership can pick it out of a line-up."

Interesting article - I suggest you read it in it's entirety.

On the flip side, I found this Trashionista post that makes me think some cover designers may find "unique" unnecessary all together.

 

Trading Up by Candace Bushnell, Hyperion (US) hardback, 2003
Candy Girl by Diablo Cody, Penguin Books (Australia) paperback, 2006
Feet First by Leanne Banks, Mira (Australia) paperback, 2007

Granted, one of the books is a US cover and the other two are the Australian editions, and I'm sure there was no copyright infringement involved, (no law suits - I'm not accusing anyone of anything). I'm just saying - perhaps these are a little TOO reminiscent of each other.

Now that cover art trends have been brought to my attention again, I'm sure it will be a recurring topic here - at least until new thoughts get piled on top and I lose it again.

Book Cover Deja Vu... All Over Again

They (whoever they are) say you can't judge a book by it's cover, but I frequently do.  Sometimes the adage holds up and I'm surprised (for good or bad) by the tale within, and sometimes the cover art is the perfect hint to what's in store.  Granted, a simple picture can not fully convey an entire novel, but the artwork should at least be unique and have some reference to the story inside. 

Call it obsessive, nit-picky, quirky .... I prefer "finely honed observation skills".... whatever you call it, I have this weird attraction to spotting similarities in book covers. (It's a blessing...and a curse*).  These observations are usually followed by questions concerning the creative abilities of whoever designs book covers.

Actually Keris Stainton got me started several years ago (when she was editing Trashionista) by pointing out that there tend to be trends in book cover art.  She even discovered one instance in which the exact same photo (with various croppings) was used on multiple covers.  Some examples she mentioned were:

The "What the Frock?" trend:

 

The Cupcake trend:

 

I added what Keris called the "Back Off" trend:

Today, as I was browsing through blogs, I saw a review of The Mermaid's Mirror by L. K. Madigan and immediately thought "I've seen that cover before."  Unlikely as it may seem, I was able to search the cubby-holes of my brain and uncover the similar cover - The Peach Keeper, soon to be released from my favorite author, Sarah Addison Allen.

 

Now I'm curious to see if other kindred covers will appear.  Let me know if you spot any - or if you come across other trends.

*10 bonus points if you recognized the Monk reference.