As I did last year, I’ve picked out some favorite book covers from the year’s new releases. In general, slap some flora and/or fauna on and I’m going to be drawn to a book. Sometimes these covers are colorful and busy; other times the layout is more stark.
Here are my favorite covers from books I’ve actually read:
Plus a few I’ve read whose covers aren’t quite like the others:
I prefer the U.S. cover (left) to the U.K. cover (right) in these four cases:
And here are covers that caught my eye even though I’ve not had a chance to read the books themselves (including USA-only releases and books my library doesn’t own):
A few even buck the flora + fauna trend, employing interesting lines, shapes or perspective instead.
If I had to narrow it down, I think these three would be my absolute favorite covers of 2020:
What cover trends have you noticed this year?
Which ones tend to grab your attention?
Bookish Beck = Rebecca Foster. American transplant to England. Freelance proofreader and book reviewer.
Bookish Beck 
Some gorgeous covers! I especially love The Gospel of the Eels. I’m intrigued as to whether the UK cover of Real Life deliberately mirrored the US cover of A Little Life – clever if so!https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fimages-na.ssl-images-amazon.com%2Fimages%2FI%2F915wDWUexBL.jpg&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.co.uk%2FLittle-Life-Hanya-Yanagihara%2Fdp%2F0385539258&tbnid=JMcPPc6sfrGa5M&vet=1&docid=WUk1oH-pK_Q5tM&w=1679&h=2560&source=sh%2Fx%2Fim
LikeLike
Sorry the link turned out like that!
LikeLike
Naomi M. was wondering about that, too! I wouldn’t have put those two together in my mind, yet it would make sense as they are stories about a (mostly gay) group of friends.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That All the Animals on Earth jacket is distinctly disconcerting! If you haven’t yet planned your Christmas reading, Nick Bradley’s The Cat and the City is right up your street.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s bizarre, isn’t it?! I requested it on Edelweiss almost entirely for the title and cover, but I can’t see myself getting to it any time soon.
I have The Cat and the City on order from the library. It doesn’t look like it will arrive before the holidays, but I’ll try to read it early next year.
LikeLike
It looks as if they’re about to have a chat!
LikeLike
Loved seeing your favourite covers. Vesper Flights is probably my favourite, and a great book too.
I loved the cover of Piranesi (Susanna Clarke) and also Philosophy for Polar Explorers which shows that simple and straightforward covers can be the best!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Vesper Flights is probably my NF book of the year … but stay tuned for my final rankings next week 🙂
Piranesi does have a very striking cover. It probably just missed my cutoff here.
LikeLike
I’m really shallow. Covers matter to me as I make book choices. Of the ones you’ve shown, my three winners all feature birds: ‘An indifference of birds’, ‘Vesper flights’ and ‘The liar’s dictionary’. Funny how we can date a book by its cover too.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I absolutely agree: an appealing cover is essential! And I am such a sucker for a bird cover. (All three of those are worth reading if you haven’t already.)
LikeLiked by 1 person
One down and two to go ,,,
LikeLike
Both the Australian and UK covers of ‘The Rain Heron’ by Robbie Arnott are stunning and fit well with your love of bird covers! Fabulous novel too, and one I can’t stop recommending.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I wasn’t so taken with Flames, so didn’t read his follow-up. But I agree the covers are gorgeous.
LikeLike
LOTS of floral covers this year I thought.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Definitely! It’s a trend I’ve been noticing for a few years now, and it clearly works because those covers always attract me 🙂
LikeLike
Me too!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Interesting! On a superficial note, how did you opt to format your bottom image with SO many covers in it. It seems to load into a slide show but presents as a single image in the context of the post. I do enjoy comparing the covers when they’re lined up like this, the four from the U.S. industry and the four from the U.K. but I don’t usually trouble to look them up myself. Are you spending more time in publishers’ catalogues than I am, or do you have a particular interest in visuals? (I prefer the 1st and 3rd in the UK and share your preference on the 2nd and 4th.)
LikeLiked by 1 person
The main image? It’s a thumbnail gallery in 6 columns rather than a slideshow. I just do whatever free WordPress allows! And I’ve almost never looked at publisher catalogues, though I know I “should”. I find out about overwhelming numbers of books through all my various channels — periodicals, blogs, e-newsletters, NetGalley/Edelweiss, social media — that I’m almost scared to scour catalogues; I don’t need any more books on my radar! So all of these covers were from my virtual TBR assembled over the year.
LikeLike
[…] I did in 2019 and again last year, I’ve picked out some favourite book covers from the year’s new releases. In general, slap some […]
LikeLike
[…] I did in 2019, 2020, and 2021, I’ve picked out some favourite book covers from the year’s new releases. Fewer have […]
LikeLike