Cover Love 2025
As I did in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024, I’ve picked out some favourite book covers from the past year’s new releases. This time, I’ve read all of the books featured!
I’m drawn to flora and fauna on book covers; and to adapted artworks.
These two stood out for their psychedelic colour choices.
I like an unusual, elegant font. Can anyone identify the one below? I actually wonder if I would have chosen to read all four books had the font not attracted me.
Neat that the image and/or (most of the) title are vertically aligned – a rarer choice.
I found this paper cut-out striking, and loved how a cheekily torn matchbook gives the middle finger.
But my two favourite title and cover combinations of the year were:
- Calls May Be Recorded for Training and Monitoring Purposes by Katharina Volckmer – The cover is totally appropriate to the bonkers and raunchy contents (see my Shelf Awareness review – even though I technically reviewed the North American release I’m sticking with the full title and sex doll of the UK edition).
(Overall favourite:)
- Pan by Michael Clune – The cover perfectly captures the mood of this weird novel about a teenage boy who has panic attacks and muses about attributing them to the god Pan. The painting snippet is from The Drunkenness of Noah by Camillo Procaccini; but the eyes, look at those eyes!
What cover trends have you noticed this year? Which ones tend to grab your attention?
Cover Love: My Favourite Book Covers of 2021
As 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 flora and/or fauna on and I’m going to be drawn to a book. A lot of these covers are colourful and busy; on some later ones the layout is more stark.
Here are my favourite covers from books I’ve actually read:
Plus a couple I’ve read whose covers aren’t quite like the others (I like swirly lines):
I prefer the U.S. cover (left) to the U.K. cover in these three cases:
And I’ve noticed these particular fonts seem popular nowadays:
Here are some covers that caught my eye even though I’ve not read the books themselves (or maybe don’t plan to):
A few even buck the flora/fauna trend, employing interesting lines, shapes or perspective instead.
And I think these would be my absolute favourites:
What cover trends have you noticed this year?
Which ones tend to grab your attention?
Cover Love: My Favorite Book Covers of 2020
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?
Cover Love: My Favorite Book Covers of 2019
I’ve picked 26 favorite book covers from 2019, most of which are on books I haven’t yet managed to read – either they’re U.S.-only releases, or my library doesn’t own a copy. In the past I have sometimes found that the most eye-catching covers and the most striking titles end up belonging to disappointing books, but at least a few have bucked that trend.
Here are my favorite covers from books I have actually read or am currently reading:
And here are the rest:
What have we learned from this exercise? That I’m a total sucker for flora and fauna on book covers, especially birds. (Bizarrely, rabbits/hares make four appearances, too.)
Bookish Beck = Rebecca Foster. American transplant to England. Freelance proofreader and book reviewer.
Bookish Beck 