STACKED

books

Double Take: Friday Spirits

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Kick back this Friday with another double take, and this one calls for celebration. I mean, whoever said you can’t drink champagne from a straw?


The Celebutantes by Amanda Goldberg and Ruthanna Khalighi Hopper was published in 2008 by St. Martin’s Griffin. This lady’s drinking from two straws. I love the way the red lips pop on this cover.


Drink Slay Love by Sarah Beth Durst will be published in September by Margaret McElderry/Simon and Schuster. This book’s about a vampire attacked by a were-unicorn (I’m sold!). The cover model on this one isn’t the same as the book above, but the set up and execution are darn similar.

I like both of these, with the slight advantage to Drink Slay Love only because I like the way the red pops against the pale skin coloring. Also: she’s drinking with a soda straw that has a red line on it and all. Classy!

Do you prefer one to the other?

Double Take: One Pale Face

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I love when these sneak up on you. When you see a cover posted somewhere and suddenly realize you know that cover. You’ve seen it before. Oh and this one is even more fun because they share something else, too.


Boyproof by Cecil Castellucci: This one was published by Candlewick in 2006. Of all the covers that feature faces, this one stands out to me a bit. It’s pale and the angle different than so many of the others. It helps that this one came along before the face trend really caught on.

Dear Bully will be published by HarperCollins in fall 2011. It’s an anthology of 70 authors talking bullying. You can read more about the project here, since it doesn’t seem to be up yet on Amazon or GoodReads.

Besides the cover, these two share an author — Cecil Castellucci pens a contribution in Dear Bully.

The image on both is the same girl, but the cropping and color treatment is different enough that they will stand apart. I like each for a different reason. Boy Proof has a real starkness to it, while Dear Bully has that “serious” feel to it. I think it all has to do with the cropping and the lack of eyebrow.

Do you have a preference? Does one work better than the other?

Double Take: A Wink and a Nudge

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Here’s a double take for you — one that for some reason kinda creeps me out.


An Na’s The Fold was published in April 2008 by Putnam. It’s a stand out cover, despite kind of giving me the creeps. This one’s been out a couple of years and it’s so memorable to me that when I saw this next one — a book yet to be published — I knew it was a double take.


My Not-So-Still Life by Liz Gallagher will be published in May 2011 by Wendy Lamb books. It’s not exactly the same as the Na book, but the elements are the same: the one closed eye, the eye make up, the sideways face, the pink eye make up, and the short eye lashes.

I don’t think one does it better or worse. They’re different from other books, for sure.

Do you have a preference?

Double Take, Swingin’ Style

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I love when a double take sneaks up on me. This week, I saw this book pop up on GoodReads:


Palms to the Ground by Amy Stolls (published in 2005). I love the white with the tire swing and the feet in the air. There is a carefree feeling in this cover.

And as soon as I saw it, I knew it had a twin, and I knew exactly who it was.


The Fortunes of Indigo Skye by Deb Caletti (2009). This one features the color block on the top 1/3 of the front cover that runs through all of the hard cover issues of Caletti’s titles. It also features a little bit of a color saturation difference, making the green of the leaves stand out a little more.

I like both of them for different reasons, but I do have to say I think that the cover for Palms to the Ground doesn’t really go with the title.

Do you prefer one over the other?

Double Take: Running With the Dogs

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I noticed this double take at the Texas Book Festival a couple weeks ago.  While perusing the tent of books for sale, I noticed Abraham Verghese’s novel Cutting for Stone, pictured below:
I immediately recognized the image of the two individuals running with the dog from another book, Patrick Ness’ The Knife of Never Letting Go:
Upon closer inspection, it’s apparent that the image is not exactly the same – the position of the front runner is entirely different and the back runner slightly different.  But it’s pretty darn close, aside from the color of the sky. The dog looks identical on each cover.
Who did it better?  I may be biased, considering my love for the Chaos Walking trilogy and my antipathy toward Verghese’s sentiments about critical reviews, but I think The Knife of Never Letting Go makes better use of the image.  I love the font used on Ness’ book, whereas the font on Verghese’s is too plain and saps interest rather than adding it.  I also prefer the color scheme on the second book – it really highlights the running figures.
What do you think?