The Friday Face-Off: Current Read #2

   

     

Welcome to The Friday Face-Off, a weekly meme at Books by Proxy. Join us every Friday as we pit cover against cover, and publisher against publisher, to find the best artwork in our literary universe.  You can find a list of upcoming topics at Lynn's Books.

This week's topic is:

Current Read 

 I just finished an ARC copy of the incredible T. Kingfisher's A House with Good Bones this week, so I thought it might be fun to look at the two cover editions that exist for this book this week since they are so different. I will have a review up for this book next week, but I figured we might as well go ahead and check out the covers now in anticipation of its release! 

2023 US Hardcover

2023 UK Hardcover

My choice(s):

I adore the US cover for this book and think it fits the story perfectly. I don't mind the UK cover, but it just doesn't work as well for me, and I'm not sure it matches the vibe of the book as well as the US edition does–although I do think all the roses are a perfect touch. I think these are both great editions overall, though. What edition do you prefer?

The Friday Face-Off: Current Read

  

     

Welcome to The Friday Face-Off, a weekly meme at Books by Proxy. Join us every Friday as we pit cover against cover, and publisher against publisher, to find the best artwork in our literary universe.  You can find a list of upcoming topics at Lynn's Books.

This week's topic is:

Current Read 

This week I've started reading Bone Shard War by Andrea Stewart, and since it's not out yet and there are not any additional editions of it on Goodreads yet, I figured I would share some editions of the first book in the trilogy, Bone Shard Daughter! There only seem to be three main designs out there, so let's check them out. 

2020 US Hardcover 

2021 French

2021 US Paperback

My choice(s):

I think these are all great covers! I'm really a fan of the original US hardcover edition, though I also love the way the red pops in the paperback edition. I definitely prefer the US editions over the French one, but I do still find the French one to be a great design! What do you think?

The Friday Face-Off: Current Reads

 

     

Welcome to The Friday Face-Off, a weekly meme at Books by Proxy. Join us every Friday as we pit cover against cover, and publisher against publisher, to find the best artwork in our literary universe.  You can find a list of upcoming topics at Lynn's Books.

This week's topic is:

Current Reads 

I'm doing it, you guys, I'm finally reading The Fall of Koli! I was surprised to find it had three different editions available, so I thought that'd be a great one too hare. I also figured I'd share the two covers that exist for Some Desperate Glory, which I'm also reading right now. Let's have a look! 

2021 US Paperback

2021 German Edition

2021 French

And editions for Some Desperate Glory:

    

2023 US | 2023 UK

My choice(s):

I definitely like the US cover for The Fall of Koli the most, though I do like the French design as well. For Some Desperate Glory, I have to say I'm not really captivated by either one, so I'm not sure which one I'd pick. Which covers do you like the most (or not like)?

The Friday Face-Off: Recent Read

     

Welcome to The Friday Face-Off, a weekly meme at Books by Proxy. Join us every Friday as we pit cover against cover, and publisher against publisher, to find the best artwork in our literary universe.  You can find a list of upcoming topics at Lynn's Books.

This week's topic is:

Recent Read

Since none of the books I'm currently reading have more than one edition of the cover, I decided to take a look at some recent reads for inspiration. Even though I didn't end up liking this book quite as much as I'd hoped to, I still think Osamu Dazai is a great author and his books have a nice variety of editions, so I've decided to feature No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai, which I read last month. There is a pretty large variety of cover editions for this one, so let's take a look at them!

2001 US Paperback | 1958 US Paperback | 2009 Italian

2015 Polish | 2015 Turkish | 2017 Arabic

2015 Portuguese | 2020 Indonesian | 2017 Japanese

2006 Japanese | 2020 Polish | 2015 German

2020 Persian | 2022 Serbian | 2021 Romanian

2020 Turkish | 2020 Ukrainian | 2020 Indonesian

My choice(s):

I'm really not sure I could make a final choice from these. I am partial to the 2001 US paperback edition I read, though I also really like the Portuguese, Arabic, and 2006 Japanese editions. These all have something really neat about them, though I am extremely unsure what's going on with that 2020 Indonesian cover. Don't let it fool you, this is not a book that reflect whatever is happening there, haha. 

The Friday Face-Off: Currently Reading

      

Welcome to The Friday Face-Off, a weekly meme at Books by Proxy. Join us every Friday as we pit cover against cover, and publisher against publisher, to find the best artwork in our literary universe.  You can find a list of upcoming topics at Lynn's Books.

This week's topic is:

Currently Reading

The problem with being productive and trying to get through a lot of 2023 ARCs early is that I don't have very many options of "currently reading" books to share multiple cover versions of because there aren't any yet. But never fear, because I did manage to find one that has three different covers to compare and that is Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton! I've only just started this one so I can't say too much about it yet, but the first thirty pages or so are off to a great start. I really enjoyed Catton's The Luminaries, so I have high hopes. 

2023 US Hardcover | Farrar, Straus and Giroux

2023 Dutch | AmbolAnthos

2023 UK | Granta Books

My choice(s):

The US and UK covers are quite similar outside of a color change, and I have to say that I'm rather fond of the US cover. The Dutch one is nice, but I feel like it makes this seem more like a thriller than it is and throws me off. I like the somewhat chaotic nature of the US edition and how they worked the typography into such a neat style that matches the imagery as well. Which edition do you prefer?

The Friday Face-Off: A favorite!

     

Welcome to The Friday Face-Off, a weekly meme at Books by Proxy. Join us every Friday as we pit cover against cover, and publisher against publisher, to find the best artwork in our literary universe.  You can find a list of upcoming topics at Lynn's Books.

This week's topic is:

My choice: 2022 favorite

The Friday Face-Off is going to be a little different this year it sees, with less focus on themes and more on current reads, which sounds like a lot of fun! None of the books I'm currently reading have multiple cover editions to compare, so I figured I'd pick a book from my best books of 2022 to share instead. I'm a little behind on my best books lists, but they will be up next week and I'm really excited to share those with all of you. Here's a sneak peak of one of the books you'll find on one of those lists: Four Treasures of the Sky by Jenny Tinghui Zhang! 

  

2022 US Hardcover | 2022 Italian | 2022 UK Hardcover

   

2022 Ukrainian | 2022 German

   

2022 Dutch | 2022 Czech

My choice(s):

I actually really like a lot of these covers! I think the US, Italian, Ukrainian, and German covers stand out the most to me, though I read the UK cover edition and for some reason it just fits the story the best overall. What do you think?

The Friday Face-Off: Purple Cover

    

Welcome to The Friday Face-Off, a weekly meme at Books by Proxy. Join us every Friday as we pit cover against cover, and publisher against publisher, to find the best artwork in our literary universe.  You can find a list of upcoming topics at Lynn's Books.

This week's topic is:

Purple Cover

After looking for books for this week's topic, I realized that purple does not seem to be the most popular book cover out there. That being said, I did still manage to find a good array of purple covers to choose from and ultimately decided to feature Muse of Nightmares by Laini Taylor (US edition), even though only a couple are actually purple! I adore the Strange the Dreamer duopoly and consider it a favorite. Let's have a look at all the different beautiful covers it has!

2018 US Hardcover | 2018 UK Hardcover | 2020 Turkish

2019 Spanish | 2019 Croatian | 2019 Polish

2020 Indonesian | 2019 Italian | 2022 German

2020 Serbian | 2021 LitJoy Edition | 2019 Hungarian

2019 French | 2019 Paperback

My choice(s):

There are so many beautiful editions for this book, I don't know if I can just pick one! The German is probably my least favorite (sorry, German edition!), but otherwise I really like most of them. I think the colors are so beautiful, the orange in the UK edition, and I love that the French one uses the UK design but with a more blue cover.