Everywhere you look these days, businesses and advertisers are using stunning typography to grab your attention. With book typography in the news this month, I thought these 15 books with typography-driven covers would be worth your time and mine.
So what is typography, anyway? In the simplest terms, typography is the art and design of the font. Fonts convey tone through their appearance — hence, why you should never submit a resume written in Comic Sans MS. Even when they aren’t used for business purposes, though, fonts pull at our feelings. Why else do we all love watching those amazing handwriting videos?
Typography in the books world came into the spotlight earlier this month. In a piece published Jan. 17 on Vox, writer Kaitlyn Tiffany explored the resurgence of the Lydian typeface on contemporary book covers. The font, whose bold variant was used for the classic Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books, recently appeared on the covers of Crystal Hana Kim’s If You Leave Me and Mieke Eerken’s All Ships Follow Me, among other titles.
Lydian doesn’t appear on any of the books below, but their cover designers still know how to grab your attention. Check out the 15 books with typography-driven covers I’ve picked out for you below:
‘The Wedding Date’ by Jasmine Guillory
Alexa doesn’t really know Drew when she attends his ex’s wedding as his plus-one, but the two professionals can’t stop thinking about one another when they part ways and go back to their ordinary lives.
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‘Good and Mad’ by Rebecca Traister
In this New York Times bestseller, author Rebecca Traister explores how women’s anger has brought about institutional changes in the past, and what that kind of power means for the present day.
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‘The House of Broken Angels’ by Luis Alberto Urrea
When a sick man invites his family for one final gathering, he does not anticipate the death of his 100-year-old mother to cast a pall over the festivities. As the family gathers, the man’s brother, who is half white, must come to terms with how his experiences have differed from those of the rest of his relatives.
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‘This Is Not a Love Letter’ by Kim Purcell
When her boyfriend disappears during their one-week break before graduation, Jessie fears the worst. Chris had recently been a victim of racist violence in the same area from which he vanished, but the police want to list him as a runaway. As Jessie and her neighbors begin to push back, they find themselves harassed as the town turns on Chris.
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‘Stealing the Show: How Women Are Revolutionizing Television’ by Joy Press
In this brilliant microhistory, journalist Joy Press examines how women in television in the 1980s and 1990s paved the way for modern-day greats like Shonda Rimes and Mindy Kaling.
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‘Born to Be Posthumous: The Eccentric Life and Mysterious Genius of Edward Gorey’ by Mark Dery
This biography of The Gashlycrumb Tinies author Edward Gorey offers new insight into his life as the “Grandfather of Goth.” If you love dark, offbeat literature, you’re going to love this book about one of the genre’s finest creators.
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‘Those Who Knew’ by Idra Novey
Set in an unnamed country in the middle of political upheaval, Idra Novey’s Those Who Knew follows Lena as confronts the realities of her past when a young woman connected to her ex-lover turns up dead.
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’84K’ by Claire North
In Theo’s world, crimes are punished by fines, and those who can pay will never see a day in prison. But when he witnesses a man murder a woman and turn himself in to pay the £84,000 fine, Theo — who works in the office that assesses the fees for crimes — must rethink his acceptance of his country’s criminal system.
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‘New People’ by Danzy Senna
As they plan their wedding and take part in a documentary about America’s new, racially ambiguous population, Maria and Khalil find their relationship challenged by her burgeoning crush on a dark-skinned poet.
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‘The Rules Do Not Apply’ by Ariel Levy
In this memoir, Ariel Levy explores what it means to have it all, revisiting the loss of her unborn child while she was outside the country, and the messy dissolution of her marriage shortly thereafter.
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‘His Favorites’ by Kate Walbert
After she drives the golf cart in the crash that ended her friend’s life, Jo tries to start over at a new boarding school in a different state. There, the un-befriended new girl finds herself catching the attention of Master, an English teacher, who harbors a dark secret.
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‘The Dreamers’ by Karen Thompson Walker
From The Age of Miracles author Karen Thompson Walker comes this novel about a town that falls victim to a sleeping plague that causes its unwakeable sick to dream intensely.
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‘Like a Mother’ by Angela Garbes
Inspired by the author’s experiences as a first-time mom, Like a Mother explores both our cultural expectations of pregnancy and the swirling science and myth that surround the topic.
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‘The Strange Case Of Dr. Couney: How A Mysterious European Showman Saved Thousands Of American Babies’ by Dawn Raffel
On Coney Island at the turn of the 20th century, a lone doctor and his team of nurses saved fragile and premature infants from certain death by placing them in incubators and displaying them in a sideshow.
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‘Little’ by Edward Carey
In his novelization of the life of Madame Tussaud, Edward Carey introduces readers to Marie, an orphan living in 18th-century Paris, whose apprenticeship with a wax sculptor opens doors and possibilities for her.
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