Chick Lit Cover #2

Lucy Finn, If Wishing Made it So. Signet Eclipse. 

Hoooo dear! I think I'll find that I've for quite a sizable collection of books with these sorts of illustrations. 

I enjoyed the book; I remember there were a couple of hanging-disbelief-out-to-dry-to-ensure-it-stayed-suspended scenes. One was the heroine-sleeping-through-the-impending-hurricane-build-up-so-she-could-be-rescued-by-her-love-interest-and-they-then-have-um-"alone"-time. In the lighthouse. 

But I quibble. It's fun, entertaining and filled with sly humour. 

And I likelikelike the beachey illustration. 

Tintin

Michael Farr, The Adventures of Hergé: Creator of Tintin. John Murray. 

Not a Tintin comic cover - I don't think I have any here at my disposal, unfortunately. 

This is a clever cover. Three black and white photographs of Hergé caught in (animated) mid-conversation sit side-by-side in cartoon panel style. Meanwhile at the bottom, bright colourful cartoons of Tintin and Snowy (or Milou, as he was called in French) race the reader to turn the page.

Fashion Illustration Cover

Noel Chapman and Judith Cheek, A complete guide to design and illustration styles: Creative a Fashion Drawing. hinkler. 

I love this style of drawing! When I was a teenager, I spent a a lot of time trying to copy this style of drawing (and getting frustrated when it repeatedly didn't come out as a carbon copy of the original!)

Pencil on paper has never looked so amazing!

Travelling Matchmaker Cover

M. C. Beaton, Belinda Goes to Bath (The Travelling Matchmaker Series). Robinson. 

I love this line-and-wash style of illustration. It always draw my eye and I'll always look at this style of cover twice. 

It helps that I've read some of M. C. Beaton's Agatha Raisin series, and I know of her Hamish Macbeth series. Beaton can be quite withering in her descriptions of people, but I vaguely remember her being more gentle with her protagonist in this book - especially at the end of the story. 

A Steampunk Cover

Jonathan L. Howard, Johannes Cabal:The Detective. Headline. 

Not my normal choice. The only reason I picked it up at all only was because of the striking tri-colour scheme. I haven't always enjoyed steampunk and I picked it up in spite of the steampunk promise. 

And I'm very glad I did. 

Brilliantly written and viciously sharply observed, the pages are encrusted with caustic wit. You can find a deliciously dry piece of description on every single page. 

Page 85: "Cabal dislike him instinctively, having identified him as a man still prey to his hormones while his intellect puttered around in the background like an embarrassed parent". 

Another page at random: page 264: "Cabal was growing irritated, too. He had been planing his grand entrance for the past few hours, and people kept chattering instead of letting him get on with it". 

Girly / Chick Lit cover #1

Victoria Connelly: A Weekend with Mr Darcy. Avon. 

I'm a sucker for this sort of cover illustration. Light and girlish - the sort of book I can whip through in an afternoon. 

Throw in a Pride and Prejudice (P&P) reference and I'm sold!

Although, having said this, I wasn't initially sold. I remember the first time I encountered it. I'd recently been burned by a couple of Chick Lit* books - where annoying people either don't get their come-uppance, or they get brushed aside (after pages and pages earlier on of experiencing their irritating behaviours in full glory), or there are too many TSTL** moments to further the plot. 

I was killing time in a department store, enjoyed the first few chapters, but couldn't trust myself to get a copy. I do this from time to time actually if I'm not sure. I go away and if the book stays with me, I feel annoyed with myself for not getting a copy, and I go back and get it. Except of course when I did go back, this book was no longer there!

So when I had a chance encounter with it a couple of years later, I grabbed it with comical alacrity. 

* I'm not up to date with the to-ing and fro-ing about whether Chick Lit is an "appropriate" term. I just use it to describe the light-hearted, fluffy, cup-of-tea-treat of book I enjoy reading from time to time. 

**Too Stupid To Live

February Theme

Picture if you will, a harried female character, who: 

- has slept in because she forgot her alarm;

- looks completely dishevelled, with tangled hair skewing in all directions, with smudged eye make-up that only seves to highlight her popping eyes, and with mismatched clothes (pin-striped pants with plaid jacket anyone?) that are wrongly buttoned; 

- is trying to run helplessly for a bus she has no chance of catching, with coat anchored only through one arm as the rest flaps behind uselessly;

- then breaks a heel. 

Cut to her racing through the doors of her office frantic, saucer-eyed, and sucking in great gulps of air; each in-breath is accompanied by an involuntarily loud screech that skewers up an atonal scale and sends shivers down the spines of any unfortunates within hearing distance.  

Then her briefcase bursts open. Her weekly supply of lunchtime tins of tuna spill out. 

And that is how I have raced to my blog now to bring it up to date. 

I could have chosen to pretend the delay has been on purpose and that I'm not ruffled by my delay at all. But where's the fun and drama in that?

Ahem, and on to the formal announcement. 

My February theme is "covers". 

Book covers, record covers, DVD covers and why I like them. Or maybe, why they bug me. No logic or rhyme or reason or reference (or deference) to popular opinion, if any. Just my opinion. 

I might extend my focus to other pop culture items; I'll see how I go. 

I'll be sticking to items I have or that I own rather than include externally-sourced covers. 

Ok. 

Regains breath, smooths hair into acceptably tidy, if windswept and sporty, bun. Straightens mid-matched clothing with a brisk tug. 

Let's get rolling, shall we?!