Top Ten & a Teaser for Tuesday

Posted in Top Ten Tuesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Switching things up a bit this week…

Usually, I participate in Top Ten Tuesday hosted by The Broke and The Bookish… but for this week’s topic, I mostly drew a blank. So, I thought I’d do a two-fer post: Two memes for the price of one! (Hey, don’t worry! There’s no cover charge on Tuesdays… )

First up, for Top Ten Tuesday: The topic is Top Ten Covers I Wish I Could Redesign. I couldn’t come up with more than five, so here’s my abbreviated list:

1) Joyland by Stephen King: As I said in my review, this cover really bears almost no relation to the content or the tone of Joyland, which is — for me, anyway — a nostalgic look book at a special summer, in which the main character unravels a murder mystery but more importantly does some serious growing up. Here’s the real cover, on the left:

Joyland And on the right, here is my not-terribly-artistic attempt at something that better captures the mood of the book. (Pretend someone with actual design skills made this, and use heaping doses of imagination):

2 & 3 & 4) Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban: I love the Harry Potter series so very much… but seriously, the cover art on the first three books makes Harry look so dorky!

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Harry Potter, #1) Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Harry Potter, #2) Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Harry Potter, #3)

From Goblet of Fire onward, Harry looks much cuter and cooler. I mean, I love him no matter what — but I was much happier with the cover art for books 4 – 7!

5) The Uninvited Guests by Sadie Jones:

The Uninvited Guests

When I checked this book out of the library, I expected — based on the cover and the synopsis — something a bit Downton Abbey-ish.

But no. The book is a weird muddle of a comedy of manners and a ghost story, and perhaps it’s just because my expectations were so far off, but it didn’t work for me at all (Read my review, here, if you want to know more!) Give this book a spooky or sinister image on the cover, and maybe it would have worked out. Truth in advertising, people!

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And for my second Tuesday book meme, it’s Teaser Tuesday!

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading, and here’s how it works:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share a few “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• Link up over at Should Be Reading!

My teaser this Tuesday are from Just One Day by Gayle Forman:

On the ride back to Utrecht, I call Agnethe the Dane to see if Lulu sent her any photographs, if there had been any correspondence. but she hardly remembers who I am. It’s depressing. This day, so seared in my memory, is just another day to everyone else. And in any case, it was just one day, and it’s over now.

Do you have a top 10 list or a teaser to share this Tuesday? Leave your link in the comments and I’ll be sure to come check out your blog! Thanks for visiting Bookshelf Fantasies… and have a great Tuesday!

28Oct2013

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Creepy, Eerie, Scary Book Covers

Posted in Top Ten Tuesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Happy Halloween! What a perfect week to focus on covers that give us the chills!

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s topic is Top Ten Scariest Looking Books Covers. What makes a cover scary? I’m less impressed by actual blood and gore — but give me just the hint of something sinister or creepy, and I’m hooked!

My top ten creepy, eerie, spooky, chilling, scary book covers are:

1) It by Stephen King: Responsible for a generation or two of people completely traumatized by clowns and storm drains.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

2) Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith

The Replacement

3) The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff

I am Legend and Other Stories

4) I Am Legend by Richard Matheson

Poe's Children: The New Horror: An Anthology

5) Poe’s Children: The New Horror by Peter Straub
Doll parts? Always creepy.

Red Spikes

6) Red Spikes by Margo Lanagan

Four and Twenty Blackbirds (Eden Moore, #1)

7) Four and Twenty Blackbirds by Cherie Priest

Hollow City (Miss Peregrine, #2)

8) Hollow City by Ransom Riggs

The Monstrumologist (The Monstrumologist, #1)

9) The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey
I don’t know what’s in the jar… and I don’t want to know.

Sunshine

10) Sunshine by Robin McKinley

Honorable mention: I wanted to give a special shout-out (or should that be a scream-out?) to some blast from the past creep fests:

Suffer the Children Where Are The Children? Rosemary's Baby

The Omen The Exorcist The Amityville Horror

Happy Halloween! May your reading be extra spooky and creepy this week!

If you enjoyed this post, please consider following Bookshelf Fantasies! And don’t forget to check out our regular weekly features, Thursday Quotables and Flashback Friday. Happy reading!

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Do you host a book blog meme? Do you participate in a meme that you really, really love? I’m building a Book Blog Meme Directory, and need your help! If you know of a great meme to include — or if you host one yourself — please drop me a note on my Contact page and I’ll be sure to add your info!

20May2013

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Favorite Book Covers

Posted in Top Ten Tuesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, featuring a different top 10 theme each week.

This week’s theme is Top Ten Favorite Book Covers of Books I’ve Read. I’m a sucker for an eye-catching cover, so my main challenge this week will be in limiting myself to just ten.

To get the full effect, I’m leaving most of the pictures here BIG size. ‘Cuz they’re just too pretty to shrink.

In no particular order:

1) Soulless by Gail Carriger. Proper Victorian lady, crazy-ass parasol, top hat and goggles. Not to mention the tagline at the bottom: “A Novel of Vampires, Werewolves, and Parasols”. I love the screaming pink title as well. Here’s one cover that is visually appealing and at the same time completely conveys the feel of the book.

Soulless (Parasol Protectorate, #1)

2) Tempest Rising by Nicole Peeler: Book one in the Jane True series introduces us to a small-town girl whose world is about to get blown open as she discovers her secret heritage — as a half-selkie! I love the punky feel of this adorable cover:

Tempest Rising (Jane True, #1)

3) Lamb by Christopher Moore: Specifically, this special edition of Lamb, featuring a leatherette cover, gilt-edging on the pages, and a silk bookmark. Quite Biblical, wouldn’t you say? And totally appropriate for Christopher Moore’s one-of-a-kind view of “The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal”. One of my favorite books ever… especially with this cover.

Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal

4) The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley: This is the book that — for me — completely defies the “don’t judge a book by its cover” rule. As soon as I saw the cover, I fell in love. Had to have it. The fact that I ended up really enjoying the story (timeslip romance, Scotland, Jacobites, etc) is just a plus. This is just gorgeous:

The Winter Sea

5) The Silent Land by Graham Joyce. This book is fantastic, and the starkness of the cover, with its eerie landscape and empty chairlift, is a perfect portrayal of the book’s mood and setting. It’s hard to tell from just a picture, but the book jacket is translucent white, with the black areas showing through from the book itself. Amazing.

The Silent Land

6) Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith: The book that started the classics/monster mash-up craze! I know we’re probably all sick of them by now, but P&P&Z was really an original at the time. I love the cover — you could easily walk right by it in a bookstore, assuming it’s just a portrait of a traditional Regency-era young woman… but then the teeth or throat jump out at you and practically force you to do a double-take. So simple. So clever.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

7) The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman: The girl on the cover is just so beautiful, and I love the sepia tones and uncluttered layout. The cover gives the book a classic yet exotic look. Stunning.

The Dovekeepers

8) The Wolves of Mercy Falls trilogy by Maggie Stiefvater: I like these books individually, but love them when you put them all side by side. The colors, the changing seasons, the wolves — it all works. Plus, the print inside the books matches the color theme on the jackets, which seemed weird at first, but actually works nicely once you get used to it.

9) The Radleys by Matt Haig: White picket fence… with just a drop or two of blood. Not your average day in the suburbs, that’s for sure.

The Radleys

10) Bones of the Moon by Jonathan Carroll. This is one odd, twisty book, so hard to describe — but I really love the intricacy of the black and white cover, with just a touch of red for added oomph.

Bones of the Moon

Wait, what? I’m up to ten already? How can that be? As I do on so many top 10 lists, I must give a shout-out to my honorable mention books. I love these covers too, not necessarily any less than the ten above — but you’ve got to draw the line somewhere, right?

My honorable mention — but I really, really love them — book covers are:

Under the Dome by Stephen King
11/22/63 by Stephen King
Sunshine by Robin McKinley
Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce
Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall by Bill Willingham

Sunshine Sisters Red (Fairytale Retellings, #1) Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall

Someone stop me!

So what made your top 10 list this week? Do tell!

If you enjoyed this post, please consider following Bookshelf Fantasies. Thanks for stopping by!

14Oct2012

What’s black and red and read all over?

Posted in Bookish Thoughts by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Some of the most striking book covers on my shelves, that’s what.

There’s something about that black and red combination that is so sharp and so eye-catching — maybe that’s why we’re seeing more and more of the black and red look in bookstores these days. I suppose you could credit this one for really popularizing the color combo:

This is not a Twilight post! I’m talking about the color scheme here.

Then publishers decided to Twilight-ify some of the classics, as if adding shiny black and red covers would suddenly make teens salivate over Emily Bronte:

Let’s ignore the “Bella & Edward’s favorite book” caption at upper right, shall we?

They’ve even done it to Austen:

“The Love That Started It All”. Please…

Well, I do have to admit that the black and red look is quite catchy… and perhaps a bit sinister. Does this version imply that there will be blood in Pride & Prejudice? (Gotta love that ampersand, by the way.) Teens who pick this one up expecting sparkles and red eyes may be a tad disappointed.

As I was reshelving books this past week, I pulled out some of my favorite red and black covers from my own collection. Excuse the shoddy camera work — that just proves that these are really mine. Here are some from my shelves that I think are most effective:

Replay by Ken Grimwood

A wonderful, awful, disturbing book of timey-wimey weirdness, as a man replays his life over and over again. If you had the ability to change your life, would you? The black and red cover with the repeating half-photo gives me a bit of the chills.

Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce

This YA book is a retelling of Little Red Riding Hood, with a Buffy-style heroine who kicks butt, brings down the monsters, and tries to make a better life for her sister.

Restless by William Boyd

I will admit to not having read Restless, but it sounds fascinating — and I do like the cover. Stark and a bit mysterious.

Bones of the Moon by Jonathan Carroll

Such an odd book, mind-bending at times. I’m still not sure whether it worked for me, but one thing’s certain — I do love the cover.

The Radleys, a genre-defying story of vampires living in the suburbs, got a comic-esque cover aimed toward the YA audience in the UK (above), but I actually prefer the US version, which conveys more of a sense of something sinister lurking behind the domestic facade:

The Radleys, with the US version, marketed as adult fiction

Sadly, my more camera was not up to completing its task, so although this book lives on my shelves, I could not get a decent picture of it and had to resort to importing an online version:

The Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Groff

This story of dark secrets in a small town is well-served by the sharp cover art that combines a gothic feel with modern images.

Another that I’ve read, but only as an e-book:

When She Woke by Hillary Jordan

This modern retelling of The Scarlet Letter is hauntingly well-done, and I really love the sharpness of the cover portrait.

Finally, I just came across this image of new editions of classic works by Stephen King:

I think I’ll be dreaming about these tonight. Wouldn’t they look terrific on my shelves?

That’s all I’ve got. How about you? What black and red beauties have caught your eye lately?

9Aug2012

Look at all the pretty!

Posted in Bookish Thoughts by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

I simply must pass along this piece from Tor showcasing Barnes & Nobles’s new leatherbound classics* series. These are beautiful! Must get many.

*Classics, like beauty, apparently being in the eye of the beholder, this collection of classics includes not only the Brothers Grimm, Arabian Nights, Jane Austen, and Charles Dickens, but also Stephen King, Michael Crichton, and Douglas Adams. Not that I’m complaining.

And here are some of the gorgeous volumes that fill me with book lust:

At $18 a pop (mostly), and considering the heftiness of some of these volumes, I’m not going to be rushing right out to buy them all. But maybe as special treats, here or there? Perhaps I need to start dropping hints now to my various and sundry family members who always tell me “I never know what to buy you” when my birthday rolls around…