Similar Covers: Woman Dressed in Traditional Chinese Clothing

At the end of last year, I found the following email in my inbox:

“As you are an ‘[o]bsessed hunter of lookalike covers…’

Talk about a strange, unsettling déjà vu moment... on the left is the image for Amy Tan’s new short story, being touted as her first fiction in six years, about an aging courtesan and her protege in 1912 Shanghai. On the right [now in the middle] is the cover for a stunning, wrenching collection of brutal stories coming out of one of China’s most atrocious labor camps under Mao. WAAAHHH???!!!”

The email was signed Terry, Book Dragon.

So I present you with the evidence she sent me:

As you can see, I found a third (and earlier) cover that uses the same image. The earliest cover is actually my favourite of the three—although I like the cropping on the middle cover best, I dislike the fact that they added lipstick to the photo. (You can see the original photo here.)

Rules for Virgins by Amy Tan was published by Byliner as a Kindle Single in 2011; Woman from Shanghai by Xianhui Yang (translated by Wen Huang) was published by Knopf Doubleday in August 2009 (read Terry’s review at Book Dragon) and Women’s Movements in Twentieth-Century Taiwan by Doris T. Chang was published by University of Illinois Press in April 2009.

I’ve changed my mind about moving my “similar covers” posts to Thursdays—I will post about my first week of the meditation challenge tomorrow instead!

Mailbox Monday (February 6): The Birthday Edition

Mailbox Monday is a gathering place for readers to share the books they received during the previous week. Warning: MM can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and huge wish lists! Mailbox Monday, which was started by Marcia (who now blogs at A girl and her books) is on blog tour—this month, it’s hosted by Kim at Metroreader.

Twas my birthday last week and I received a few books as gifts, got a few books in the mail and bought a few myself (all nonfiction as it turns out).

My sis-in law gave me two books for my birthday: Finding Meaning in the Second Half of Life: How to Finally Really Grow Up by James Hollis and Marriage Rules: A Manual for the Married and the Coupled Up by Harriet Lerner. (I’m a big fan of Lerner’s books and this is her latest, so I’m really looking forward to this one!)

I received an unsolicited copy of Speak to the Earth: Pages from a Farm Wife’s Journal by Rachel Peden (from Indiana University Press) and won a copy of Writing Yoga: A Guide to Keeping a Practice Journal by Bruce Black (from Rodmell Press).

And finally I bought myself two more books: Pay Attention, for Goodness’ Sake: Practicing the Perfections of the Heart—The Buddhist Path of Kindness by Sylvia Boorstein and Writing Down Your Soul: How to Activate and Listen to the Extraordinary Voice Within by Janet Conner.

What did you find in your mailbox this past week? For other Mailbox Monday posts, head over to Metroreader.

Beginning Again, with Kitty Pics & a Meditation Challenge

It feels like it’s been so long since I’ve blogged with any regularity that I’m not sure how to get back on this horse gracefully. Do I just launch myself into the next thing without explaining my absence? (Yup, pretty much.) Do I tell you all how much I’ve missed you guys? (I have!) Can I skip this awkward part and just get back to doing my thing online and hope you won’t hold my absence against me? (Please?)

How about a kitty pic? Here’s Cairo sleeping on Mr. B’s lap, surrounded by the latest additions to my stuffie menagerie (clockwise from the top): bookworm, sleeping sickness, mad cow and toxic mold (which is my favourite). Head over to ThinkGeek to check out their entire giant microbes collection.

Cairo sleeping with giant microbes (click to enlarge)

In other news, February is no-TV month in my household (for the second year in a row), which seemed like a great time to also do the 28-Day Meditation Challenge, based on the book Real Happiness: The Power of Meditation – A 28-Day Program by Sharon Salzberg (which, as you may remember, I bought at Kripalu). When I got back from my Kripalu retreat, I fully intended to start meditating every day, but that didn’t happen. However, as Sharon Salzberg says, “with every breath, we can begin again,” which is exactly what I’m choosing to do this month—with both blogging and meditating.

I’ll keep you posted on how I’m doing with the meditation challenge in weekly updates on Wednesdays, which means that, as of next week, my “similar covers” posts will go live on Thursdays instead.

So now that I’m back, let me know what I’ve missed! Oh and Happy Imbolc!

Mailbox Monday (January 9)

Mailbox Monday is a gathering place for readers to share the books they received during the previous week. Warning: MM can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and huge wish lists! Mailbox Monday, which was started by Marcia (who now blogs at A girl and her books) is on blog tour—this month, it’s hosted by Alyce at At Home with Books.

Happy New Year, folks! Here’s what came my way over the holidays...

My dad gave me three books I’d requested: Open Arms by Marina Endicott (I loved her second book, Good to a Fault, which I reviewed here), Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women’s Prison by Piper Kerman and Girl in a Blue Dress by Gaynor Arnold.

I also picked up second-hand copies of the following books (while shopping for my dad and Mr. B): Black Water Rising by Attica Locke, I Was Told There’d Be Cake by Sloane Crosley, The Sons of Heaven by Kage Baker and Grave Sight by Charlaine Harris.

Finally, Mr. B gave me a red Sony Reader for Christmas (yay!), so I downloaded the following ebooks for free: Emma by Jane Austen, The Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie and Tortured by Caragh M. O’Brien.

What did you find in your mailbox this past week? For other Mailbox Monday posts, head over to At Home with Books.

Mailbox Monday (December 19)

Mailbox Monday is a gathering place for readers to share the books they received during the previous week. Warning: MM can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and huge wish lists! Mailbox Monday, which was started by Marcia (who now blogs at A girl and her books) is on blog tour—this month, it’s hosted by Jenny Q at Let Them Read Books.

I received two books in the mail this week, one for review and one I bought myself.

The first is Pink and Blue: Telling the Boys from the Girls in America by Jo B. Paoletti, which was sent to me by Indiana University Press. It’s coming out in February 2012, so look for my review then!

From the publisher’s website:

Jo B. Paoletti’s journey through the history of children’s clothing began when she posed the question, “When did we start dressing girls in pink and boys in blue?” To uncover the answer, she looks at advertising, catalogs, dolls, baby books, mommy blogs and discussion forums, and other popular media to examine the surprising shifts in attitudes toward color as a mark of gender in American children’s clothing. She chronicles the decline of the white dress for both boys and girls, the introduction of rompers in the early 20th century, the gendering of pink and blue, the resurgence of unisex fashions, and the origins of today’s highly gender-specific baby and toddler clothing.

The second is Writing for Your Life: A Guide and Companion to the Inner Worlds by Deena Metzger.

What did you find in your mailbox this past week? For other Mailbox Monday posts, head over to Let Them Read Books.

Mailbox Monday (December 12): The 3rd Montreal Book Bloggers’ Meet-Up!

Mailbox Monday is a gathering place for readers to share the books they received during the previous week. Warning: MM can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and huge wish lists! Mailbox Monday, which was started by Marcia (who now blogs at A girl and her books) is on blog tour—this month, it’s hosted by Jenny Q at Let Them Read Books.

I didn’t receive any books in the mail this past week, but I meet up with the Montreal Book Bloggers for our third official gathering and of course books were exchanged! Out of the 20 people in our group, 10 got together for lunch last Saturday—poor Laura, who was supposed to join us for dessert, got stuck in traffic and only made it to the restaurant as we were leaving. We chatted about books and food and BEA—it looks like Cindy and Tina and I will all be going and staying in the same hotel!

Here’s the group pic our waitress took with my camera:

Left side (L-R): Amanda from Tales and Treats, Natalia from Dazzling Reads, Ilana from From Smiler, with love, me and Tina from Bookshipper

Left side (L-R): Cat from Beyond Books, Cindy from Cindy’s Love of Books, Lucy from Moonlight Gleam’s Bookshelf, Cindy from Tynga’s Reviews and Emilie from A Beautiful Madness

I restrained myself a bit this time and only brought home four books for me (plus two for Mr. B):

From Amanda (Tales and Treats):

• Birthmarked by Caragh M. O’Brien

From Cindy (Cindy’s Love of Books):

• Mnemonic: A Book of Trees by Theresa Kishkan

From Lucy (Moonlight Gleam’s Bookshelf):

• Black Mirror by Nancy Werlin

From Ilana (From Smiler, with love):

• Curtain: Poirot’s Last Case by Agatha Christie

Ilana also gave me American Gods by Neil Gaiman and A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin for Mr. B. (Thank you!)

What did you find in your mailbox this past week? For other Mailbox Monday posts, head over to Let Them Read Books.

Similar Covers: Corsets (Again)

I know I’ve been neglecting my blog in the last few months (let’s not even talk about how long it’s been since I’ve posted a book review I actually wrote), but I can’t let a week go by without posting another set of lookalike covers (or three).

Here’s the latest batch then, all of which feature a woman in a corset from the back...

The first set: Taboo by Jess Michaels aka Jenna Petersen (HarperCollins, Apr 2009) and Trades of the Flesh by Faye L. Booth (Macmillan, Sep 2009).

The second set (which is my favourite): The Subjection of Women by John Stuart Mill, Wild Girls: Paris, Sappho, and Art – The Lives and Loves of Natalie Barney and Romaine Brooks by Diane Souhami (Orion Books, 2004), Wildthorn by Jane Eagland (Macmillan, 2009) and Bokbindersken (the Norwegian translation of The Journal of Dora Damage) by Belinda Starling (Cappelen Damm, 2010).

Finally, for those of you who have been following my “similar covers” posts for a while, a familiar set (with two new covers): Fever-Hot Dreams by Jaci Burton, Sherri L. King and Samantha Winston (Ellora’s Cave, 2007), Mistress by Leda Swann (HarperCollins, Feb 2008), Private Places by Robin Schone, Claudia Dain, Allyson James and Shiloh Walker (Penguin, Aug 2008), and The Scandal of the Season by Sophie Gee (Simon & Schuster, Aug 2008). Two of these covers appeared in my Seeing Double! post in 2009.

It’s funny because, although all these covers are very similar, only the middle three four appeal to me, which I attribute to the fact that those books sound more like something I’d actually read (the others don’t). I think the cover for Bokbindersken is particularly beautiful (the small image I’ve uploaded in this post doesn’t do it justice). What do you think?

Edited to add:

I added Wildthorn to the second set. I wasn’t sure it was the same image, but when you put it next to the others, it’s pretty obvious that it is!

Similar Covers: Butterflies

While I was in Indigo the other day with a friend, I spotted a familiar cover: The Language of Letting Go by Melody Beattie (Hazelden, 1990). I’m almost 100% positive it’s the same butterfly (reversed) as appears on the cover of Jane Urquhart’s latest novel, Sanctuary Line (McClelland & Stewart, 2010).

A quick search on TinEye revealed two other exact matches: Chrysalis by the Venice Public Library Poets (Peppertree Press, 2008) and Understanding Change by Malcolm Webber (Strategic Press, date unknown).

I also recently came across two covers that feature the same blue butterfly: Touch (Our Senses) by Kay Woodward (Gareth Stephens Publishing, Jan 2005) and York Notes Advanced: Selected Poems – Carol Ann Duffy (Pearson, Jun 2005).

Finally, here are two butterflies-in-a-jar covers that are very similar though at the same time quite different: The Dry Grass of August by Anna Jean Mayhew (Kensington Publishing, 2011) and A World Away by Nancy Grossman (Hyperion, 2012).

Of all of these covers, my favourite by far is A World Away, which is whimsical and colourful (but may or may not have anything to do with the story, which is about an Amish teen who goes to Chicago for the summer to be a nanny!).

For other “similar covers” posts featuring butterflies, check out Blue Butterfly Covers, More Butterflies (Jar Optional) and Escaping Butterfly.