Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Backs of women’s heads: A trio of similar covers

There are a heaps of books that feature the back of a woman’s head on their covers, but I was surprised to come across three pairs (or trios) of covers using the same image:

The Piano Teacher by Janice Y. K. Yee and Silk by Penny Jordan both feature the same image from the Condé Nast Archive—and it’s interesting that there’s an Asian connection between the two books, yet an image of a blond Causasian woman was chosen for their covers...



Edited to add:
Thanks to TinEye, I found a third cover to match the two above: As Esquinas do Tempo (which literally means The Corners of Time in Portuguese) by Rosa Lobato de Faria.
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The titles to The Good Mother by Sue Miller and The Gallows Girl by Melanie Gifford conjure up fairly opposite images in my mind but feature the same woman on their covers...



Edited to add:
Sarah, who maintains the Reusable Cover Art page, pointed out a third cover featuring the same woman: The Various Flavors of Coffee by Anthony Capella. I gotta say, I really don’t like this one!
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Finally, another unlikely pair is The Gospel of Judas by Simon Mawer and Look Homeward Erotica by the Kensington Ladies’ Erotica Society!


14 comments:

  1. Avis i love this feature on your blog and I love the top covers and funny that they used a white woman for an asian book isn't it?

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  2. I love seeing these because I'm never observant enough to notice them myself.

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  3. I'm always boggled when I see such similar covers and that you can find them!

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  4. in asian culture the nape of the neck is, i have read, an extremely sensual body part. Maybe because in kimonos the nape of the neck is the only part you can see!

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  5. I think that many book cover designers have a thing against women's faces. I suppose by cutting out the woman's face it could be anyone, but between these and the headless covers, it's just a little weird.

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  6. They all look, like, exactly the same! That's ridiculous.

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  7. This just goes to show how much is marketing and how important the cover image is to sell the book. It's almost disappointing.

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  8. Those are great finds! It always amazes me how often images are reused.

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  9. lol-It amazes me too that they use the exact same person. I used to think that all covers were unique to the book. I was quite surprised to find they weren't.

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  10. These are one of the most interesting ones so far! That is odd that they would feature a Caucasian woman on the two Asian-themed books!

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  11. Cindy and Jenners, in fact one of the main characters in The Piano Teacher is a British woman and Silk is set in England, so it could also be argued that both books have a British connection. I just thought the blond woman on the cover was an interesting choice given that readers are more likely to think the books have an Asian connection.

    Thanks, Kathy!

    Luanne, I must admit I was pretty surprised to come across Silk at Indigo because that cover image was so associated with The Piano Teacher in my mind. In fact Silk was published first!

    Interesting, Judy!

    Meghan, yeah, I've heard that rationale before, that by cutting out the face it leaves the character up to the reader's imagination, but I also agree that it's a little weird!

    Steph Su and Anonymous Child, I agree with both of you! One thing to keep in mind, though, is that Silk was published in the UK. (It doesn't seem to have an American publisher, at least according to Amazon.)

    Melissa and Dar, me too! I was quite surprised to realize that book covers are not unique. And then even more surprised to realize how common the repetition of covers is!

    Thanks, Wendy! That's good to know because I've got a bunch more of these posts waiting in the wings!

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  12. I don't know how you find all these, but I'm glad you do because I enjoy these posts very much.

    --Anna
    Diary of an Eccentric

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  13. Anna, I spend waaaaay too much time looking at other folks' libraries on LibraryThing! Glad you enjoy these posts!

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