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.

Mailbox Monday (November 28)

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 Marcia at the Mailbox Monday site.

I didn’t receive any books in the mail this week, but found two yesterday in a new-to-me secondhand store.

The first is ribsauce: a cd/anthology of words by women edited by Taien Ng-Chan (anthology) and Alex Boutros & Kaarla Sundström (CD). Alex and Kaarla used to be my neighbours about 15 years ago, so I was surprised and pleased to find this collection.

From the inside flap:

ribsauce is a unique compilation of literature and sound recordings, featuring some of Canada’s best women writers and performance artists. Presented in collaboration with Wired on Words, one of Canada’s premier spoken word recording labels, this combination of book and CD reveals the ways in which language and sound are manipulated and muscled into place by women who push the boundaries of genre and form.

The book delves into a diverse array of genre and cross-genre, from poetry and prose to plays and dramatic monologues, and everything in between. The works in this collection experiment with narrative and voice, text and image.

The second is Girl from Mars by Tamara Bach, translated by Shelley Tanaka.

From the inside flap:

Miriam is fifteen. She has lived in the same little town her whole life, going to school with the same kids who know everything about her—like how in the third grade she once laughed so hard that her strawberry milk came out her nose.

But now she’s in high school—having stupid arguments with her mother, bored to death in class, trying to get excited by the same old parties with the same old friends, and wishing she lived in a big city where she could meet new people, see new things. In other words, Miriam is desperately waiting for her life to start happening. Something, anything...

A first love, perhaps.

And then love comes, in a completely unexpected way, when Miriam meets a new classmate, Laura. And suddenly, life is very complicated...

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

Similar Covers: Written on the Face

First a threesome foursome of covers where the book title obscures the face behind it:

• A Friend of the Family by Lauren Grodstein (Algonquin Books, 2010)
• The Book of Blood and Shadow by Robin Wasserman (Random House, 2012)
  
• Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (Random House, 2006)
  
• The Spy Who Jumped Off the Screen by Thomas Caplan (Penguin 2012)
  

Next, a foursome fivesome (!) of covers featuring closeups of (mostly) closed eyes:

• Alles, was wir geben mussten (the German translation of Never Let Me Go) by Kazuo Ishiguro (Random House, 2005)
• The Strength of the Sun by Catherine Chidgey (Macmillan Publishing, 2005)
• Certainty by Madeleine Thien (Little, Brown, 2007)
• The Museum of Innocence by Orhan Pamuk (Alfred A. Knopf, 2010)
  
• My Not-So-Still Life by Liz Gallagher (Random House, 2011)

Interestingly, the librarians at Stacked have featured two of these covers (Never Let Me Go and My Not-So-Still Life) with other lookalikes: check out Dystopia Double Take and Double Take: A Wink and a Nudge. Do you know of any others that would match these sets?

Edited to add:

I just added a fourth cover to the first set, The Book of Blood and Shadow, which I spotted over at The Book Smugglers. It looks so much like the cover for A Friend of the Family, except the words really are written on her face!

I also added a fifth cover to the second set, The Museum of Innocence, which is definitely my favourite of these five (and the only one I’m tempted to pick up based on the cover).

Scholastic Canada Brunch with Author Cecil Castellucci and Montreal Book Bloggers!

As I’ve mentioned a couple of times already, last Sunday, five other Montreal book bloggers and I had the honour of having brunch with Cecil Castellucci and two publicists from Scholastic Canada, Nikole and Catherine, who were in town for the Salon du Livre de Montréal (an annual book trade show). Cecil is in Canada to promote her latest book, First Day on Earth. Here we all are (click on photo to enlarge):

Front row (L-R): Lisa from starmetal oak book blog and Nikole from Scholastic Canada

Back row (L-R): Cat from Beyond Books, me, Lucy from Moonlight Gleam’s Bookshelf, Cecil Castellucci, Tina from Bookshipper, Melissa from YA Book Shelf and Catherine from Scholastic Canada

It was so much fun to share a meal with such a bookish crowd! Cecil talked about writing her first boy book and how much she puts of herself into each of her books. She answered our questions and signed our books. (I own seven of her nine books and every single one is now signed.) She even drew in my copy of The Plain Janes (read my review)!

She also mentioned that her next book will be a hybrid fiction and graphic novel called The Year of the Beasts (illustrated by Nate Powell—check out the cover!). I can’t wait to read it!

Nikole and Catherine prepared personalized bags of Scholastic goodness for each of us. These are the books I got:

• Glory Be by Augusta Scattergood (Jan 2012)
• Irises by Francisco X. Stork (Jan 2012)
• If Only by Carole Geithner (Mar 2012)
• The Letter Q: Queer Writers’ Noes to their Younger Selves edited by Sarah Moon with James Lecesne (May 2012)

Many thanks again to Nikole and Catherine from Scholastic Canada for hosting this event and to Cecil for hanging out with us and answering our questions!

If you live in Montreal (or nearby) and want to meet Cecil, she will be at Babar en Ville this Saturday doing a Writing Workshop for Teens. You can also watch her being interviewed on The Morning Show.

Mailbox Monday (November 21)

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 Marcia at the Mailbox Monday site.

I received one book to review in the mail this week, from Quest Books: Sojourns of the Soul: One Woman’s Journey around the World and into Her Truth by Dana Micucci. It seemed like a suitable follow-up to my trip to Kripalu!

From the publisher’s site:

Sojourns of the Soul is the quintessential armchair travel book for the spiritual seeker. Dana Micucci’s touching memoir chronicles seven sacred journeys that span 14 years of Micucci’s life, during which she explores the connection of inner growth to world travel that eventually leads to her own enlightenment. Unlike other inspirational travel books, Sojourns of the Soul provides a rare mix of in-depth wisdom and literary insights from the holistic view of an experienced female traveler.

Fellow Montreal book blogger Lucy gave me The Knife of Letting Go by Patrick Ness...

From the back cover:

Prentisstown isn’t like other towns. Everyone can hear everyone else’s thoughts in an overwhelming, never-ending stream of Noise. Just a month away from the birthday that will make him a man, Todd and his dog, Manchee—whose thoughts Todd can hear too, whether he wants to or not—stumble upon an area of complete silence. They find that in a town where privacy is impossible, something terrible has been hidden—a secret so awful that Todd and Manchee must run for their lives. But how do you escape when your pursuers can hear your every thought?

While fellow Montreal book blogger Lisa lent me The Highest Frontier by Joan Slonczewski...

From the inside flap:

Jennifer Ramos Kennedy, a girl from a rich and politically influential family (descended from the famous Kennedy clan) whose twin brother has died in an accident and left her bereft, is about to enter her freshman year at Frontera College. Frontera is an exciting school built in Earth’s orbit with media money—and a bit from tribal casinos, too—and is dedicated to educating the best and brightest of this future world. We accompany Jenny as she proceeds through her early days at school, encountering surprises and wonders and some unpleasant problems. Deadly microbes that caused AIDS and anthrax are now being modified to cure disease and grow cables for space elevators. Earth is altered by global warming, and an invasive alien species called ultraphytes threatens the surviving ecosystem. Jenny is being raised for great things, but while she’s in school, she just wants to do her homework, go on a few dates, and get by.

I also received a bunch of books from Scholastic Canada during the brunch on Sunday with Cecil Castellucci and her publicists, but more on that tomorrow!

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

Similar Covers: More Soldiers

In honour of Remembrance Day, which was last Friday, here are three sets of covers that feature the photos of Alfred Eisenstaedt, who is most famous for his photo V-J Day in Times Square. All three of the photos used on the covers below were taken at Penn Station. (Note that I’ve featured several of these covers in previous posts: Gone to Soldiers Again... and Sepia Couples [Take 2].)

The first set (above) are:

• The Last Time I Saw Paris by Lynn Sheene (Penguin, May 2011)
  
• Remembrance Day by Leah Fleming (Harper Collins, 2009)
  
• Consequences by Penelope Lively (Lester & Orpen Dennys, 2008)
• The Wreckage by Michael Crummey (Random House, 2006)
• The Carpenter's Pencil by Manuel Rivas (Random House, 2001)
• Standard Time: Songs of Word War II by Valerie Piacenti (CD, Nov 2011)
• A Farewell to Arms: Remastered Edition directed by Frank Borzage (DVD, 2005)

The second set (above) are:

• The Winds of War by Denise Robertson (Little Books, 2009)
• The Diplomat’s Wife by Pam Jenoff (Harlequin, 2008)
• Consequences by Penelope Lively (Penguin, 2007)
• El corresponsal (the Spanish translation of The Foreign Correspondent) by Alan Furst (Planeta, 2006)
  
• Gone to Soldiers by Marge Piercy (Random House, 1988)

The third set (above) are:

• Half in Love by Maile Meloy (Hachette, 2005)
  
• World War II Songs: As Time Goes By (Dynamic Music, 2006)
  

Mailbox Monday (November 14)

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 Marcia at the Mailbox Monday site.

This week I received one book in the mail, First Day on Earth by Cecil Castellucci, which was sent to me by Scholastic Canada. Cecil is going to be in town this weekend, so keep an eye out for my post about her visit!

I think the book blurb gives too much away, so all I’m going to say about the plot is that it’s about a boy who thinks he’s been abducted by aliens. I’ve already zipped through the book and I loved it!

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

Similar Covers: Boys

It seems to me that the covers I mention in my “similar covers” posts generally feature girls or women (if they feature people at all), and hardly ever boys or men.* So it seemed like it was about time to present you with these boys on lookalike covers!

This first collection is of sailor boy covers: Autumn in Yalta: A Novel and Three Stories by David Shrayer-Petrov (Syracuse University Press, 2006), They Came Like Swallows by William Maxwell (Pantheon, 1964) and Youri by Henri Troyat (Flammarion, 1992). You may remember that the French cover for They Came Like Swallows was in last week’s post.

Then I found Torn Water by John Lynch (Harper Collins, 2005), Broken Fever: Reflections of Gay Boyhood by James Morrison (St. Martin’s Press, 2001) and Van venir com orenetes (the Catalan translation of They Came Like Swallows) by William Maxwell (Labutxaca, 2009)...

Finally, a twosome I’d be saving for a while: Our Holocaust by Amir Gutfreund (Toby Press, 2006) and Hide & Seek by Clare Sambrook (Canongate, 2009). (You may remember that I featured another cover of Hide and Seek in my paper doll chains post.)

Unfortunately, I’m not very fond of any of these covers!

*In fact, I checked and other than four posts featuring couples, only three other posts—out of over 100!—feature boys or men: vampire (which I just updated with a fourth cover), boy from behind (the Tineye post) and back of head.