Amelia Earhart's Last Flight

I don't think there's anything more motivating for me than reading about really amazing women in history. When I found Amelia Earhart's Last Flight at a used bookstore, I knew it was a must-read.

Plus, hello. That beautiful gold script on the cover. And these lovely inside pages...

I don't usually post about books I haven't finished reading, but this is more of a swoon post than a review. Last Flight was mostly written by Amelia herself, with the intention it would be published as World Flight after she finished her amazing journey. After the disappearance, her husband, George Palmer Putnam published the book and included pieces of her journey as well. So far, it's an incredible and inspiring story.

Amelia and husband, George.

The book includes notes made by Amelia and photographs from her journey on nice glossy pages. 

So far, my favorite passage has been from the forward, written by George:

 So this is not a chronicle of regret, but of high and happy adventure.

+

the new release by Ann Dowsett Johnston, another very inspiring woman
and women reading

ps. the lovely trunk I took these photographs on was created by my friends at Bergeron Woodworks. I met them during my first New Orleans Jazz Fest and have loved bringing home a piece of their collection every year since.

An Extraordinary Theory of Objects

I absolutely love receiving books to review but since I'm a book design blog sometimes the packages I open are a little disappointing. Uncorrected proofs and review copies tend to be sent out without finalized cover designs and I can understand why.

When I opened the envelope holding "An Extraordinary Theory of Objects" I was excited. The proof cover (from what my internet searching told me) is very similar to the final cover if not identical and was so pretty.

Stephanie LaCava's memoir of growing up in Paris as an outsider is sort of about the beautiful objects she collected and sort of about just growing up. Some of her collected objects adorn the cover but the illustrations continue throughout the book as well. The illustrations really help to give Stephanie's story a magical feel of adolescence and being in an unfamiliar space.

I actually read this book while I was in China and it was a perfect companion piece to my trip.

Plus, more autobiographies
and speaking of illustrations, remember that beautiful Charley Harper book?

hey, Jay-Z? you win.

you had me at "gold foil".

A classy book cover for a classy man. Seriously? Warhol, gold foil and a super clean design? Jay-Z wins.

Autobiographies and Biographies

I love reading about people. Autobiographies and biographies are always so interesting to me. Given the choice, I tend to gravitate towards autobios though. No matter how accurately a biography can report a story, a person's life is their own. Their perspective completes the story and usually makes for a much more entertaining read.

One problem that always arises with these types of books though, is cover design. They tend to be pretty bland and uniform across the board. The default design seems to be a large, awkward photo of the subject, the title and author.

And, sometimes pretty creepy. For example, Laura Bush's new book, "Spoken from the Heart".



I kind of get a Vanity Fair vibe from this, but Laura is creeping me out.

Luckily, not every book has to be a Laura.

One of my favorite authors, Augusten Burroughs, has written a series of memoirs, all bound in fantastic covers.  Each book tackles a different phase of his life; childhood, career, alcoholism, relationships, etc. And each cover manages to tell you what you're getting yourself into as a reader. His memoirs are perfect examples of how successful a creative cover can be, even on a non-fiction work.

His most famous book is probably Running With Scissors, which was recently made into a movie.



 My favorite Burroughs works, though, are probably Dry and Magical Thinking.






To see more Burroughs covers, I recommend visiting his website, augusten.com.

Do you have a favorite bio or autobio that has a clever cover and not just a subject headshot? Let me know, I'd love to see it.