Book Discussion: Strangely Similar Covers

One reading prompt I had during one of last year's challenges was "Two book that look alike." This, I presumed, was open to interpretation, and these are the ones I came up with:

Notice the red doors and the Christmas wreaths, and snow falling. The most noticeable differences are the garlands, sled and dog in the first cover.

There seem to be various themes used as book cover designs that give lookalike covers. 

Profile Silhouette:

Nearly all the silhouettes in these examples seem the same. Many are curly-haired women. Note that two different books by the same author (Chris Cleave) use this design, and that each one has the silhouette looking in opposite directions. 

Apples:

Can we blame Twilight for this cover trend? I was looking at my library recently and saw this book, using an apple core as a statue of a person. That is an interesting idea.

 

Swirl Designs:

This has many possibilities. No two swirls seem exactly the same, but the designs are still very similar. There may be other such covers that that his photo missed.  Here is one I read about a year ago.

Glasses:

Why does it seem to be only girls wearing glasses on covers?  I happened to read the book The Black Kids last summer, not too long after I'd read these two books, both not shown above. 

Note how many of these kinds of covers often show images pictures in the frames of the glasses, and some use the glasses to display the book title.

And I can't believe they didn't show this cover:

 

Shoes:

Just what is the rhyme or reason for these covers having shoes? Do any of these books have much, if anything at all, to do with shoes? And this one I read earlier this year. Why is there a boot on this? at least I was able to use that one for the prompt "show on the cover" that I encountered this year.

Matches:

This blog post pointed out the similarity of the two covers below and wondered "...Fahrenheit 451 is an important influence in Augusten Burrough’s memoir, Lust & Wonder. ..."

The above images and names for covers are just a few examples from this Twitter/X post. Click to see other types of cover designs. Far too many to mention here. 

Animated Covers:

This seems to be common on romance novels these days. Why is this so, this article asks. Even more eerie are those covers without faces. Often the face is not depicted at all, even though the characters is facing forward or to the side as seen below: 

Or the face is entirely hidden behind an object:

And there are probably more examples of each cover design. And other cover tropes I did not get to mention (See the aforementioned Twitter/X link post for some). Any you have noticed?

Posted to Feed Your Fiction Addiction and It Starts at Midnight. 

Summer Reading Challenge @ Brewing Writer

 Doing this one. Begins on June 1. One prompt for each of the summer months.

• June--A book set in a destination you want to visit
• July--A book with summer/sun in its title
• August--A book set on a beach/island

Summer Reading Challenge: Read the Rainbow

Doing this one again at Booklist Queen. The challenge is to read a book with a cover in each of the colors.

Red: 

Orange: White Lies--Jayne Ann Krentz

Yellow:

Green:

Blue:

Purple:

Black: 

White: Every Last Word--Tamara Ireland Stone

A to Z Road Trip

 I will be joining the post-A to Z Road Trip. 

From the A to Z blog:

It's time for the Post A to Z Road Trip 2024! This is a great opportunity to catch up on the many blogs you would have liked to have spent more time visiting, but didn't during the Challenge, and a chance to visit the blogs of people who did the Challenge that you never got to. And, if you're one of those people who did the Challenge but didn't get a lot of visitors, this is a way to let people know that you'd appreciate a visit.

Here's what you do:

1. Sign up for the Road Trip. There's a place where you can put in the URL of a post that you would like visitors to read first. Then, grab a copy of the Road Trip badge from the graphics page (if you want) for your home page to use as a "bumper sticker."
2. Get copies of both the Road Trip List and the Master List. Both will be useful. 
3. Start with the Road Trip list and visit the blogs of the people who signed up there. Take some time to read their blog and their Challenge entries. Leave comments where you feel led to do so, and make sure you identify yourself as a Road Trip participant. Leave a link to your blog so they can return the favor. 
4. Then, if you have the time and inclination to do so, visit some of the blogs on the Master List that you didn't get the chance to visit. Even if they didn't sign up for the Road Trip, I'm sure they'd appreciate a visit.

May Bookish Bingo

 Here is the card for May.

My Books:

1. Cinderella Liberator--Rebecca Solnit (4 squares): Audiobook, Siblings, Humor, Shifter
2. The Clue of the Gold Coin--Helen Wells (8 squares): E-Book, In a Series, Unlikely Team/Misfits, Ancient Culture, Betrayal, Travel (Distance), Ghost, Shady/Sketchy Character
3. The Girl From the Train--Irma Joubert (5 squares): Library Book, Physical Book, Not in a Series, Book Club Read, Free Space

Blogging A to Z Reflections

This week, participants in the A to Z Blogging Challenge will be writing Reflections posts.  The Reflections post sign ups actually begin tomorrow, but I'm posting mine now.

This was the first time I scheduled posts on my blog. I'd drafted all my posts for the event ahead of time (as I'd done in previous A to Z Blogging events), but with my procedure that was this month, I was afraid of being too tired to get my post up before the day was over. With all I had going one for two days, I wasn't sure how often I'd be on my computer those two days. I did get on eventually those days, but the schedule-posting still came in handy. I did not begin the schedule-posting until the fifth day of the A to Z (my procedure was on the 16th), just to see how it works and it worked great for the timeliness of the blog event.

Some interesting themes this year included Disney Channel TV Movies. I began hunting some of these movies down on Disney+, and have watched one or two so far. Two I had already seen, one via VHS from Blockbuster around 2001 and one on DVD from Netflix in 2007. I may watch them again. Another was Romance Tropes in Folklore.  Silly songs was another (this was one of the people who were "unofficially" participating in the A to Z). And there are just too many others to mention, and some I have missed, and hope to get to when the Road Trip begins later this month. 

The graphics on the A to Z Blogging page already have next year's theme reveal post graphics up. But I'm not so sure about a theme for 2025 just yet. It took a while to come up with this year's theme. I'm sure I'll find something in time for next year's reveal. But I won't be thinking of it just yet. 

Z: Zoo Doctor

ZONKS! I can't believe it's now time for ...

Zoo Doctor

Among Barbie's many careers is that of zoo doctor, or pet doctor. On top of that, she's also been a regular doctor. The Pet Doctor was first released in the 1990s.

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And that's a wrap! Hope you have enjoyed this year's A to Z. A Reflections post is coming this week, and the Post-A to Z Road Trip is later in May.