Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

Cover prompts! We love a cover prompt! This one is sure to invite a bit of controversy, in how you decide to define handwriting. Maybe you're going for a script font, or maybe you're looking for an irregular font that looks like someone took a sharpie to the cover. We love seeing all of your interpretations, so go wild!

Could be as part of the cover decoration:


Or just a title font that looks like handwriting:


ATY Listopia: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

What are you reading for this prompt, and do you have any recommendations?

The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot (medical health)
O Beautiful by Jung Yun (Asian author)
Mockingbird
Wildwood Whispers
Before the Ever After

I recommend:


Murder on the Orient Express
Lab Girl
Olive Kitteridge
Ask Again, Yes

I have a bunch of options for this one. I'm leaning toward one of these:

The Utterly Uninteresting and Unadventurous Tales of Fred, the Vampire Accountant (You might have to blow up the image to see the handwriting.)
A Pocket Full of Rye
Go Down, Moses
The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane

I'm going to finally read

I'm planning on reading a book by "The Lady Janies," which is the author team comprised of Brodi Ashton, Jodi Meadows, and Cynthia Hand. They write fun historical(-ish) fiction, and all of the books have quirky little "handwritten" annotations on the cover. I'm leaning towards My Contrary Mary, since it follows Mary Queen of Scots.

The books also lend themselves to an interesting BIO option: to read a book that the handwriting is not part of the title.

Here are the covers that they've done:

I have really struggled with the whole "what is handwriting" thing, so I narrowed it down to a book where the title looks like someone wrote it. These are what I'm considering:

Apparently I'm determined to be picky about this one because scrolling through my lengthy TBR, I only found a couple that I would count as handwriting (to me, script font is still font): or maybe

I have a pretty lengthy list that I think would work for this prompt:
The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot
The Last Thing He Told Me
Elatsoe
How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House
A Year of Marvellous Ways
Under the Whispering Door
We Are the Brennans
Island Queen
Honey Girl

The Barbizon: The Hotel That Set Women Free - Paulina Bren
The Lido - Libby Page
The Summer of Impossible Things - Rowan Coleman

I can recommend:
The Weight of Ink
This one has a written name on the cover as well as faint writing in the background. It is about a scribe. I really enjoyed it.

This is one of my favourite prompts, I really enjoyed looking for a book for it. I'll be reading Rotherweird by Andrew Caldecott for this. The cover has a map that looks handwritten:



I love Ben Aaronovitch's Peter Grant books, and the covers are all in a similar style, with the handwriting on the maps:



I'd also recommend:

There's a lot of options. I'm leaning towards Becoming a Man: The Story of a Transition but also considering Chasing Chopin: A Musical Journey Across Three Centuries, Four Countries, and a Half-Dozen Revolutions. Sweet on You: A Filipino Romance is another possibility, or Being Mary Bennet.

I’m struggling with this one because of what others have mentioned: being picky about what handwriting is. I look at the Listopia, and the majority of it screams “this is a stylized font” and not handwriting. And that kind of font has been en vogue in publishing for the last few years so there are so many books like that.

You could try looking at history books or biographies - some of those have pictures of handwritten documents or famous signatures on the front. I am now going with . Elizabeth I's signature was quite dramatic so a number of books about her display it e.g. (which also has the signature of Mary Queen of Scots).

Here's a lesser-known non-fiction I found at my local library this year and loved it. It definitely has handwriting on the cover:

I'd reccomend A Midwife's Tale ... the background is taken from her diary, and it's a heckuva story.

Also any book from the edition of Agatha Christie's books that has her signature on the cover (other people have mentioned a few, but I'm pretty sure I've read several from that set).

I did want to be strict about the handwriting, but I'm not willing to go too far off what I already have on my TBR to find something with a picture of actual script on the cover. (Though I do want something more than just cursive font.) I'm really interested in finding crayon drawn covers, but actual author's signature is a good possibility too. I like these:


Quite a few possibilities in these lists:
https://lithub.com/the-60-best-book-c...
https://lithub.com/the-64-best-book-c...
https://lithub.com/the-75-best-book-c...
https://lithub.com/the-78-best-book-c...
https://lithub.com/the-101-best-book-...

For stricter folks:


Some different approaches to "handwriting":

For a challenge in another group, I am reading

The Book of Form and Emptiness - You have to magnify the image to see a lot of handwriting on the dark blue parts of the cover.

I want to finally read Letter to His Father by Franz Kafka, because my edition is this one:

Um...
Question to all the lovely readers on this thread, I've already read this light novel last night and I think it works.
But if there are any graphic design experts out there that can, for sure, identify that the title was handwritten (albeit digitally by a cover illustrator) then I would be most grateful!

Celeste wrote: "But if there are any graphic design experts out there that can, for sure, identify that the title was handwritten (albeit digitally by a cover illustrator) then I would be most grateful!"

I'm not a graphic designer, but it looks like that is a manhwa, so I'm guessing the cover is actually digitally drawn art by the same artist who drew the book. I wouldn't think you could get much closer to actual handwriting than that (short of having a copy of an actual letter or some such on the cover).

Thanks Amy!
You’re probably correct, I guess I just wanted to get a second opinion for reassurance.
Thanks, CELESTE.

I read The Henna Wars because the title looks enough like handwriting for me to count it for this prompt

I read by Trea Martyn, which has the signature of Elizabeth I on the cover.

I'd always thought of Elizabethan gardens as knot gardens, but the ones in this book were spectacular - and there was a lot of conspicuous consumption! It would be lovely to recreate the gardens with CGI as none are left.

is a good and original whodunit.

I used this one for another prompt, but noticed it has handwriting on the cover (and it was a 5-star read for me):

The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey by Candice Millard - My Review

some of my choices

I read . I think it's the highlighted title in different colors that make it seem like it's handwritten.

I'd recommend:
, , , and

I read this one and loved it:

The Master by Colm Tóibín - 5* - My Review

I read Me Being Me Is Exactly as Insane as You Being You by Todd Hasak-Lowy

I read The Secret Life of Albert Entwistle.

I am using ] for this prompt - was looking for where to place this book.

Amanda Bestor-Siegal - The Caretakers
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

What are you reading for this prompt, and do you have any recommendations?
I read .

Evelyn wrote: "What are you reading for this prompt, and do you have any recommendations?
I read."



Sister Mother Warrior is coming out in July and I would've put chosen that if I didn't already finished #47 with a romance light novel.

I read by Marisa Crawford

I have read the short graphic novel I Like You, I Love You by Carissa Potter.

I am reading Anne Boleyn by Joanna Denny. I can recommend the Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman.

I read the arc of Boys I Know by Anna Gracia.


It comes out in July 5th.

Although I liked the cover, I really disliked the book I read, .

Some I'd recommend:

A couple from my TBR:


A few to recommend that I have enjoyed:


The only one I was able to find in my library that uses handwriting as a graphical element rather than a handwritten or hand-style font in the title was Griffin & Sabine

I read Grown by Tiffany D. Jackson for this prompt.



It's loosely based on the crimes of R. Kelly, and I thought it was a good read.

I read Adult Assembly Required. It was very enjoyable and would recommend to anyone who enjoyed The Bookish Life of Nina Hill.

Read Sebastian.

Anne Bishop is one of my favourite authors. This one’s about an incubus trying to find a place for himself in a world that changes based on emotion.

I read The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie.

I read How to Fail at Flirting. It was pretty good. I wasn't expecting to read it this year. I came across it in the library. It was kind of predictable but I guess I was in the mood for that.

I chose from my read pile:



Lovely handwritting!

I read (The Reading List) by Sara Nisha Adams. It was a very enjoyable book, somewhat heartwarming. The author's name is handwritten.

If anyone is interested in reading it next year, it would of course if in 'A Book About Books'. Also, if 'A book by an author with three names printed on the cover' makes it, this would fit the bill (maybe this will be renamed 'A book by an author who goes by three names'?)

I had intended to read (This Magnificent Dappled Sea) by David Biro (title is handwritten), but my IRL book group was reading The Reading List this month, and this was the only category it fit. I definitely intend to read This Magnificent Dappled Sea at some point. Maybe next year for 'A book with a body of water in the title'?

I read . 5 stars. I enjoyed it.

For this one I read .