Judge the jackets

    Here's the competition I promised you this morning.

    Take a close look at all the 'jackets' for the e-single short stories I was talking about - you'll see them enlarged in the post below this one - then come back here and tell us which is your favourite and why.

    You can tweet your entry if you'd prefer, so either use the hashtag #judgethejacket or mark it @Cornflowerbooks to be sure I see it, but whether you enter via a comment or a tweet, I'm looking for something short and sweet.

    Now to the prizes, and Bloomsbury have very kindly offered a selection from which you can choose. The winner will get their choice of a hardback (or trade paperback) and a paperback from the following lists of books all out this month, and the runner-up will get a paperback.

    Hardbacks/trade paperbacks:

    For crime and thriller fans there's The Hanging by Lotte and Søren Hammer, the first in a new six part series featuring Danish detective Konrad Simonsen. "On a cold Monday morning before school begins, two children make a gruesome discovery. Hanging from the roof of the school gymnasium are the bodies of five naked and heavily disfigured men. Detective Chief Superintendent Konrad Simonsen and his team from the Murder Squad in Copenhagen are called in to investigate this horrific case - the men hanging in a geometric pattern; the scene so closely resembling a public execution. When the identities of the five victims and the disturbing link between them is leaked to the press, the sinister motivation behind the killings quickly becomes apparent to the police. Up against a building internet campaign and even members of his own team, Simonsen finds that he must battle public opinion and vigilante groups in his mission to catch the killers."

    A Girl Like You by Maureen Lindley begins in 1939 in rural California. Thirteen-year-old "Satomi Baker is used to being different, being half American, half Japanese. When war is declared, Satomi's father Aaron is one of the first to sign up and is sent to the base at Pearl Harbor. He never returns. The community which has tolerated its foreign residents for decades suddenly turns on them, and along with thousands of other Japanese-American citizens, Satomi and her mother are sent to a brutal labour camp in the wilderness ... At Manzanar, Satomi learns what it takes to survive, and what it means to be American. But it will be years before she will discover who she really is under the surface of her skin."

    Kate Manning's My Notorious Life by Madame X has been described as a cross between Call the Midwife and The Crimson Petal and the White! "Axie Muldoon, the headstrong daughter of Irish immigrants, grows up to become the most successful – and controversial – midwife of her time. She rises from the gutter to the glitter of Fifth Avenue high society, and discovers that the right way is not always the way of the church or the law, and that you should never trust a man who says ‘trust me.’ But what if that man is an irresistible risk-taker with a poetical Irish soul? As Axie’s reputation grows she finds herself on a collision course with the crusading official who would be the righteous instrument of her downfall. It will take all of her power to outwit him and save both herself and those she loves from ruin."

     

Paperbacks:

    Juliet Nicolson is well known as a social historian, but in Abdication she has turned to fiction, using her extensive knowledge of the period as background to a novel set in the mid-1930s. "After the recent death of George V, England has a new king, Edward VIII. But for all the confident pomp and ceremony of the accession, it is a turbulent time. When nineteen-year-old May Thomas arrives in Liverpool, her first job as secretary and chauffeuse to Sir Philip Blunt introduces her to the upper echelons of British society – and to Julian, a young man of conscience whom, despite all barriers of class, she cannot help but fall for. But hidden truths, unspoken sympathies and covert complicities are everywhere, and the threat of another world war becomes increasingly inevitable..."

    Canada by Richard Ford has one of those 'no punches pulled' opening lines: 'First, I'll tell about the robbery our parents committed. Then about the murders, which happened later.' "It was more bad instincts and bad luck that lead to Dell Parson’s parents robbing a bank. They weren’t reckless people, but in an instant, their actions alter fifteen-year-old Dell’s sense of normal life forever. In the days that follow, he is saved before the authorities think to arrive. Driving across Montana, his life hurtles towards the unknown; a hotel in a deserted town, the violent and enigmatic Arthur Remlinger, and towards Canada itself. But, as Dell discovers, in this new world of secrets and upheaval, he is not the only one whose past lies on the other side of the border."

    Last but not least, Lance Weller's Wilderness: "Thirty years ago, Abel Truman found himself on the wrong side in the Battle of the Wilderness, one of the bloodiest clashes of the American Civil War. Its aftermath took him to the edge of the continent, the rugged coast of Washington State, where he has made his home in a driftwood shack with his beloved dog, waiting for the scars of war to heal. Now an old and ailing man, Abel must make one heroic final journey over the snowbound Olympic Mountains. But as Abel sets out, violence follows him in the shape of the memories of those he has lost, and the savagery he witnessed, as well as two men who are darkly tenacious in their pursuit. Hypatia is a freed slave who finds herself walking unwittingly into the hellish heart of the Wilderness. Ellen is a white woman, married to a black man at a time that is as dangerous as it is unforgiving. And Jane is a young Chinese girl, who is newly, cruelly orphaned, and clinging on to life. Abel's epic journey leads him to each of them as he encounters compassion amid brutality and tenderness within loss."

    What a great range of books from which to choose your prize, so please get on and 'judge the jackets' - this is open to everyone, no matter where in the world you are, just comment or tweet, tell me your favourite e-single short story 'jacket' and why you particularly like it, and I'll pick the winners soon.

Comments

[craftygreenpoet]

I like the cover for Roshi Gernando's Homesick, there's something very nostalgic about the photo

[b.r.]

I am drawn to 'Of Mothers and Little People'. The cover illustration and title conveys a relective theme that I could possibly relate to.

[AnnP]

I like the Elizabeth Gilbert one - a road that leads to who knows where like a good story.

[Rosie H]

I like Of Mothers and Little People; it makes me think of holidays spent in Cornwall, with my grandparents in the past and (I hope) with my daughter in the future.

[Mary]

I'm probably disqualifying myself - they're all fairly dull - but the Elizabeth Gilbert is best of a bad bunch. Don't think any of them jump off a shelf and say, 'Read me.' Or more importantly to a publisher, 'Buy me.' I don't think I'd pick them up unless I'd read a very good review.
But I don't buy e-books, so maybe there's a lower barrier to catching the reader's interest.

[Mystica Varathapalan]

I'm rooting for Roshi Fernando's Homesick. I like the symmetry of those houses!

[Danielle]

Hmm--judging a book/or story in this case by its cover (without knowing anything about the story other than the theme you mention) I think I would reach for Lucy Wood's story first--it's the one that makes me most curious about the story--maybe because there is a woman on the cover (and I tend to reach more often for books about women's lives?), and she has her back to the reader, which I think is much more visually interesting than showing only her torso--publishers have a thing for chopping off women's heads. I also like the monochrome colors, but maybe like Mary above me most of them don't jump out at me--then again these are ebooks, so I would be more likely to be reaching for it thanks to contents first anyway.... :)

[Chiara]

Rajesh Parameswaran's book leaps out with the hot red cover and those spicy chillies arranged like a demon's horns!

[Katie]

I like The Mathematics of Friedrich Gauss. While the cover is simple (as they all are) the color choice is perfect for this cover and I can almost feel the humid heat.

Katie

[Alison P]

The Jhumpha Lahiri cover made me smile as there is a rather odd photograph of Sybille Bedford sitting reading in a very similar bath, naked but for a sun visor, in the summer edition of Slightly Foxed

[Henrietat]

I prefer the Lucy Wood cover - the figure in the foreground and what looks to be a beach. The title is illegible though. The colour wash over them all does not really work for me, and it is curious that some have the authors name in larger letters than the title, and some are the other way around. A motley lot!

[Houry Phedra]

I like the cover "Only Goodness" of Jhumpa Lahiri because it's imediatly giving to my mind the sensation of taking a bath with some candles around and relaxing music.

[Jacky]

Home, who wouldn't want to come 'Home' to a house with a picket fence.

[Liz]

It's the T C Boyle cover for me, largely because of the title. I mean, who could resist a tale about a big, fat, juicy porkie pie? The picture of hazy sunlight through the voile curtain seems to hint at what we as readers want to discover once the lie is told: will anyone see through it?

[Mary]

I vote for the T C Boyle cover as well but for a different reason. It's the fonts. I like the balance of font size and color for the author and book title. Neither overwhelms the other but they are both legible. I couldn't even tell the photo was of curtains (!) so I liked it for being abstract in a way that created a bit of tension with the vertical stripes pointing to the title. I would want to read that book; the others, not so much. Some of the font size choices on the are very peculiar and/or distracting or unreadable. The photo for Homesick was the only one that struck a chord consistent with the title.

[Geraldine]

My choice is Home with the picket fence as my home has one and I am so very far away from it and have been for so long that it makes me nostalgic.

[Nicky]

"The Lie" (T C Boyle)does it for me. It probably doesn't look like this in real life but a quick glance at the small verison on my screen reminds me of those stretched out vertical lines you sometimes get when a picture is loading on a computer. It's intriguing - what's coming next.....?

[Rachel Stirling]

TC Boyle for me. I like the balance of cover art to graphic design. None of the others really grab my attention.

[Stephanie Ziegler]

I like Homesick. It just seems like the only cover that matched the title of the book the best.

[Elizabeth Bevins]

I'm most intrigued by The Finest Wife and Only Goodness. The tub & the blue color on the Only Goodness cover makes me think this may be a somewhat sad story.
The road cover for The Finest Wife leaves one thinking this story might be on the move or have characters that are in motion.
Although I have to say none of the covers are terribly exciting...although you don't see much of the cover when you read an eBook. I prefer a "real" book.

Thanks for the chance to win!

[Annegret]

My choice: Roshi Fernando: Homesick.
Whereever you come from, whereever you go, home is a place you always long for.

[Ruth Keys]

The Hanging Tree.... so atmospheric, dark branches closing in.

[Mystica Varathapalan]

I like several but I think Home is good. Entered before but the msg seems to have disappeared!