See the covers of all the different editions

[vivico1]

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Librarian wrote:
Hi------I'm leaning toward the British hardcover cover choice. It promises intrigue especially with the words----"Within its four walls lay a secret that would last a lifetime"---right on the front cover.

Viv, I hope all goes well for you with the surgery. I've been enjoying your insightful posts.
Librarian

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Thanks Librarian. I will be back on before the month is over and thru Thursday of this week. Good to see you again too.

[SandyS]

The American hardcover strikes me as the cover I would pick up in a bookstore. I am always interested in the different covers - especially when a publisher makes a drastic change from the hardcover to the paperback.

Sandys

[slknight]

I also like the American Cover and title. My second is the British hardcover. This is such a learning process for me and I am finding it very exciting.

[Tarri]

I like the two British covers the best, but all are enticing.

[Read-n-Rider]

I prefer the American hardcover cover; the richness and the contrasting colors make it a real attention-grabber. I would be drawn to picking it up in a bookstore and reading the synopsis, and this is one of the main things that influence me in buying a book.

Good luck with your surgery on Thursday, Vivian. Hope you'll be back here soon!

Joan

[vivico1]

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Read-n-Rider wrote:
I prefer the American hardcover cover; the richness and the contrasting colors make it a real attention-grabber. I would be drawn to picking it up in a bookstore and reading the synopsis, and this is one of the main things that influence me in buying a book.

Good luck with your surgery on Thursday, Vivian. Hope you'll be back here soon!

Joan

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Thanks Joan, I am sure I will be . And thanks to you all who have said something to me.

[KathyS]

Just a few thoughts on the Australian cover. Also, I lean towards being a purest with book jackets. Reflecting the story is critical, both in color, and design.

When I first viewed this cover, the face was the first thing that jumped out at me, then the author's name, then the title and the subdued picture of the lake and house. I felt that all the wordage was distracting and incidental, and should be placed on the fly, or on the back of the cover.

Because the author is from Australia, this is going to place her name in large print, which usually happens as most authors become better known.... With each novel, the name gets larger, until with each subsequent novel, the title becomes secondary on the cover.

When full faces, or full figures [not parts of the body...such as the torso, or hands], are shown on the cover, it reminds me of a romance novel, where this is the subject matter you expect to read about inside. But with Lit Fiction, you tend to obsess over a real picture, which is distracting for me when I can't place the face to what I may be reading. It's a vintage picture, and a beautiful theatrical picture, that's the only one key note....then the feel of mystery that you get from viewing the house, and the lake. It gave me the feeling that something is about to happen, or has happened around that scene, and the woman in the picture is involved in it in some way. Which way, I couldn't guess.

Take the woman off the cover, enlarge the scene, clean off the wordage.....that's how I would see it. If a cover needs wordage to describe what is inside, then the picture isn't telling you what it should be telling you. That's just my critical points of view. With each country, these things are researched, and what appeals to one, may not to another. It doesn't make it right or wrong, or good or bad.....just personal preferences.

Message Edited by KathyS on 01-12-2008 11:18 PM

[vivico1]

I think the reason I like the American version the best is, the richness of color, sharpness and straight forward print and what is in the picture. Its the inside of the house. And the stairs are wonderful at representing the upstairs downstairs, nature of the story. I still would love to see the way it wraps around to the back and what the room looks like there. To me, showing the inside of the house makes more sense to me than any of these others, because thats where the story really takes place, among the lives of those who live inside the house.

The British hardcover, while being pretty, really has nothing to do with the house, or with the story. Its not the house, its not the people. Its a garden area. At first look at it with that title, I would think it was one of those books that is dedicated to the grounds and gardens of a well known house, not a novel of love and "mystery, ha" at all.

The British paperback, it took me awhile to realize that was a blurred image of a woman there. With its dark color and style of print and a ghostly looking woman, I would have taken it for a ghostly mystery and its not that either.

Where I am at now, I at least understand the title for the original Australia one and for reasons I will not say in case of spoiler, when you get there, you could say, well that would be a good title too but the face on it just doesn't really say anything to me but that maybe its about some 1930s star and thats her real picture.

Yeah, I still like the American one the best.

[KathyS]

This was the one I had picked, for these reasons: For critical reasons, as well as emotional reasons, not because it's American.

I like the lettering on the ARC better than this version, just another personal preference. Both bold, but this one shows a little more hard edged, no softness to it, as with the H and R of the ARC letters.

I, also, see the clean lines in this picture. The colors are dynamic; red and gold, and deep blue, there is something very passionate about these colors, and subject matter. It reminds me of the crescendo in an orchestrated piece of music, where the music becomes louder.

The staircase certainly leads your eye into the picture, rounding and halting and turning you at about the center; where the crisp cut edge of the picture frame cuts into the focus, and offsets your eye from the center. Both of these edges brilliantly underscoring the title. And no visible picture in the framed picture on the wall. Nicely done.

The deep blue which these edges are pointing to, along with the rich color of the stairway.....leads you to a door in the darkness of the blue. The framing of all of this, made me wonder what was behind this door, and where was that stairway leading me. The author's name/letters is about the size I had expected.

The cover, as a whole, leans me more into my emotional side, rather than my conscious thought. I think this is why I was taken with the cover, at first glance. Again, it was clean, no extra words on the cover, except the words, 'a novel'.
Very nice.

[Wrighty]

I've mentioned this before when we've discussed covers but the only thing that I've never liked is when the book becomes a movie and they reprint new covers using photos from the movie. I don't know why I don't like it but it turns me right off to the book and I don't even like to pick it up. I always like the book better than the movie so maybe that has something to do with it. I'm sure it's a marketing tactic to use those covers and probably more people will buy them than not.

[KathyS]

I like the lettering of the title. There is an elegance in those first letters on the H and R. Sets the title off beautifully.

The garden setting does play a part, as well as the gate. But the garden, although a very nice picture, for whatever reason it doesn't speak to me of mystery. Just of curiosity. Again the wordage speaks of four walls, and you are looking at a garden setting that doesn't say secrets.......too much light, perhaps?....... and take the wordage off the front page and then what do you see? A very nice cover.

The only jacket that doesn't say: FOR WOMEN READERS ONLY on it, is the American jacket.
Again, just my personal preferences.
Design wise, it's very nice.

[momgee]

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KathyS wrote:
. But the garden, although a very nice picture, for whatever reason it doesn't speak to me of mystery. Just of curiosity. Again the wordage speaks of four walls, and you are looking at a garden setting that doesn't say secrets.......too much light, perhaps?.......

Wow! I take the gate as definitely saying secrets. What is it hiding inside and what is it keeping out.The American staircase version just says cheesy to me. I get the upstairs downstairs thing but it just smacks of cheap book. I don't know why. Maybe that's why there are numerous covers to spark an interest in a lot of differnt viewpoints.

kaye

[CherylAnderson]

I like to AMerican version the best for the cover. I really think it fits the book!

[KathyS]

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momgee wrote:

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KathyS wrote:
. But the garden, although a very nice picture, for whatever reason it doesn't speak to me of mystery. Just of curiosity. Again the wordage speaks of four walls, and you are looking at a garden setting that doesn't say secrets.......too much light, perhaps?.......

Wow! I take the gate as definitely saying secrets. What is it hiding inside and what is it keeping out.The American staircase version just says cheesy to me. I get the upstairs downstairs thing but it just smacks of cheap book. I don't know why. Maybe that's why there are numerous covers to spark an interest in a lot of different viewpoints.

kaye

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Cheesy and Cheap?...The American jacket is dramatic/dynamic and bold cover, both in color and design, that's for sure, but I wouldn't go so far as to call it cheap and cheesy. I like a little of each of these covers, but I would change all of them, in some slight way.....it's just how I view them....but these jackets are finished, and I was trying to find the interesting/uninteresting/technical aspects of them, as I view a finished painting. I try to stay away from derogatory, non-productive words.

[vivico1]

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momgee wrote:

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KathyS wrote:
. But the garden, although a very nice picture, for whatever reason it doesn't speak to me of mystery. Just of curiosity. Again the wordage speaks of four walls, and you are looking at a garden setting that doesn't say secrets.......too much light, perhaps?.......

Wow! I take the gate as definitely saying secrets. What is it hiding inside and what is it keeping out.The American staircase version just says cheesy to me. I get the upstairs downstairs thing but it just smacks of cheap book. I don't know why. Maybe that's why there are numerous covers to spark an interest in a lot of differnt viewpoints.

kaye

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You know what I just figured out that has been bothering me and I couldnt put my finger on it till I read your two posts together? There is a difference between "secrets" and "mystery" and thats why I couldnt get a good handle on what I felt about this book. I really liked the story line, for the most part, but I kept thinking, wheres the mystery? We pretty much have know what is going on here and are just waiting for her to tell us but tell us something mysterious and shocking that we didnt know. And there lies the rub for me, this is not a mystery book at all, but one about the cost of secrets. There is a subtle difference but one that makes me a little less disappointed with it over all, since I kept wanting a "real mystery"! Interesting.

[IBIS]

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vivico1 wrote:
... this is not a mystery book at all, but one about the cost of secrets. There is a subtle difference but one that makes me a little less disappointed with it over all, since I kept wanting a "real mystery"! Interesting.

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I definitely would call HAR a mystery.... I spent the entire book wondering who killed Robbie.

[vivico1]

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IBIS wrote:

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vivico1 wrote:
... this is not a mystery book at all, but one about the cost of secrets. There is a subtle difference but one that makes me a little less disappointed with it over all, since I kept wanting a "real mystery"! Interesting.

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I definitely would call HAR a mystery.... I spent the entire book wondering who killed Robbie.

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Well we all knew it was one of the triangle, from the book description itself. I dont want to posts any spoilers or I could give you other examples of where we knew before it was every revealed, the answer, the story was just working towards getting you to it. I think we should probably leave it at that here, now that I think of where my comment could lead us when people deserve to see this thread even if they are first starting the book. Sorry, will confine my posts here to the bookcovers only.

[Popper19]

My favorite is the American hardcover.

[lisabook]

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Maria_H wrote:
Since Kate will be joining us next week, we thought you might enjoy comparing the covers for each of the book's editions.

American Hardcover

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Maria_H wrote:
Since Kate will be joining us next week, we thought you might enjoy comparing the covers for each of the book's editions.

American Hardcover

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I like the American hardcover the best, and especially if the staircase wrapped around onto the back.

[ploabhawes]

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Wrighty wrote:
I've mentioned this before when we've discussed covers but the only thing that I've never liked is when the book becomes a movie and they reprint new covers using photos from the movie. I don't know why I don't like it but it turns me right off to the book and I don't even like to pick it up. I always like the book better than the movie so maybe that has something to do with it. I'm sure it's a marketing tactic to use those covers and probably more people will buy them than not.

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AUGH!!!! I absolutely hate that too. It's a major pet peeve of mine. For some reason, I feel like it taints my view of the story before I have even read it. The newest cover for Atonement comes to mind.

The one thing I really enjoy with some covers is when it completely fools you about what the book is really about. Kind of makes it fun!

Message Edited by ploabhawes on 01-14-2008 12:20 AM