Staff share their favourite book covers of the past year.

‘ Who thought this was a good idea? has to be the most apt book cover this year. The funny, informative, and (let’s celebrate it) gossipy memoir of Obama’s former deputy chief of staff has a cover that has kept me ruefully chuckling for months now.

In terms of beauty I can’t go past the covers of Ali Smith’s Seasonal quartet. The second book, Winter, has just been released, and as with 2016’s Autumn, it features a David Hockney painting of a country lane. It’s the exact same location as the first book, but this time it’s during winter. The story that Ali tells of getting the offer from Hockney to use each piece is worth a listen as well. You can find it on this London Review Bookshop podcast.’

– Marie Matteson, buyer at Readings Carton

‘I haven’t read The Handmaid’s Tale since I was in school, so when the recent TV adaptation arrived, I picked up a copy of the paperback to refresh my memory of the book. Embarrassingly, I now admit that it’s still sitting on my TBR pile where it’s now been joined by an absolutely stunning new hardback edition featuring cover art from the award-winning graphic designer Noma Bar. This limited gift edition also features red edges and a ribbon bookmark. I took one look at it and I don’t know, blacked out or something, and now I have two (unread) copies of the exact same book.’

– Lian Hingee, digital marketing manager

‘My favourite Australian book designers have come up with some beauties this year. Allison Colpoys, the Associate Art Director at Scribe recently won the Best Jacket/Cover Design award at the 2017 British Book Design & Production Awards for Kayla Rae Whitaker’s The Animators. I loved this vibrant novel so much, and am a huge fan of Allison’s cover. Books about female friendship often get marketed with a photo of women on the cover, and I was so relieved that Allison’s aggressively colourful design left me to imagine what Sharon and Mel from the novel look like for myself, while still hinting at so many themes from the novel.

Allison Collpoys’ design for Jessica Friedmann’s Things That Helped is another favourite of mine from the year, as is Imogen Stubbs’ evocative design for Jennifer Down’s incredible short story collection Pulse Points, out through Text Publishing.

And Bloomsbury’s hardcover edition of Bill Hayes’s Insomniac City is stunning. The dust jacket is adorned with little windows that show through to one of Hayes’s own photographs of New York City at night-time, making this book an object as beautiful and moving as the text itself.’

– Stella Charls, marketing & events coordinator_

‘While I am generally infuriated by cut-out covers – they get caught on everything around them and tear so easily! – I can’t deny the beauty of Bill Hayes’s memoir, Insomniac City. This design cleverly uses cut-outs in the dust jacket as a tease for the beautiful, glossy cityscape that lies on the hardcover itself. And besides, small cut-outs aren’t quite so bad…’

– Fiona Hardy, bookseller at Readings Carlton

‘I love everything about Ali Smith, and the covers of her books fall under my umbrella of unconditional admiration. The design of her latest novel, Winter, predictably took my breath away. Smith has used images from renowned artist David Hockney several times in the past, but the covers for her Seasonal quartet – so far including Autumn and Winter – are especially stunning and fitting for the words that live between them.

I also loved the cover for Phillip Pullman’s La Belle Sauvage. It reminds me of old-school fantasy novel covers but also manages to feel very contemporary. Most of all, it gives a sense of the soul of the book – the image of a little green ship let loose on a treacherous-looking body of water is an image that’s quite central to the plot, but doesn’t give too much away. Even if I hadn’t been anticipating the release of this book since it was announced, I think I would have been lured in by the cover alone.’

– Ellen Cregan, bookseller at Readings Doncaster

‘I’ve noticed some fantastic covers this year that use photographs in striking ways that directly reference the content of the books.

Jessica Friedmann’s collection of essays on postpartum depression, motherhood and creativity, Things That Helped, features an aptly uncomfortable and surreal image of the author spliced in half. Alyssa Mastromonaco’s gossipy memoir on being the former deputy chief of staff for Obama, Who Thought This Was a Good Idea?, has a deadpan and hilarious photograph of the two of them looking both thoughtful and exhausted. Briohny Doyle’s wry examination at 'adultlescence’, Adult Fantasy sees a woman in frenetic motion, her hair in turmoil. And Sarah Krasnostein’s gripping biography of trauma cleaner Sandra Pankhurst, The Trauma Cleaner has a single orange glove, boldly placed against a plain background and twisted as though having been just wrung out.

I’ve long had a fondness for illustrated covers and some of my favourites this year include… the stylish artwork of Kevin Kwan’s Rich People Problems, the third of his delicious soap opera-esque series; the appealing line illustration of Brigid Delaney’s Wellmania, which perfectly encapsulates the book’s bright, breezy tone; and the charming-as-all-hell, nostalgic art of Shaun Bythell’s equally charming-as-all-hell memoir, The Diary of a Bookseller.

I also love the cover of Shaun Prescott’s debut Australian novel, The Town, which is as strange and unsettling as the book itself. There’s something both antiquated and contemporary about the colours and minimalist design of this one that appeals to me tremendously. The designer, Rosetta Lake Mills, came up with my favourite book cover of last year too, and I’m always interested to see what she does next.‘

– Bronte Coates, bookseller at Readings online