Elizabeth Cobbe

We all have our favorite typefaces for the reader experience, and we know which sorts of cover illustrations will grab our attention. Some books, however, present design thoughtful and immersive enough to add to the total reading experience. Here are my recommendations, if you can get your hands on a copy.

The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge by M. T. Anderson and Eugene Yelchin
ISBN 9780763698225
The text and the illustrations take turns conveying the narrative in this supposedly middle-grade but absolutely for-all-ages story of an odd couple who just so happen to be an elf and a goblin. The paperback is fine, but the jacket-less hardback feels, appropriately, like a book your grandparents lovingly handed down to you after so many years.

A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan
The hardback may be tough to come by, and I don’t know if the paperback does the same trick with choosing a brown font color, to give the feel of a memoir written a hundred years ago. It’s a delightful opener to one of my favorite series, and I love the pseudo-scientific diagrams within.

Tooth and Claw by Jo Walton
ISBN 9781250242723
Written in the manner of a Trollope novel, only with dragons forming the melodramatic love story, this excellent novel feels perfect in its mass market hardback format, as though one were a Victorian lady or gentleman reading a book of the period.

Ninety-Nine Stories of God by Joy Williams
ISBN 9781941040355
Microfiction from one of the greats, the hardback version offers a pleasing experience for a work that is best consumed in small bites.

The Corset and the Jellyfish by Nick Bantock
ISBN 9781616964078
Speaking of microfiction, this collection from small press Tachyon Publications of 100 x 100-word stories is accompanied by whimsical watercolor doodles, in color.

Hamilton: The Revolution by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jeremy McCarter
ISBN 9781455539741
I will never apologize for stanning Hamilton.

In other news

I will be appearing on a Flights of Foundry panel on Friday at 11:00 central time (eek!) called “Stage to Page: How Theater Techniques Can Help Your Writing.” If nothing else, I think it’s fabulous that we’re spelling “Theater” with an “er”. (I’m firmly in the American camp on that one.) If you’re not familiar, Flights of Foundry is an amazing, fully online conference that strives to make itself accessible to artists around the world (hence the many time zones), and all for the low, low price of pay-what-you-can. Drop by (virtually) if you’re awake, peaches! I would love to say hello.