10 Books: That Have Stayed with Me

The Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula K. Le Guin
The best exploration of what living in a truly alien society would mean that I have read. The unique relationship that forms between two individuals with no common ground is what has stuck with me.

Dragon on a Pedestal - Piers Anthony
This is the book that got me hooked on reading. An innocent girl lost in the wild meets the land's most feared dragon and then things really get going. Filled with puns, wit and charm I was hooked on the land of Xanth and reading after this.

The Silmarillion - J.R.R. Tolkein
The history of Middle-Earth from it's creation to the events immediately preceding The Hobbit. It's a masterwork of myth and epic in scope. Every time I read it it impresses me more.

Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
Filled with wit, unforgettable characters and a strong female lead, the rocky love story of Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy (sigh) is my favourite example of why we shouldn't judge a book by its cover.

Psalms
Equal parts praise and lament. These lyrical outcries to The Lord regularly inspire me and remind me that it's not about having it all together, it's about reaching out whatever my situation.

Lord of the Flies - William Golding
The descent from order to chaos, civil to wild of a group of boys stranded on an island. A haunting exploration of the human condition.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - J.K. Rowling
The last of the Harry Potter series, but the first to break the formula. No journey to the school, no trying to since a mystery while still passing all your classes, just a mission to defeat the ultimate evil.

Perelandra - C.S. Lewis
The second of his space trilogy, Perelandra a world newborn world. Will the main character be able to combat the Tempter and prevent this world's Fall? This book helped me better understand the story of Eden and the possibility of life beyond Earth.

The Age of Innocence - Edith Wharton
An American novel of society and scandal. An engaged high society man tries to shake off his obligations and follow his heart.

The Sparrow - Mary Doria Russel
Jesuits in space! A modern day Job. The Sparrow explores colonization, conversion, exploration and is the reason I am an English teacher and not a rocket scientist or astrophysicist. The heartbreaking climax is matched by an oh-so-subtle glimpse of hope.

My Cover XV: The Cover's the Thing

For the finale of Shakespeare week the great tragedy of the Prince of Denmark.

I tried to merge a crown, skull and Hamlet all into one image. Madness or brilliance? You decide ;)

My Cover XIV: Star Cross'd Lovers

In honour of one of the most famous almost-fourteen-year-olds in the history of literature.

I tried to capture the feud in the colours used for the cover. Romeo and Juliet on opposite sides, yet with bloodshed touching all. The lovers are connected with both a heart and a dagger.

My Cover XIII: Unlucky Thirteen

What better play to present in the thirteenth My Cover post, than the unluckiest of plays: The Scottish Play!

I used the main character's family tartan and slowly faded it into red to show the character's descent into evil and murder.

My Cover XII: Twelfth Night

Could the twelfth post be any other play?

I tried to capture the duality of Viola/Cesario by merging a man and woman Janus-style.

My Cover XI: Othello

Othello involves some sea travel, so what better way to show Othello's descent into jealousy that with his name being swallowed by a green wave?

My Cover X: Friends, Romans, Countrymen

What better way to celebrate reaching roman numeral x than with some Roman plays?

For the plays set in the Roman Empire, I'm bordering the covers with columns and trying to capture key details in text. Julius Caesar has a dagger and laurel wreath replacing letters and a bloody font reveals Caesar's fate. For Antony and Cleopatra I used fonts representative of each of the characters' regions and turned an ampersand into an asp.

My Cover IX: Shakespeare Week!

Now that summer break is here I can start working on one of my summer goals: to read at least one new Shakespeare play! (Can you tell I'm an English teacher?) To tie in with that, I've devoted a week to some Shakespeare covers.

To begin, though it isn't midsummer yet, it is summer, so here is A Midsummer Night's Dream.

I wanted to keep it simple with a night sky above a forest to capture the setting, plus changing fonts for the title to capture the transformation that so permeates the play.

My Cover VIII: Jekyll and Hyde

Here are two versions of my cover for The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I wanted to capture the duality of the character and thought that a reflection and yin-yang would show off how they are opposites, yet united. I like the second one, with Jekyll in the light and Hyde reflected in the dark the best.

My Cover VII: The Diary of a Young Girl

This is another book my students could read as part of an independent novel study. I wanted to capture the diary aspect of the book so used a pencil sketch of Anne and a lined paper background.

My Cover VI: Flowers for Algernon

I love this book and love the recurring motif of the maze. How well Charlie and Algernon can navigate the maze shows not only their intelligence, but how well they can navigate life itself. After working the title letters in I was stumped with how to include the author's name. I'm not fully pleased with what I came up with, but it was better than anything else I tried.

My Cover V: The Grinch!

In making this cover I relearned the actual title for the book. I had "The Grinch who Stole Christmas" in my head. Was that the movie? I don't remember and don't feel like looking it up. I tried to keep it whimsical and focus more on the stealing of Christmas than the Grinch.

My Cover IV: The Hound of the Baskervilles

I wanted to capture the bleak landscape of the book, so I went minimal. A flat plane with just the Baskerville estate, formed by the 'the' and the murdered Baskerville who starts the whole case. I tried to capture the elusive nature of the hound in only representing it with a foot print in the blood, hopefully tying it to the murder, but being mysterious in its absence.

My Cover III: Middle-Earth Spectacular!

I've tried to capture the two trees in this stylized Silmaril, as Fëanor captured their light in the Silmarils.

Here's an entire jacket. The Hobbit is a journey, so I put the beginning and the destination on the front, as well as the Ring, because, well, you can't not have the Ring. I took an existing blurb from the book and shaped it into the likeness of Smaug for the back.

A simplified cover emphasizing Minas Tirith's position between the two towers.

My Cover II

Here is my cover of The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury. This is another book my grade students could pick as a part of their independent reading project this year. It is a collection of short stories chronicling (oddly enough) Earth's colonization of Mars.

My Cover: War of the Worlds

Welcome to the first edition of My Cover. This'll most likely become a semi-regular feature on this site. I love to draw and design things and after a year of teaching high school English I have had a lot of literary inspiration. I've come up with a bunch of covers for books my students have read or that I'm reading. Here's the first: H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds