Judge These Books By Their Covers: Read a Book from a “Best Book Covers” List

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Kelly is a former librarian and a long-time blogger at STACKED. She's the editor/author of (DON'T) CALL ME CRAZY: 33 VOICES START THE CONVERSATION ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH and the editor/author of HERE WE ARE: FEMINISM FOR THE REAL WORLD. Her next book, BODY TALK, will publish in Fall 2020. Follow her on Instagram @heykellyjensen.

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We judge books by their covers. We have to. It’s not only the first tool of marketing a book has, but as humans, our brains have to sort through vast quantities of information. Book covers are one of the avenues through which we do this.

That’s not a bad thing, as determining what makes for a good or interesting book cover is subjective. Some people love an illustrated cover, as it can convey a lot of information about what might be inside. Other people love a cover featuring a gorgeous face or find themselves drawn to an absurd image.

Covers are interesting to consider, too, in a largely digital-first era. There’s a reason we went through a period with colorful blobs as the design trend: they really stand out on retail websites and social media. We’ve moved away from this design choice, mostly, but the continued focus on font-driven covers is another example of where and how design is impacted by the all-mighty algorithm. Once you begin to see a trend in covers–think the use of classical paintings or old-timey animals or retro-style horror–it’s fun to consider why those trends are happening. Chances are, it’s got to do with the bookish internet and marketing.

Book cover appreciation and discussion has been a staple in online bookish spaces from the beginning, too. People often ooh and ahh over good covers and point out details on them that they particularly appreciate. It’s been through critical discussion of book covers, too, that more attention and appreciation have been given to the designers and artists responsible for those covers. Although we’re still nowhere near where we should be in terms of publishers crediting their creative teams for good covers, it has improved in the last few years, as many of these artists and designers are also finding an online audience.

The second task for the 2026 Read Harder Challenge is a really fun one: it’s to read a book that has landed on a “Best Book Covers” list. This can be a cover on any such list from any time, across any genre, book type, or age range. Find below some awesome book recommendations based entirely on their book covers alone. The books have been sourced from various “Best Book Covers” lists around the internet, which will be linked with each title. If none of these books appeal to you based on their cover alone, know that one of the easiest ways to find a book for this task is to simply click through some of the recommended links in the reviews. Many of them offer “best book cover” roundups multiple times a year.

Cover artists and designers have been noted where possible. It is still not a universal practice to identify the creators in a readily accessible location.

Ready to refresh your shelves? We have a giveaway that can help! Enter to win a 1-year subscription to Book of the Month!

Blob by Maggie Su, Cover design by Robin Bilardello

You don’t have to like Vi to empathize with her experiences as a college dropout living in a Midwest town where she sees herself having no future. But you will certainly be unable to stop reading this book after she discovers a blob on the street and brings it home. This is no ordinary blob, though. It’s sentient, and over the course of the story, it begins to grow limbs and a whole personality. Vi realizes she has an opportunity here: make this blob her ideal partner and finally find true, meaningful love. Blob is a weird, funny, and moving read about identity, family, and, err, street blobs.

Casual Optimist named this one of the best book covers of 2025.

The God Of The Woods by Liz Moore, Cover design by Grace Han

You’ve now got yet another great reason to pick up this much-buzzed-about book before it is adapted!

The Gods of the Woods is a novel set at a summer camp owned by a wealthy family. In August 1975, Barbara Van Laar, the daughter of the camp’s owners, goes missing. But she isn’t the first Van Laar child to disappear. Over a decade before, her brother went missing, too. Now, the whole camp is looking for Barbara, but the police begin to think that she might not want to be found, just another teenage runaway. But Detective Judy, the only woman detective in her precinct, isn’t so sure. – Kendra Winchester

Lit Hub named this a best book cover in 2024.

The Hong Kong Widow by Kristen Loesch, Cover design by Alison Cnockaert

Decades ago, Mei took part in a competition putting six spirit mediums to the test in a notoriously haunted house. The result has become an urban legend, a story about the supposed massacre that police dismissed as a mass hallucination when no evidence was found. But now someone has returned claiming they know what happened, even though Mei herself still isn’t sure. She knows what she saw, but in order to prove what really happened, she’ll have to return to the very place where the ghosts of her past await. – Rachel Brittain

Loesch’s book cover can be found on The Best Mystery and True Crime Book Covers of 2025.

Hot Air by Marcy Dermansky, Cover design by Janet Hansen

Joannie is on her first date in years with a guy named Johnny. His house is nice, and even though he’s not the best kisser, Joannie thinks she can make this work, at least for a bit.

But then a hot air balloon crashes into Johnnie’s swimming pool. On it? Joannie’s childhood crush. She dives in to save him, and what unravels is an unhinged story about love, marriage, money, and sex.

This cover earned its “best” accolade from numerous outlets this year, including the New York Times.

Liquid by Mariam Rahmani

The narrator in this debut novel doesn’t have a name, but you’ll get to know her very well, even without it. The Iranian-Indian American has always thought of herself as the smartest person in the room, and alongside her best friend Adam, has eschewed the idea of being rich. But now that she’s finished her PhD and there’s no money on the horizon for her, Adam suggests she find someone she can marry who is rich.

She takes it seriously. She’s got a goal of 100 dates and a marriage proposal in hand by the start of the fall semester. It’s a manic summer of dating as she works tirelessly to meet her goal. But a family tragedy will upend her entire plan–and maybe help her find love, too.

Libby named this one of the best book covers in 2025.

The Manicurist’s Daughter: A Memoir by Susan Lieu, Cover design by Julianna Lee

Susan and her family were refugees from the Vietnam War. They set up in California in the 1980s, when Susan was young, and her mother immediately established two very successful nail salons. But when Susan was 11, her mom died after a tummy tuck gone wrong.

After her mom’s death, discussing what happened was not allowed.

What follows is Susan’s attempts to understand her family, their history, and what happened to her mother. It’s a memoir about grief and trauma, as much as it’s a story of culture, strength, and determination.

Find this cover on Print Magazine’s 100 best book covers of 2024.

The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley, Cover design by Alison Forner

The Ministry of Time follows a British agent chosen to be a bridge between the story’s present day and the distant past from which expats of sorts are plucked thanks to a time travel device. The motives behind the Ministry’s meddling are as unclear as the agent’s developing relationship with one Commander Gore, transported from a doomed 19th-century voyage to the Arctic. I don’t tend to read books because they’re buzzy and that’s why I chose this one. I wanted to shake things up a bit and find out if I would enjoy it as much as others have. –S. Zainab Williams

Casual Optimist named this one of their best book covers of 2024.

Model Home by Rivers Solomon, cover design by Alex Merto

The three Maxwell siblings—genderfluid Ezri and sisters Eve and Emanuelle—don’t want to go back to their childhood home in Dallas. They were the only Black kids in a predominantly white, wealthy gated neighborhood, and it never accepted them—and possibly actively tormented them. The siblings could never get anyone to listen to them about the unusual, frightening things they experienced in that house. Now, their parents are dead, and they are forced to go back and investigate just what’s wrong with that haunted, haunted house. –Leah Rachel von Essen

Model Home was named a best book cover by Literary Hub in 2024.

Portalmania by Debbie Urbanski, Cover design by Math Monahan

This is an imaginative collection of speculative stories involving portals of all kinds. There are women driving white vans bringing children to portals and a narrator who is jealous she hasn’t been asked to go; a husband who is unhappy with his wife’s transformation and doesn’t acknowledge her wants and needs; a world where political divide literally opens huge spaces in the ground; plus portals in boarding schools, monsters in vents, and more! These will stay on your mind long after you have finished reading them. – Liberty Hardy

This weird and delightful futuristic cover landed on this roundup of 2025 short story collections with amazing covers.

Sea, Poison by Caren Beilin, Cover design by Jamie Keenan

Cumin works at an upscale grocery store and is battling an autoimmune condition. She’s required to get an eye exam before beginning a new medication, which leads to laser eye surgery that forever transforms the way she uses and understands language. This, as you might expect, changes how she’s able to work on a book she’s been writing.

Things go from bad to worse when Cumin’s kicked out of her boyfriend’s apartment because he’s fallen for the landlord. Cumin moves into the closet at a friend’s house and then begins to fall for one of that friend’s partners.

It’s a strange little book, coming in at under 150 pages, and it’s an homage to several literary movements/books.

Literary Hub named it one of their best book covers of 2025, and it landed on Book Riot’s Best Book Covers, too.

The Wilderness by Angela Flournoy, Cover design by Mumtaz Mustafa and Paul Miele-Herndon

Angela Flournoy’s first book, The Turner House, is a fantastic novel about a family, and this follow-up is a masterful work about 20 years of friendship between Black women, who are every bit a family as well. Over two decades, January, Monique, Nakia, and Desiree traverse school, love, loss, career changes, location changes, and all the in-jokes, silliness, disagreements, and fierce loyalty that come with long friendships. Each of their paths is filled with hurt and happiness, and the novel shares their lives in dazzling sections that speed toward an ending that will break your heart. – Liberty Hardy

The Wilderness earned its best cover nod from Print Magazine.

A few other outlets where you can look at books which have earned a “best book cover” call out include the Independent Book Publishers Association, which includes plenty of children’s and YA titles; AIGA’s Eye on Design or the AIGA’s 50 Books, 50 Covers; and Electric Lit, which asked its readers to help select the best book covers in 2025.