Here’s a nice YouTube video we came across the other day and as soon as we viewed it we knew we had to share it here. It’s a small clip from one of Chip Kidd’s lectures were he talks about his “new mantra”. It’s pretty funny so please be sure to check it out!

All of us here are really proud of the Book Author, Karen Russell, for receiving a totally wonderful and well thought-out book review for her latest work titled, VAMPIRES IN THE LEMON GROVE (Knopf), at the New York Times Sunday Book Review! Her work is both entertaining & hilarious! This new book is a collection of stories and check out what one of the things the NY Times Reporter, Joy Williams, had to say about them, “Her work has a velocity and trajectory that is little less than dazzling and a tough, enveloping, exhilarating voice that cannot be equaled. Sometimes not even by Karen Russell herself.”

To read the Review, please CLICK HERE!

The finalists for the 33rd L.A. Times Book Prizes were announced Thursday morning and we have to say that we’re pretty proud of the Authors who made the list who are published by Random House, Knopf, and Pantheon. Actually, we’re happy for everybody on the list but we also want to send a shout-out to the Authors we are associated with, ha! So, Please check out the complete list down below.

The 2012 Los Angeles Times Book Prizes will be presented on Friday, April 19, 2013, 7:30 pm, in a public ceremony in the Bovard Auditorium on the campus of USC. The 2012 Book Prizes Innovator's Award Winner, Robert Kirsch Award Winner, and category finalists as listed below were announced publicly on February 21st, 2013, in advance of the April 19th ceremony. For more details, CLICK HERE!

Los Angeles Times Book Prizes 2012 Honorees
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Biography
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H.W. Brands / The Man Who Saved the Union: Ulysses Grant in War and Peace (Doubleday)
Robert Caro / The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson (Knopf)
Alice Kessler-Harris / A Difficult Woman: The Challenging Life and Times of Lillian Hellman (Bloomsbury Press)
David Nasaw / The Patriarch: The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy (Penguin Press)
R.J. Smith / The One: The Life and Music of James Brown (Gotham Books)

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Current Interest
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Katherine Boo / Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity (Random House)
Steve Coll / Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power (Penguin Press)
Karen Elliott House / On Saudi Arabia: Its People, Past, Religion, Fault Lines - and Future (Knopf)
Jim Sterba / Nature Wars: The Incredible Story of How Wildlife Comebacks Turned Backyards into Battlegrounds (Crown)
Jake Tapper / The Outpost: An Untold Story of American Valor (Little, Brown and Company)

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Fiction
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Jami Attenberg / The Middlesteins: A Novel (Grand Central Publishing)
Michael Chabon / Telegraph Avenue (HarperCollins Publishers / Harper)
Ben Fountain / Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk (HarperCollins Publishers / Ecco)
Lauren Groff / Arcadia (Voice/Hyperion)
Lydia Millet / Magnificence (W.W. Norton & Company)

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Graphic Novel/Comics
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Alison Bechdel / Are You My Mother?: A Comic Drama (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
Leela Corman / Unterzakhn (Schocken)
Sammy Harkham / Everything Together: Collected Stories (PictureBox)
Spain Rodriguez / Cruisin' With the Hound: The Life and Times of Fred Toote (Fantagraphics)
Chris Ware / Building Stories (Pantheon)

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History
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John Barry / Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul: Church, State, and the Birth of Liberty (Viking)
George Black / Empire of Shadows: The Epic Story of Yellowstone (St. Martin's Press)
Fergus M. Bordewich / America's Great Debate: Henry Clay, Stephen A. Douglas, and the Compromise That Preserved the Union (Simon & Schuster)
Amy S. Greenberg / A Wicked War: Polk, Clay, Lincoln, and the 1846 U.S. Invasion of Mexico (Knopf)
Geoffrey Kabaservice / Rule & Ruin: The Downfall of Moderation and the Destruction of the Republican Party from Eisenhower to the Tea Party (Oxford University Press)

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Mystery / Thriller
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Tana French / Broken Harbor (Viking)
Nick Harkaway / Angelmaker (Knopf)
Fuminori Nakamura / The Thief (Soho Crime)
Chris Pavone / The Expats (Crown)
Ariel S. Winter / The Twenty-Year Death (Hard Case Crime)

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Poetry
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Louise Gl ck / Poems 1962-2012 (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
Rowan Ricardo Phillips / The Ground: Poems (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
D. A. Powell / Useless Landscape, or A Guide for Boys: Poems (Graywolf Press)
Bin Ramke / Aerial (Omnidawn)
Cole Swensen / Gravesend (New California Poetry) (University of California Press)

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Science & Technology
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Susan Cain / Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking (Crown)
George Dyson / Turing's Cathedral: The Origins of the Digital Universe (Pantheon)
Jonathan Gottschall / The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
Nate Silver / The Signal and the Noise: Why so Many Predictions Fail - But Some Don't (Penguin Press)
Florence Williams / Breasts: A Natural and Unnatural History (W.W. Norton & Company)

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The Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction
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David Abrams / Fobbit (Black Cat/Grove/Atlantic, Inc.)
Kevin P. Keating / The Natural Order of Things (Aqueous Books)
Lydia Netzer / Shine Shine Shine (St. Martin's Press)
Maggie Shipstead / Seating Arrangements (Knopf)
Robin Sloan / Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Book Store: A Novel (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

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Young Adult Literature
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Paolo Bacigalupi / The Drowned Cities (Little, Brown Books For Young Readers)
A.S. King / Ask the Passengers (Little, Brown Books For Young Readers)
Martine Leavitt / My Book of Life by Angel (Margaret Ferguson Books/Farrar Straus Giroux Books for Young Readers)
Matthew Quick / Boy 21 (Little, Brown Books For Young Readers)
Elizabeth Wein / Code Name Verity (Disney-Hyperion)

Over at the FLAVORWIRE website they recently did a very excellent article about David Shields’ brand-new book, “How Literature Saved My Life”. The reason we’re sharing this is because of two reasons: One, The book was published by Knopf and Chip Kidd designed the cover jacket. Two, because it’s honestly a really great book!

“How Literature Saved My Life” is basically a memoir about the Author’s life and his battle with depression. In the story he talks about many of the real-life actual books he has read that have transformed his life. Now, the cool thing, is that this Flavorwire’s reporter tracked down a few of these books to share ( you can see their pics down below as an example ). Oh yeah, what you need to do now is just read the article. Why? Well, they do a really great job explaining all of these books and it’s pretty interesting… Hey! Just CLICK HERE!

This post is just for fun and it’s where we post some recent pictures we have found that are all pretty funny! The 1st pic is the very recent cover to George Orwell’s classic book, Nineteen Eighty Four 1984 ( not designed by Chip Kidd ). This is a Penguin Group printing and it’s hard to believe that they blacked-out the title of the book AND the Author’s name. Oh man, that really takes some balls, ha ha! But the design concept here is really cool. Actually, the black bars are dull black and the lettering is high-gloss. So, you can see the title if the light hits it right.

Next up is a photo that is Chip Kidd related. It shows two people using the Book jacket for Haruki Murakami’s 1Q84 (Knopf 2011) to cover their faces. It matches up pretty good with their own heads and it’s totally hilarious!!

Just a quick post to share the good news that the GALLERY PAGE of ChipKidd.Com has just been heavily updated and there is a ton of brand-new eye candy to enjoy! Most of the newly added graphics are Book Jacket designs that will be appearing in 2013. You can get there by clicking the GALLERY TAB up above or just CLICK HERE. Please check ‘em out, they’re fun! Oh yeah, while there, please be sure to view “Page Two” by clicking the NEXT Button. Also, if you can, please share this website with all your friends. We have SHARE Buttons all over the place. Yes, we’re total whores, ha!!

This masterful debut novel was so astonishing that Oprah had to share it with the world. Watch the video down below to find out what Oprah loved so much about Ayana Mathis’ The Twelve Tribes of Hattie. Published by Knopf, 256 pages, in stores now. For more information about how to join Oprah’s Book Club, just CLICK HERE!

WOW, it’s November and you know what that means… it’s time again for the 2012 MIAMI BOOK FAIR!! Yes, this year they plan on having 468 Authors and a ton of Book Sellers & Publishers, it looks like another great event! Of course Pantheon Publishing will be there and they have a special event lined up to promote their new line of Graphic Novels. The event is located at the Center for Literature and Theatre at Miami Dade College (Florida). It opens on Nov. 11th and runs for one whole week, ending Nov. 18th. For more information, please CLICK HERE!

We should note that Chip Kidd, Charles Burns, and Chris Ware will appear together in a special lecture on Saturday, November 17th, at 3:30 p.m., in the Batten ( Building 2, 1st Floor, Room 2106 ). Of course they are there representing Pantheon Books and their main focus will be Chip Kidd’s New Book ROUGH JUSTICE: THE DC COMICS SKETCHES OF ALEX ROSS, Chris Ware’s award winning BUILDING STORIES and the latest awesome Graphic Novel by Charles Burns, THE HIVE. Oh wait, we also need to mention that this event is totally FREE!!

OK, This website has been online a few short months now and we thought it was a good time to ask our fellow readers if they could please take the time to share it. You can tell all your friends on Facebook about it, just hit the SHARE Button! You could tweet it on Twitter or even share the URL in a post on a Message Board. If you have a Website or Blog then please mention it ( If you need a special “link button” made then don’t hesitate to contact us ). Heck, even call your Mom on the phone & tell her about it, ha!

There are “SHARE THIS” Button on the top right-hand side of this page where you can share the entire website. There are also smaller “SHARE THIS” Chicklet-Style Buttons below each & every post, clicking those will share that one individual story. Basically, we’re asking you to please share this site anyway you can. Thanks!

This post is a shout out ( OK, it’s total Propaganda ) to share the news that we have posted a bunch of beautiful new photos of some of Chip Kidd’s “Book Cover” design work on the website’s “Gallery Page”. If you have never been there, the basic concept is to share examples of Chip’s work over the years and we also try to post all the most recent stuff too. This one page is kinda new but it’s always growing & changing. Please remember that we add new photos there all the time, as they come in, and you never know what you’ll see! So, please click the “Gallery” TAB Button every now & then ( it’s up above ) or if you’re feeling super-lazy right now ( ha ha ) then just CLICK HERE!

Also, Please be sure to share this website ( any page or post ) with all your friends on Facebook, Twitter, your Blog, etc… Thank You!!