Book Kaleidoscope: My Top Five Best Book Covers

This is the second category of the 2012 Book Kaleidoscope, the rewinding of bookish aspects of books we have read during this 2012. After a little #fangirling in the 1^st category: Top Five Book Boy Friends yesterday, now we are switching to artistic aspects of a book: Covers! Here I rank my five most favorite books covers that I had read for 2012…

5. The Great Gatsby

I have posted about this particular The Great Gatsby cover for a classics challenge, and I don’t know why, this post became quite popular with 598 pageviews (when I wrote this post). This is a translated version of The Great Gatsby, and I like it even before I read the book. I like the overall color tone: beige, and the classy nuances. I’ll quote what I’ve written for this cover:

There are three persons, two men and one woman are standing in the middle of a party took place in a mansion. That was my first impression of this cover, and it turned out to match the book theme. The luxury party and the snob expression of those three persons could reflect the moral decadency of the “Jazz Age”. It seems that the woman (Daisy) is torn between the two men. She perhaps will choose the man in the front (Gatsby I presume), but she is somehow still attached to the man behind (Tom I presume), who is staring at her sharply, afraid of losing her.

Aesthetically I love the cover, it can reflect the theme of the book, but I think it still could not reflect the whole story. I could not even guess which one is Gatsby from the two gentlemen in the illustration.

4. Nobody’s Boy

This one is translated version of Nobody’s Boy from one of the biggest publishers in Indonesia. I like the old parchment color for the cover background, the illustration is nice too. Remi was pictured as a tiny and helpless boy, patting the dogs’ heads he loved—and the dogs loved him too. In the background, there was Signor Vitalis with the monkey on his shoulder, illustrated as if they were looking at Remi from a far before they both vanished. The illustration reflected the story very well.

3. Lord of The Flies

Red is my favorite color, so when I saw this new edition of Lord of the Flies in one of The Book Depository’s hourly sales, I just grabbed it without further consideration :) I liked the cover from the beginning, and after I read it, I loved it more. Firstly, the red color represented the fighting spirit of the characters. The illustration of the primitives fit with the story’s theme, and the bright colors (in leaves, animals) represented youthfulness. All in all, the cover tells the whole story of this book, about how youths could become savages, and how they fight against it. And the cover fits well with young adult readers.

2. The Color Purple

Not only because there were purple flowers in the cover that makes The Color Purple’s cover one of my favorites, I loved it because the cover reflected the story and the emotional aspects of the story. I have written about it here, let me just quote it now.

I think this certain cover speaks a lot about the book. First, there is a portrait of a black woman’s bare legs, standing at the porch (leaning on a pillar from rotten woods). The lack of shoes and the body language of the woman already brought the sense of poverty and powerless. The grayish color of the portrait only added a sense of hopelessness (and reflected the non-existence of women in the world) to the scene. However, there are also three purple flowers, as if from the helpless ground the flowers had grown to bring a new brighter and more colorful scene to the world (and to women in particular). The purple flowers represent the new hope of happiness that awaits Celie at the end of her long waiting.

1. Beloved

From the moment I held this book, I have been intrigued by the black woman’s picture. At first I thought the woman was so black that her face was almost disappeared. However at second sight, I began to realize that the half right of her face was completely transparent, as if half of her face dissolved to the red background of the cover (it’s a brilliant idea to choose red as part of the background so that the transparency effect became more distinct). And that was not intended to be just an effect (the transparency), or otherwise her hat and clothes would be transparent as well. It’s not until after I have finished reading Beloved—and it’s a very powerful book too—that I realized how clever the illustrator was in designing the cover. I could not say as much as I like without revealing the whole story, but I think that “Beloved” was exactly as what this cover is reflecting, mysterious, dark and made you think whether everything was real or was it as what you’ve been thinking. Genius design of a cover!

And….that makes Beloved…

Fanda’s Most Favorite Book Cover
of 2012!

*Put your post in the linky at Book Kaleidoscope Master Post*

*We still have one final post of the Top Five Most Favorite Books on December 31^st! (see the details in the Master Post)*

Nobody’s Boy

[conclusion in English is at the bottom of this post]

“Aku seorang anak pungut”. Itulah empat kata ungkapan pembuka kisah ini yang—bagiku—menyimpan makna yang sangat mendalam. Pada usia delapan tahun Remi baru mengetahui bahwa ia bukanlah anak Mrs. Barberin—istri petani miskin—yang selama ini menghujaninya dengan curahan kasih sayang. Mr. Barberin memungut Remi saat masih bayi karena mengharap orang tua aslinya—yang diperkirakan kaya raya dari pakaian si bayi Remi—akan mengambilnya kelak, dan keluarga Baberin akan mendapat uang. Sayang si orang tua asli tak kunjung datang, maka Mr. Barberin menjual Remi kepada seorang musisi jalanan bernama Signor Vitalis, di luar ijin Mrs. Barberin.

Maka dimulailah perjalanan sulit Remi di jalanan kota Paris. Signor Vitalis adalah seorang tua yang berkelana bersama tiga ekor anjing dan seekor monyet. Mereka bepergian antar kota dan desa, dan mengadakan pertunjukan mirip sandiwara keliling untuk memperoleh uang demi makanan dan (kadang-kadang) tempat berteduh. Remi pun mulai belajar bersandiwara, serta bermain musik menggunakan harpanya. Ia juga belajar membaca dan menulis dari Signor Vitalis, yang lama kelamaan menjadi figur seorang ayah baginya. Di saat gerompolan mereka sudah saling menyayangi hingga mirip seperti keluarga—yang sangat didambakan Remi—keadaan pun memburuk.

Setelah itu Remi mengalami jatuh bangun berkali-kali, namun dari pengalaman-pengalaman itu Remi sedikit demi sedikit belajar tentang kehidupan. Bila awalnya ia mendambakan hidup dalam keluarga kaya dengan rumah bagus seperti milik Arthur dan Mrs. Milligan, lambat laun ia menyadari bahwa kasih sayang dan persahabatan adalah ‘home’ yang sesungguhnya ia rindukan.

Beberapa quotes yang aku sukai:

“Aku sayang anak itu, dan dia sayang padaku. Pelajaran hidup yang kuberikan padanya akan baik untuknya, jauh lebih baik dari yang akan dia peroleh bersama Anda. Anda akan memberinya pendidikan, itu benar; Anda akan membentuk pikirannya, tetapi bukan karakternya. Hanya dengan belajar menghadapi kesulitan-kesulitan hidup karakter orang akan terbentuk.” [Signor Vitalis] ~hlm. 134.

“Sapi yang kauberikan padaku sewaktu masih miskin akan jauh lebih berharga bagiku disbanding apa pun yang bisa kauberikan padaku setelah kau kaya, Remi.” [Mrs. Barberin] ~hlm. 135.

Tiga bintang untuk Nobody’s Boy.

Judul: Nobody’s Boy (Sebatang Kara)

Penulis: Hector Malot

Penerjemah: Tanti Lesmana

Penerbit: PT Gramedia Pustaka Utama

Terbit: April 2010

Tebal: 384 hlm

Conclusion:

Nobody's Boy plot is actually quite ordinary, and I think it’d fit better into young adult or pre-teen books. It uses mild language, easy-to understand sentences (at least the one which is presented in the translated version I read), and the story flows without a certain emphasis to the characters. Hector Malot’s message was quite clear, which is about friendship, loyalty and affection. The essence of this story is Remi’s search for love and family, and life lessons he got from wandering along with Signor Vitalis and the gang. Nobody’s Boy became one of all time stories, perhaps, because of the unique figure of Signor Vitalis and his travelling artist group, his mysterious background, as well as the tour and adventures with which we experience together with Remi throughout the story, between France and Italy.

Three stars for Nobody’s Boy!

Remi on Nobody’s Boy: Character Thursday (11)

Character Thursday is a weekly meme that requires you to post on every Thursday, your character choice from the book you are reading or you have finished with. It can be the protagonist or the antagonist, characters that you love the most or hate the most. You can pick any book of any genre as you like. Please  feel free to grab the button below and paste it in your post. Last but not least, please add URL of your post in the linky at the bottom of this post.

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And my Character Thursday of this week belongs to:

Remi

Nobody’s Boy by Hector Malot

"I was a foundling", that is how this story is opened by Remi, a boy of eight years old who just learned that he is a nobody's boy. Raised with love and care by Mrs. Barberin, Remi's heart filled with love and affection. Despite living in a modest family—where eating pancakes once a year on pancake day is their only luxury—Remi was happy with his poor condition because he was having a home, and living with people he loved and loved him (Mrs. Barberin).

But then, just like other human beings who have always lived in the sense of security, Remi felt his world turned upside down when he was sold to Signor Vitalis, and must leave his comfortable life. However, in sadness and solitude at his first night of separation with Mrs. Barberin, Remi remained strong thanks to the first hint of friendship which Capi—the clever spaniel dog—has shown him by licking Remi’s face when he was crying.

"Touched by a sweep of its tongue, I sat up in my straw bed, I held its neck and kissed its cold nose. It whined a little, then it put one foot in front of my hand and not moving anymore. I immediately forgot my fatigue and sadness. I’m no longer alone. I have friends. "

Living as a street entertainer, suffered the rigors of life - freezing cold and starving – has built little Remi’s character. When he had to live alone without Signor Vitalis and separated from her new friends, Remi grew stronger. It seemed that, when he later traveled with Mattia, Remi had been far more confident than before, which made him automatically the leader of their small 'enterprise'. I think combination of love (for he knew that Mrs. Barberin, Arthur & Mrs. Milligan, Lise and her family—all of them loved him) and sorrowful life affected much to Remi’s character.

However, Remi is a kind hearted and innocent boy, whose obsession of having a family was so big, that he became less alert to …family’s bad attitude towards him. I can’t blame him as he was so longed for being a member of a secured family and having a home to live. All in all, Remi isn’t a very special character (for I 'm not quite fond of a character which is described to be too perfect), but through him, we (especially youngster) can learn about love and friendship.

So…who is your Character Thursday this week? You can add your URL in the linky below: