Judging a Book By Its Cover

I've long been a fan of Jonathan Miles' writing, especially his Oxford American pieces and his New York Times cocktail column. So I was particularly excited about the arrival of his debut novel, Dear American Airlines, in which a stranded traveler pens a lengthy, tragicomic letter to the air carrier.

As I pulled the book from its shipping envelope, the cover immediately caught my eye. On it, a paper airplane made from a handwritten letter plunges into the title, knocking a few letters—most notably, the "i", which doubles as a personal pronoun and suggests a story told by a first person narrator—out of alignment. Knowing the basic outline of the story, I smiled at such clever and clean graphic design.

Then, I looked for a jacket design credit, and wouldn't you know, it was done by Baltimore's Post-Typography. PT's Nolen Strals, via e-mail, tells me it's their first book cover.

Let's hope it's the first of many. And let's hope that Miles' writing is worthy of such an excellent cover.