So, of course it came home with me and sits with my other chosen few, on a bookshelf all by themselves. He said I didn’t have to buy it, he just wanted me to see it. My pal, Silas, pulled it from the shelf when a bunch of us were book shopping, just to show me the cover. “The Essex Serpent” is another book with a beautiful, flowery and mysterious cover. I haven’t read it yet, so I keep it tucked out of sight for those times Alice visits. This cover is beautiful, too, the end pages like elegant wallpaper and the text block and foot bands, too. Jessie Burton has written a sequel, “The House of Fortune,” and I was so eager to get it I ordered it from London. Talks about how it will hurt the book’s feelings and other such nonsense-although she actually believes this, I think-but trust me, the cover is beautiful and the story, set in a 1600s Amsterdam, is wonderful. She refuses to give it back, doesn’t even act sorry that she won’t return it. I would describe it to you, but the book is long gone. I needed something for the flight home, and the cover just compelled me. In an English bookstore somewhere in Prague, maybe, or Krakow, I picked up “The Miniaturist” by Jessie Burton. In fact, sometimes I just go gather them up, together or on their own, to look upon their loveliness.

Here are some of my best loved books, in no particular order, that are as pretty as they are wonderful reads. However, when the two match up, cover and content, and in a good way, it is a joy not to be taken for granted.

We all know what lies within may, or may not, bur well-written. There is much to be said for the cover of a book.

Sequel to the miniaturist