Book Club Girl

Bat Segundo Interviews Book Designer Chip Kidd about his New Book The Learners

Listen to The Bat Segundo Show, where the aforementioned host Bat Segundo interviews Chip Kidd -- the legendary book cover designer and author. They have a wonderful discussion about, among other things, form vs. content and the inner workings of publishing and how books are made. His new novel, The Learners, is just out and I can't wait to read it. His first novel, The Cheese Monkeys, told the story of an aspiring young art student and the mentor who inspired him. In The Learners, Kidd continues the tale of Happy, fresh out of art school, landing his first job as an art assistant at an advertising agency. Augusten Burroughs called it a "gleefully roguish satire of 1960's-advertising-gone-mad [that] is delightfully shrewd, droll and urbane."

After listening to the interview, answer this question in the comments -- can you judge a book by its cover (or interior) design? and you'll be entered to win a copy of both The Learners and The Cheese Monkeys, now newly reissued with a restored scene.

If you're not familiar with Chip Kidd's name, you probably are familiar with some of his groundbreaking cover designs, I've posted a few here. Note that The Secret History was designed with Barbara de Wilde.
 

Literature and Impressionism Come Together in Mademoiselle Victorine

A beautiful novel is just out in stores, from debut novelist Debra Finerman. Mademoiselle Victorine tells the story of Victorine Laurent, a composite of one of Edouard Manet's models and the tempestuous courtesan, the Countess of Castiglione. We first meet Victorine at 17. She has just arrived in Paris and is introduced into the world of Manet, the first Impressionist and becomes one of his models, and lovers. Thrust into his artistic and political milieu, Victorine also draws the attention of Phillippe de Lyon, advisor to Napoleon, with whom she also starts an affair. Her rise in Parisian society during the tumultuous 1860s is a fascinating read and her journey to discover herself is highly discussable.

The book has a really nice website featuring some gorgeous paintings, the history behind the book and more on Finerman herself. Here is the reading guide, and you can email the author to have her join your book club chat. And if that weren't enough -- it is a paperback original, making it very affordable for your group!