Fiction

CHEEKY SPANKING STORIES and 5 More Favorite Covers of 2012

Liberty Hardy

Senior Contributing Editor

Liberty Hardy is an unrepentant velocireader, writer, bitey mad lady, and tattoo canvas. Turn-ons include books, books and books. Her favorite exclamation is “Holy cats!” Liberty reads more than should be legal, sleeps very little, frequently writes on her belly with Sharpie markers, and when she dies, she’s leaving her body to library science. Until then, she lives with her three cats, Millay, Farrokh, and Zevon, in Maine. She is also right behind you. Just kidding! She’s too busy reading. Twitter: @MissLiberty

Tell the Wolves I’m Home by Carol Rifka Brunt (The Dial Press) I love that this takes the classic silhouette image and incorporates it with other important images from the book. I may get this as a tattoo. You heard it here first: Bear, silhouette, teapot is the new rock, paper, scissors.

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The Middlesteins by Jami Attenberg (Grand Central Publishing) A crinkled fast food wrapper for a book about an obese woman and her relationship with her family and her relationship with food. Perfect! It screams American overabundance.

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Paris I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down by Rosecrans Baldwin (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) This is so sexy and sparse, plus I heart the clever little symbols. This is like a tweet or a Facebook status update rendered in gorgeous font.

 

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Blackbirds by Chuck Wendig (Angry Robot) There is so much going on here: It’s a woman, made out of birds. But not just birds. There’s numbers and skulls and road signs and a screaming mouth on her neck, and more. Brain-meltingly awesome. I would get a tattoo of this one, too, but my tattoo artist would probably join the witness protection program to avoid having to ink it.

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Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) FSG really knocked it out of the park with covers this year (My Heart Is an Idiot by Davy Rothbart is a runner-up for my list.) This one is cute, with the little yellow books – but wait, there’s more. IT GLOWS IN THE DARK. I knew this going into it, but I can’t imagine how many people don’t know when they buy it. They must freak out when they turn the lights off at night: “AHHHHHH ALIENS IN THE BEDROOM!” So hilarious.

 

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Cheeky Spanking Stories edited by Rachel Kramer Bussel (Cleis Press) I really like this one, too. For reasons.

 

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