By The Cover: Florals
Different Books | Matching Looks
What do you call a clumsy flower? A whoopsie-daisy!
All jokes aside-
Flowers have had a HUGE impact on language and design – flower power, if you will. Culturally, “the language of flowers has been recognized for centuries in many countries throughout Europe and Asia” [Almanac] During the Victorian era, “flowers were primarily used to deliver messages that couldn’t be spoken aloud”, so – in theory – you could create a bouquet of “forget me not-s” OR “leave me alone-s”.
Floral print work began in ancient Egypt with hieroglyphics of lotus designs, traveled through Asia in textiles and nature inspired art pieces, and made its way into the European royal court through both fashion and décor. [BloomingHaus]
We’ve got to hand it to mother nature for making the beautiful blooms that have internationally influenced communication, trade, style, and design from Chintz to Chinoiserie.
Welcome to “By The Cover”- are you interested in color theory/history AND trying new genres? Different books and materials, with similar aesthetics? Then this is the side of the blog for you! While we aren’t actually advocating for judging a book solely by its cover, we are proposing that choosing a theme is a new way to explore different genres and branch out within the collection. Plus, it’s fun!
As both a reader and longtime flower fan – I strongly believe that floral book covers, in all their forms, are GORGEOUS! Let’s take a look at some botanical beauts from our collection –
Disclaimer *I will be ranking these materials on how well they fit the “By The Cover” category – but not on actual content, cause let’s face it – they all look good! *
Eat Your Flowers: A Cookbook
By Loria Stern
10/10 – She is beauty she is grace, she is elegance she is TASTE!
– Miss Congeniality, 2000
– Me, right now
Cook with botanical ingredients for stunning visuals and delicious flavors–and let your creativity blossom! For most of us, “eat your flowers” might mean enjoying an edible blossom decorating a restaurant dessert on a night out. For Loria Stern, it’s a way to bring nature into the kitchen…Read more
A Life Made by Hand: The Story of Ruth Asawa
By Andrea D’Aquino
9/10 – Only one flower, but I love the artsy petals
Delightful and substantial, this engaging title for young art lovers includes a page of teaching tools for parents and educators. Read more
Floral Folk Art in Cross Stitch
By Durene Jones
10/10 – Collages, crafts, and cross-stitch OH MY!
A range of designs that are suitable for all sewing abilities. The essence of this book is to keep it simple, fun, and easy to stitch. With that in mind most of the designs are sewn using only whole cross stitch, and back stitch is kept to a minimum. The patterns vary in sizes. From small quick stitch designs for tags, pincushions, key fobs, and cards, to larger, more involved designs… Read more
Wreaths: Fresh, Foraged & Dried Floral Arrangements
By Katie Smyth & Terri Chandler
9.5/10 – Foraged front door décor? Yes and Yes
Wreaths explores the art of creating wonderful floral pieces, to gift or keep, through a collection of 20 beautiful and natural designs. Learn how to play around with color, foliage, texture, and architectural forms with a craft that is no longer just for Christmas. Read more
Limbo Lounge
By Dave Calver
7/10 – Only one flower on cover, +2 for the relatable facial expression
An original graphic novel where newly dead people in Limbo await their fate at a bar while surrounded by bored interlopers from hell. Read more
On Flowers: Lessons from an Accidental Florist
By Amy Merrick
10/10 – Red is an appropriate cover choice, because I am PASSIONATE about how much I like this one
Amy Merrick is a rare and special kind of artist who uses flowers to help us see the familiar in a completely new way. Read more
![Pushing daisies [DVD]](https://www.planolibrarylearns.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Pushing-Daisies.jpg)
Pushing Daisies [DVD]
9/10 – Morbidly sweet title – LOVE DAISIES
Ned can bring the dead to life briefly when he touches them, and must touch them again to reverse the spell. Along with a private eye, he uses his gift to help solve crimes and collect the rewards. Read more
She’ll be the Sky: Poems by Women and Girls
By Ella Risbridger and Anna Shepeta
1,000/10 – She is mother…nature. Love the small petals that help make up a larger picture. Flowery image + flowery language!
From well-loved poets — including Maya Angelou, Wendy Cope, Lucille Clifton, and Christina Rossetti — to newer voices — such as Amanda Gorman, Yrsa-Daley Ward, and Amineh Abou Kerech — this outstanding collection from talented anthologist Ella Risbridger has poems for every mood and every moment. Read more
Flower: Exploring the World in Bloom
20/10 – Flowers on this cover are super colorful and the orange?! perfect. perfect. perfect.
Takes readers on a journey across continents and cultures to discover the endless ways artists and image-makers have employed floral motifs throughout history…Read more
The Chosen and the Beautiful
By Nghi Vo
10/10 – Not what I would imagine when I think of flower patterns, BUT I really enjoy this fresh take on florals!
Jordan Baker grows up in the most rarefied circles of 1920s American society–she has money, education, a killer golf handicap, and invitations to some of the most exclusive parties of the Jazz Age. She’s also queer and Asian, a Vietnamese adoptee treated as an exotic attraction by her peers, while the most important doors remain closed to her. But the world is full of wonders: infernal pacts and dazzling illusions, lost ghosts and elemental mysteries. In all paper is fire, and Jordan can burn the cut paper heart out of a man. She just has to learn how. Read more
Queen Anne’s Lace
By Susan Wittig Albert
8/10 – Only a few flowers, +1 for the butterfly
While helping Ruby Wilcox clean up the loft above their shops, China comes upon a box of antique handcrafted lace and old photographs. Following the discovery, she hears a woman humming an old Scottish ballad and smells the delicate scent of lavender…Soon, strange happenings start to occur…Read more
Black-Eyed Susans
By Julia Heaberlin
10/10 – Haunting and gorgeous cover – Is that blanket of flowers on amazon? because I would immediately add to cart
As a sixteen-year-old, Tessa Cartwright was found in a Texas field, barely alive amid a scattering of bones, with only fragments of memory as to how she got there. Ever since, the press has pursued her as the lone surviving “Black-Eyed Susan” Read more
We are All the Same in the Dark
By Julia Heaberlin
15/10 – Obsessed with this dark floral!
A seasoned cop’s interest in a mysterious one-eyed girl takes her back to the worst night of her life in this fast-paced thriller from the internationally bestselling author of Black-Eyed Susans Read more
Summer Cannibals
By Melanie Hobson
7/10 – There are a lot of competing objects on this cover, very flower heavy though
Summoned to their magnificent family home on the shores of Lake Ontario–a paradisiacal mansion perched on an escarpment above the city–three adult sisters Georgina, Jax, and Pippa, come together in what seems like an act of family solidarity. Pregnant and unwell, the youngest, Pippa, has left her husband and four young children in New Zealand and returned home to heal. But home to this family means secrets, desire, and vengeance Read more
The Human Origins of Beatrice Porter and Other Essential Hhosts
By Soraya Palmer
10/10 – These florals POP!
Folktales and spirits animate this lively and unforgettable coming-of-age tale of two Jamaican-Trinidadian sisters in Brooklyn grappling with their mother’s illness, their father’s infidelity, and the truth of their family’s past. Read more
The Far Field
By Madhuri Vijay
9/10 – I’d put this cover on display
The Far Field is remarkable, a novel at once politically timely and morally timeless. Madhuri Vijay traces the fault lines of history, love, and obligation running through a fractured family and country. Few novels generate enough power to transform their characters, fewer still their readers. The Far Field does both… Read more
Mary Engelbreit: The Art and the Artist
By Patrick Regan
50/10 – Very nostalgic prints
Mary Engelbreit: The Art and the Artist follows this amazing artist’s career from the moment she first set up shop (a “studio” in her mother’s linen closet), and on to her current status as the world’s premier illustrator of greeting cards, books, calendars, coffee mugs, and hundreds of other products. Read more
The Wood for the Trees: One Man’s Long View of Nature By Richard Fortey
5/10 – Not many colorful flowers, but I do love the bugs
With one chapter for each month, we move through the seasons: tree felling in January, moth hunting in June, finding golden mushrooms in September. Fortey, along with the occasional expert friend, investigates the forest top to bottom, discovering a new species and explaining the myriad connections that tie us to nature and nature to itself. Read more
Flora: Inside the Secret World of Plants
By Helen Fewster
10/10 – I’m not usually a minimalist… but this flower is BREATHTAKING. The detail. The precision.
Let the experts at the Royal Botanic Gardens guide you around the beautiful and mysterious world that is the plant kingdom. Read more
Dangerous Garden: The Quest for Plants to Change our Lives
By David Stuart
9.5/10 – Yes, of course
As our earliest ancestors migrated out of Africa, they encountered entirely new floras. By sampling these, they found plants that appeared to (and sometimes did) heal wounds, cure maladies, and ease troubled minds. This process of discovery continues today… Read more
Flowersmith: How to Handcraft and Arrange Enchanting Paper Flowers
By Jennifer Tran
200/10 – Craftmanship and dark florals? GIVE ME MORE!
This is the definitive guide to handcrafting and arranging true-to-life paper flowers. Through craftsmanship, expert styling and beautiful photography, this book elevates paper flowers to an art form. Read more
Botticelli: Images of Love and Spring
By Frank Zollner
4/10 – Floral because of Spring, mostly people
10/10 – Looks like a fascinating read
Stories from classical antiquity and compelling new interpretations shed a fascinating light on Botticelli’s allegorical and mythological paintings. Read more
Bad Romance
By Heather Demetrios
30/10 – Deconstructed/decaying bouquet
Grace wants out. Out of her house, where her stepfather wields fear like a weapon and her mother makes her scrub imaginary dirt off the floors. Out of her California town, too small to contain her big city dreams. Out of her life, and into the role of Parisian artist, New York director–anything but scared and alone. Enter Gavin: charming, talented, adored. Controlling. Dangerous. Read more
Twinkle and the Fairy Flower Garden
By Katharine Holabird and Sarah Warburton
11/10 – Fairy, Flower, and Garden are literally included in the title
The feisty fairy, Twinkle, tries to make her garden grow in this third Level 2 Ready-to-Read story about everyone’s favorite fairy from the acclaimed author of the beloved Angelina Ballerina series! Read more
The Waters
By Bonnie Jo Campbell
10/10 – Flower maximalism in EXACTLY the right way
Spending the days searching for truths on an island in the Great Massasauga Swamp, eleven-year-old Dorothy Zook, the granddaughter of an herbalist and eccentric healer, finds her childhood upended by family secrets, passionate love, and violent men where the only bridge across the water is her wayward mother. Read more
Drawing Deena
By Hena Khan
7/10 – Creative + Dreamy Sunflowers
Deena’s never given a name to the familiar knot in her stomach that appears when her parents argue about money, when it’s time to go to school, or when she struggles to find the right words. She manages to make it through each day with the help of her friends and the art she loves to make. Read more
Yours from the Tower
By Sally Nicholls
8/10 – Excellent embellishments
Bridgerton fans rejoice! This epistolary confection–told in letters among three school friends–is perfect for devotees of gossipy costume drama. Read more
The Souls of Flowers: The Loveliest Flowers in our Meadows and Gardens
By Pavlina Kourkova
1,000,000/10 – This book is drenched in FLOWER POWER, lovely illustrations!
Discover the beauty and significance of 21 common meadow and garden plants through breathtaking full-page illustrations, detailed information, and poetic reflections on botany. Drawing inspiration from nature’s most exquisite flowers…Read more
I Love You
By Shige Chen
10/10 – Cover is gorgeous, sweet, and has an unexpected but effective use of floral motifs
A young girl’s three words escape and voyage around the globe, mending hearts and raising spirits. This imaginative tale of flight shows just how far a little love can go. Read more
Time is a Flower
By Julie Morstad
2/10 – Has flower in the title?
10/10 – Looks like a real page turner
What is time? Is it the tock tick tock of a clock, numbers and words on a calendar? It’s that, but so much more. Time is a seed waiting to grow, a flower blooming, a sunbeam moving across a room. Time is slow like a spider spinning her web or fast like a wave at the beach. Time is a wiggly tooth, or waiting for the school bell to ring, or reading a story… or three! But time is also morning…Read more
Bloom Boom!
By April Pulley Sayre
10/10 – This cover is just booming with blooms
Discover the magic–and the science–behind spring flower blooms with this companion to the celebrated Raindrops Roll, Best in Snow, and Full of Fall. Read more
The Storyteller
by Kathryn Williams
100/10 – I’d use this to wallpaper my house
It’s not every day you discover you might be related to Anastasia…or that the tragic princess actually survived her assassination attempt and has been living as the woman you know as Aunt Anna. For Jess Morgan, who is growing tired of living her life to please everyone else, discovering her late aunt’s diaries shows her she’s not the only one struggling to hide who she really is. Read more
Visit one of our five locations to check out these floral favorites and so many more!
For now… Hosta la vista!
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