Welcome to this quick review of 40 of the most beautiful books published in 2017, with
the aim of helping you to find appropriate gifts for your nearest and dearest, or - even
better - take an opportunity to treat yourself during the holiday season!
The books are loosely sorted by genre, and I’ve added links in the description box
for every book to help you track down the exact edition if you see anything you love.
Let’s start by jumping straight into some picture books that will delight anyone with
an eye for design.
The Worm and The Bird by Coralie Bickford Smith.
This stunningly illustrated picture book is a story about searching and hoping, and how
the smallest moment can be beautiful.
Perfect for adults or children.
Coralie’s design work is most recognisable in the Penguin clothbound cover series, and
it really shines in her picture books, the first of which was equally beautiful, The
Fox and the Star.
Nibbles: The Dinosaur Guide: and Nibbles The Book Monster by Emma Yarlett are beautifully
engineered books, packed full of peek through holes where Nibbles has eaten through the
book, lift the flaps and interesting facts.
You can even get a matching plush toy if you’re buying for a little one.
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland illustrated by Charles Santore would be perfect for an
Alice collector as this gorgeously illustrated volume has foldout illustrations, and comes
with a poster as well.
The Folio Society's Little Prince edition is a fabulous one – it includes the heart-warming
famous story, with illustrations that have been lovingly restored to their original beauty
along with authentic French captions.
It has delightful printed endpapers and an illustrated slipcase, and also comes with
a fascinating companion commentary volume.
MinaLima’s Beauty and the Beast is the third in their interactive fairy tale series.
This volume includes fold-out maps, an advent calendar that reveals entertainments available
in the palace, and the movable dial from the ring that Beauty uses to return to the beast
as well as a myriad of other clever feats of paper engineering.
If you don’t have any of these stunning volumes yet, they have also just released
a boxed set including this volume along with Peter Pan and the Jungle Book.
The World of Moominvalley by Philip Ardagh is a must buy for anyone who loves the Moomins,
thos e lovely characters in a series of books and comics by Swedish-speaking Finnish illustrator
Tove Jansson.
This book has a die-cut cover with gold foil, and the internal layout is bright and beautifully
designed.
This year, Sort of Books has also released their first four special collector's editions
of the original Moomin books, using the original 50s and 60s cover artwork, with gorgeous endpapers
and foldout maps.
These are stunning little books and very affordable, I am hoping the rest will follow soon.
So far they have released Finn Family Moomintroll, Comet in Moominland, Memoirs of Moominpappa
(which older British readers will know as The Exploits of Moominpapa) and Moominland
Midwinter.
And a few shops in the UK have also made available a sweet little short story ‘The Invisible
Child and the Fir Tree’ for which proceeds go to charity, if you’re looking for a stocking
stuffer.
The Wonderling by Mira Bartock is a gorgeously illustrated tale of fox-like foundling who
has a desperate desire to belong and sets off to seek his destiny in a magical Dickensian
steam-punk world.
Tales from a Tall Forest by Shaun Micallef is a humorously subversive Australian fairy
tale reimagining that has been just beautifully put together, with hidden details under the
dustjacket, sewn binding and exquisite black and white illustrations by Jonathan Bentley.
For the Disney lover, the Pixar pop-up celebration will be published soon, which features over
30 pop-ups from Matthew Reinhart.
Like the Pixar movies, each pop-up has 'easter eggs' referring to other films, so this will
be fun for both children and adult animation lovers to peruse and discover new things.
Nevermoor is the first book in the Trials of Morrigan Crow – is by Jessica Townsend,
another Australian author – and it has been touted as the new Harry Potter, with good
reason, and it’s a lovely and fun magical tale about a girl who is cursed to die on
her eleventh birthday, who discovers she can escape her fate by competing in the trials
of the Wundrous Society.
It has a lovely hidden illustration under the cover – both sprinkled with gold – and
pretty illustrated chapter headings.
The Magic Misfits by actor Neil Patrick Harris is another very fun read.
This volume features all sorts of trickery not only in the story, but also in the book
itself, with secrets and ciphers and codes to find starting from the contents page as
well as throughout the book.
Excellent fun.
A Skinful of Shadows by Frances Harding is also beautifully designed, with another lovely
hidden cover.
This dark historical otherworldly tale is about a girl who can be possessed by the spirits
of the dead.
Leigh Bardugo’s Language of Thorns is a collection of six stories set in her magical
Grisha-verse, each of them richly atmospheric and lavishly illustrated.
There are several collector’s editions of A Darker Shade of Magic, the first book in
VE Schwab’s fantastic Shades of Magic series, about magicians who travel between parallel
Londons.
These editions shine a light on the readers of the book by including beautiful fan art.
I have the US versions of the original series so chose to get the UK collector’s edition,
but there are multiple options if this book interests you.
The tenth anniversary edition of Cassandra Clare’s City of Bones also features illustrations
– this one has over thirty interior motifs, as well as six full-age character portraits.
This is the book where Clary Fray first discovers the Shadowhunters, a secret cadre of warriors
dedicated to driving demons out of our world and back to their own.
The Bedlam Stacks by Natasha Pulley tells the tale of a treacherous quest in the magical
landscape of nineteenth-century Peru.
The hardback cover is a cool die-cut, showing the beautifully illustrated endpapers underneath.
Her previous book – The Watchmaker of Filigree Street – is also a blend of historical events
with flights of fancy, with this one travelling through Victorian London and Japan.
Murder on the Orient Express is one of Agatha Christie’s most celebrated mysteries, and
with the recent movie release, there are a few lovely editions of this one popping up
around the place.
The Folio society have a beautifully illustrated edition, with wonderful illustrations by Andrew
Davidson.
There is also a luxuriously illustrated film-tie in version that was just released – it’s
a large format book with artwork and photography from the film adaptation, which has been beautifully
laid out with 200 illustrations.
This year has seen some lovely anniversary editions released as well.
The 10th anniversary edition of Patrick Rothfuss’s The name of the Wind is one of the best I've
seen – it has red stained page edges, a little hidden debossing on the boards under
the dust jacket, and more than 20 beautiful illustrations, as well as a host of extra
features including appendices discussing the calendar and currency systems, a pronunciation
guide, and two expanded maps.
It’s really stunning.
Centipede press released a lovely edition of Fritz Lieber’s Swords and Deviltry on
the 78th anniversary of the character’s debut – it has five colour illustrations
and a frontispiece, illustrated endpapers, and contains a collection of short stories
featuring classic fantasy heroes Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser.
Warcross is a super fun young adult science fiction, for which you want to make sure you
get the UK edition, with its fabulous rainbow cover under the dust jacket.
This one features a teenage hacker doubling as a bounty hunter for people who bet illegally
on a game called Warcross.
The UK editions of Jay Kristoff’s dark fantasy the Nervernight Chronicles have these glorious
hidden images embossed on the covers under the dustjackets.
The most recent book Godsgrave features a wolf.
Most of you have heard of La Belle Sauvage, the first book in the Book of Dust trilogy
by Philip Pullman that is a companion to his Dark Materials trilogy.
It’s a fabulous read, and there are several beautiful editions available – and if you
missed out on one of the limited edition ones, the UK standard edition is still lovely, with
a sprinkling of glittery dust motes hidden under the dust jacket, as well as lovely illustrated
chapter headings.
For the romantics we have the truly stunning deluxe edition of the classic romantic fantasy
adventure comedy 'The Princess Bride' written by William Goldman – or should I say "S.
Morgenstern"?
This keepsake edition has a foiled and embossed cover, fifty full-page colour illustrations
by Michael Manomivibul on rough cut cream paper, full colour chapter openers and a lovely
colour map on the endpapers.
For the movie buff, the ultimate visual history books are a fantastic series.
I have here the one for The Dark Crystal and as you can see, as well as telling the story
of the creative journey that led from story to screen.
These books are filled with a huge range of visual art – from set photography to storyboards
and production notes – but the real fun comes in the removable ephemera, such as script
pages, sketches and other delightful treasures to hold.
No gift guide would be complete without mentioning the illustrated versions of JK Rowling’s
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
They’ve been covered extensively elsewhere, but I just want to say they are every bit
as gorgeous as you would hope.
And if you have a lot of spare cash, the deluxe editions are even more special.
Art lovers should definitely take a look at Benjamin Lamcombe’s stunning book Frida,
with excerpts from Frida Kahlo’s personal diaries and Sébastian Perez's poetic musings.
It features a series of consecutive die-cut pages, drawing you in to her life, art, and
creative process.
For the history lover, I’d recommend you take a look at the illustrated version of
Shahnameh, the epic of the Persian Kings.
This slipcased book is simply stunning, with lavish and spectacular illustrations.
It’s a huge volume and offers many hours of enjoyment.
The 75th anniversary illustrated edition of Edith Hamilton’s Mythology is also quite
lovely, although one might have hoped for more illustrations by the very talented Jim
Tierney.
And now let’s finish with some lovely seasonal books.
The V&A collector’s editions are quite fun and affordable, and to celebrate the season
they have released Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.
Of course, the main attraction of this series is really the covers, which feature William
Morris patterns under the illustrations and look lovely together as a set on the shelf.
And I also have two editions of Hoffman’s holiday classic The Nutcracker to share with
you.
One is this interesting die-cut edition, which feature clever “paperscopes” by the illustrator
Shobhna Patel.
And the other is the third Christmas book by Finnish illustrator Sanna Annukka.
Sanna may be familiar to you through her collaborations with fashion company Marimekko.
Her other Christmas books include Hans Christian Andersen’s The Fir Tree and The Snow Queen,
and all three are clothbound and feature stunning illustrations.
So there are links to all of these books in the description box below, and I’d love
to know which books are your favourites, or if you’re planning to get any, or if there
any beautiful book releases from this year you think I missed.
Thanks for watching, subscribe if you’d like to see the next collection of beautiful
books, and I look forward to next time.