This month’s new royalty book covers range from generic to nice to very nice. But this is the one I just can’t resist:

Knit Your Own Royal Wedding by Fiona Goble offers instructions for creating a handknit wedding scene, including Prince William, Kate Middleton, the Queen, Prince Harry, other members of the royal family, and even a corgi. The book comes with an illustrated foldout of Westminster Abbey, where the real royal wedding will take place.

I laughed out loud when I saw this book cover. I don’t knit, but this is funny and cute, and I like that I can identify the knitted figures in the picture. This is definitely a winning cover in my book! What do you think of it? Do you have any interest in knitting YOUR own royal wedding?

There are some good royal book covers this month. Even the headless/faceless woman book covers aren’t so bad. A few of the women have just the tops of their heads cut off (see Exit the Actress for an example), and Madame Tussaud is missing only the top of her wig. Now that’s progress.

I think the most interesting and memorable royalty book cover of the month is this one:

 

Camelot, Inc – Leadership and Management Insights From King Arthur and the Round Table by Paul Oestreicher offers lessons for business leaders on building support, uniting disparate factions, and launching new initiatives. I’m a little skeptical about the subject matter, but I think the cover is clever and gets its point across well.

Do you think business leaders can learn anything from the stories of King Arthur? What do you think about the book’s cover?

This month’s new royal book covers feature several of the usual images of headless women (see The Darling Strumpet for an example). One cover easily stands out from the unimaginative pack:

Lily of the Nile by Stephanie Dray is a novel about Princess Selene, daughter of Cleopatra and Mark Anthony, who was sent to Rome to live after her parents’ deaths. The cover is beautiful, tasteful, and appealing.

That’s my opinion — what’s yours? Do you like this cover? Do you prefer the cover of The Darling Strumpet?

In a month of lackluster new royal book covers, I think this one stands out from the crowd:

The Lady in the Tower by Alison Weir tells the story of the swift downfall of Henry VIII’s second wife, Anne Boleyn. Instead of displaying an already well-known portrait of the queen, or following the current fad of showing the back of a woman’s head, the cover of this new paperback edition depicts Anne Boleyn’s famous "B" necklace. It’s an attractive, elegant cover, worthy of its subject.

Have you read "The Lady in the Tower" yet? I haven’t, but it’s on my list…

This month brings more royal book covers featuring the usual themes of a headless woman (The Three Crowns) or the back of a woman’s head (Cleopatra, The Forever Queen).

Fortunately, not all of this month’s new book covers are so boring to look at. My favorite cover for November is this:

 

In Harmony: A New Way of Looking at Our World, the Prince of Wales shares his views on sustainability and climate change. Not the world’s sexiest subject, but the book cover does a good job communicating what the book is about and making it seem appealing.

It just wouldn’t have the same appeal if the cover’s designers had chosen to show us a close-up of the back of Prince Charles’s head…

What do you think about this book, and/or its cover? Would you like to read it?

This month there are two new royalty book covers that I like a lot. Both books are reissues of old historical novels.

The Passionate Brood by Margaret Campbell Barnes, originally published (I think) in 1945, imagines Robin Hood as a foster brother of England’s King Richard I. I like its colorful new cover. But my favorite royal book cover of the month is this one:

First published in 1986, Lady of Hay by Barbara Erskine is about a modern journalist named Jo who relives the life of a 13th century woman, Matilda, under hypnotism. As she learns of Matilda’s unhappy marriage and the brutal treatment she received from England’s King John, it seems “Jo’s past and present are hopelessly entwined,” according to the book’s description.

Have you read either of these books? What do you think of their new covers? Do you like them as much as I do?

This month’s new new royalty books are a somewhat pedestrian lot. There are the usual headless-woman covers (for example, The Countess and the King), but also a few non-decapitated women (For the King’s Favor, Sphinx’s Queen).

My favorite cover of the month features a woman who knew very well how to keep her head: England’s Queen Elizabeth I.

 

Elizabeth’s Women by Tracy Borman is about female friends, rivals, and foes who shaped the queen’s life. I like this cover because it’s nice-looking and fits the book’s topic nicely, too. What do you think of the book’s cover? Does it grab your attention?

Tanzanite takes a look at fiction book covers featuring Catherine the Great and her family.

Is the fad for book covers featuring headless/faceless women finally petering out? By my count, this month there are at least five new royalty books that depict female faces! I especially like the cover of The Red Queen: A Novel by Philippa Gregory.

But this is my favorite royalty book cover for August:

 

The Courtiers: Splendor and Intrigue in the Georgian Court at Kensington Palace by Lucy Worsley is an entertaining look at 18th century British royals and the colorful characters who attended them at court.

The publisher sent me a review copy of this book (so far I’ve only read the first two chapters, but I am enjoying it a lot). It’s a beautiful book, with good-quality paper, attractive and readable type, illustrations throughout — and, of course, that appealing front cover, with an image taken from “The Dinner Party,” a painting by Marcellus Laroon the Younger. The back cover has a picture of Kensington Palace. Overall this is a really well-designed book that’s a pleasure to hold and read.

What do you think of this book cover? And are you as glad as I am to see women’s faces reappearing on historical book covers after years of headless women?

I must say, the quality of royalty-related book covers has improved a lot recently. Among my favorites for July: The Plantagenets: History of a Dynasty by J. S. Hamilton, Kings of the North by Cecelia Holland, and Palaces of the World 2011 (admittedly, that last one is a calendar, not a book).

But here’s my favorite royal book cover of the month:

 

The Sixth Surrender by Hana Samek Norton is a novel about Eleanor of Aquitaine’s deadly dynastic chess game to safeguard the crowns of Normandy and England for her son John.

This is one of the best historical fiction covers I’ve seen in a long time. So many historical novels aimed at women these days show headless/faceless women in costumes that appear historically inaccurate. The woman on this cover actually has a face (gasp). I’m not an expert on 13th century costumes, but her clothing at least looks accurate. This is an attractive cover that suggests a suspenseful plot about a capable woman.

So far the book isn’t receiving great reviews at Amazon, but the cover still makes me want to read it. What do you think of this book and/or its cover? Is there another new royal book cover that you prefer?