Ditto Doubles: Is She or Isn't She?

Time for a little bit of fun.

I've been collecting some likely suspects for this feature on duplicate images on book covers.  I'm hoping some of you will chime in on these. What do you think?

Same cover girl with Photoshopped hair redo? I'm leaning toward yes, but I'm not all the way there.

Q: A Novel
by Evan Mandery

THE HAND THAT FIRST HELD MINE

by Maggie O'Farrell

And what to you think about this one?  Clearly, it's not the same photo, maybe even a different couple, but I do think it's the same alleyway. The lamps look the same. What cinches it for me (or maybe "clinches" it, considering what these couples are up to!) is that damaged spot on the lower left wall.

THE GERMAN WOMAN
by Paul Griner

EVERYTHING BEAUTIFUL BEGAN AFTER

by Simon Van Booy

Okay. Now that we've all strained our eyes, let's reward ourselves with an obvious duplication:

THE PAINTER FROM SHANGHAI
by Jennifer Cody Epstein

SONG OF THE SILK ROAD

by Mingmei Yip

I think all these covers are beautifully done no matter how it was accomplished. And as is usually the case, I think the insides of these books look pretty good, too! Click on the titles for full descriptions.

Ditto Doubles: Hmmm. Seems the Rich Aren't Different After All!

This one has been bothering me for awhile -- since I first saw the cover for THE AMERICAN HEIRESS.  I finally solved my own riddle while browsing through the many pages of my online Wish List!

Be sure and click author Daisy Goodwin's name to take a look at the British cover - which I think looks very British (while "ours" looks American).

Any thoughts?

THE AMERICAN HEIRESS

by Daisy Goodwin

PEOPLE LIKE US

by Dominick Dunne

Ditto Doubles: Butterfly Girl

You do have to look closely or enlarge the Jackson book, but this pretty little butterfly girl has certainly flitted from one cover to another!

I'm waiting for the audio version of BETWEEN, GEORGIA to arrive from PaperBack Swap.

BETWEEN, GEORGIA

by Joshilyn Jackson

MOTHERS & DAUGHTERS

by Rae Meadows

Ditto Doubles: Lashes of Consequence

I've read the Crombie book and really liked it. (It's from one of my favorite detective series.) The Perkins book is on my Wish List and I hope to read it this summer. But what I REALLY want are those eyelashes! What's her secret?!

NECESSARY AS BLOOD
By Deborah Crombie

The latest entry in Deborah Crombie’s New York Times Notable, Edgar®, Agatha, and Macavity Awards-nominated mystery series featuring Scotland Yard detectives Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James.

 SECRET KEEPER

by Mitali Perkins

A novel about sisters, secrets, and the power of sacrificial love set in 1970s India.

Ditto Doubles: Plucked from the Same Garden?

Is it just my imagination,

or are these covers all plucked from the same garden?

I love them all, regardless!

ELIZABETH I

by Margaret George

IMPATIENT WITH DESIRE

by Gabrielle Burton

THE RETURN

by Victoria Hislop

O.K. So maybe THE RETURN is a bit of stretch, but I can see that red flower coming from the same garden as the others!

Has anyone read any of these?  What did you think?

IMPATIENT WITH DESIRE recently came out in paperback, and I'll be posting my review soon.

(Hint: Loved it!)

Ditto Doubles: The Best I've Seen So Far

This is probably the most beautiful "copycat" book cover I've ever seen.  If you're going to reuse an image, this is the way to really make it special.

What do you think?

A NORTHERN LIGHT

by Jennifer Donnelly

DESIREE

by Annemarie Selinko

Ditto Doubles: Pass Around Gowns

Sometimes we'll see the same image on the cover of more than one book, usually customized with Photoshop. This time, it's not the photos or even models -- it's the wardrobe! Imagine getting to play dress-up with the items in that closet! The books themselves all look pretty good, too!

QUEEN BY RIGHT by Anne Easter Smith

I found this cover at Passages to the Past where Amy posted about a couple of upcoming releases. QUEEN BY RIGHT is due out in May of 2011. I couldn't help but recognize the gown from the cover of my current read, THE QUEEN'S PAWN by Christy English, pictured below.

And then on closer inspection, I realized that the blue gown with the gold fleur-de-lis design looked familiar, too. If you can't really tell from these photos, it's much more obvious when you're looking at the actual book.

THE CAPTIVE QUEEN by Alison Weir

Ditto Doubles: Quotation Marks

This is really interesting:  If these two covers are not exact duplicates, they were probably shot in the same photo session. The images together remind me of opening and closing quotation marks. Knapp's book, a quiet classic; King's, surely a soon-to-be classic.

APPETITES: Why Women Want by Caroline Knapp

Knapp, bestselling author of Drinking: A Love Story, has turned her brilliant eye toward how a woman’s appetite—for food, love, work, and pleasure—has become a battlefield. Provocative, important, and deeply familiar, Appetites beautifully and urgently challenges all women to learn what it is to feed both the body and the soul.

FULL DARK, NO STARS by Stephen King

Ships on or around November 9, 2010

Simon & Schuster will be releaseing a brand new short story collection from Stephen King on November 9, 2010. Entitled Full Dark, No Stars, the book will include four new short stories.

Ditto Doubles: Two Too Sad Little Girls

I used to call this feature "Lookalikes" and then I'd add a relevant subtitle. But, I've come up with a new title debuting today: Ditto Doubles. It finally occured to me (duh!), that since Alea of Pop Culture Junkie fame calls this feature "Lookalikes" on her blog, that it might seem to some that I had, um, shall we say "duplicated" her idea. I don't know where the idea for these sort of posts originated, but I certainly recognize Alea as a master of this art and, I, well, I am only a humble grasshopper.

I'd also like to give a tip of the hat to some other bloggers who must have photographic memories because they expose these kinds of replications with far more frequency and ease than I. So, if you like this sort of thing, check out "Similar Covers" at She Reads and Reads; "Cover Deja-Vu" at A Girl Walks Into a Bookstore; "Copycat Covers" at Fresh Ink Books. If you know of other blogs that run these sorts of features, please let me know, and I'll add them to this list as well as my rounds.

For today's consideration, I offer you:

I went a little crazy trying to figure this one out. When I saw HIDDEN WIVES in Shelf Awareness on April 27th, I knew I'd seen that sad little girl somewhere before. I hunted around with no results, but it just kept eating away at me. I got so desperate to solve this puzzle, that I started hunting though old Mailbox Monday posts all over Blogworld! Talk about looking for a needle in a haystack! I tried to forget about it, but  I just couldn't. And then one day while I was adding another title to my online wishlist, I remembered the Anna Salter novel, TRUTH CATCHER, which has been on my wishlist for, um, let's just say, far too long!

So, puzzle solved and two more books to work into my reading schedule!

Here's the lowdown on these two titles.

HIDDEN WIVES
by Claire Avery
Description (from the publisher):
Fifteen-year-old Sara and her beautiful sister, Rachel, are too young to legally drive a car—but are approaching spinsterhood in Utah’s secret polygamist Blood of the Lamb community. Having long since reached the “age of preparedness,” they will soon be married off to much older men chosen by the hidden sect’s revered Prophet.

As Sara, chosen to become her uncle’s fifth wife, grows more distraught over her impending incestuous marriage, she begins to scrutinize the faith she has followed blindly her entire life. But for Rachel, who will be married to one of the many powerful community leaders vying for her hand, disobeying the Prophet means eternal damnation. Her friendship with the newest member of the community, the young and handsome Luke, starts as an attempt to save his agnostic soul, but ends with the pair falling helplessly in love. When Rachel is forbidden to see him, her absolute faith in the Prophet is severely tested.

When Rachel’s future husband is finally announced, violence erupts, and the girls must find the strength to escape the only life they have ever know…before it’s too late.

Claire Avery has woven a stunning tale that could be ripped from today’s headlines. Shocking and empowering, Hidden Wives is a page-turning debut that will stay with the reader.

TRUTH CATCHER by Anna Salter
Description (from Barnes & Noble):
Forensic psychologist Breeze Copens has a gift. She not only hears the truth, she also sees it, through the rare psychological condition synethesia. So she knows when Daryl Collins—a born-again but remorseless con jailed in Seattle for armed robbery—is lying. What she doesn't know is the identity of a little girl in a blue dress with yellow daisies who appears suddenly in her line of vision during her interview with Daryl. And Daryl isn't telling.

A heart stopping thriller, its twists unexpected, its suspense mounting as the steely Breeze attempts to make hard evidence of her intuition, Truth Catcher sets the lovely, red-haired forensic expert on an increasingly treacherous course. Matching wits with devious and deviant criminal minds, Breeze tracks her quarry fearlessly, only to discover, chillingly, in Edgar nominee Anna Salter's compelling fifth novel, that she's the prey.

Lookalikes: To the right! No, to the left!

Lots of readers are going to be very excited about the upcoming reissue of Garth Stein's first novel, RAVEN STOLE THE MOON on March 9th, including ME! Just wish they had found some original artwork for what is sure to be a stand out book.

Considering the subject matter and even just the titles, I think the cover that works best is on BREAKING THE BANK by Yona Zelda McDonough.

What do you think?

Lookalikes: Something Old; Something New

I was scrolling through Google Reader last night and, at one of my favorite stops, I came across a Mailbox Monday post at MarjoleinBookBlog.  Marjolein has received the Dutch version of RUBY RED by Linzi Glass. The girl on the cover looked familiar. 

I read A NORTHERN LIGHT by Jennifer Donnelly a few years ago and loved it, but I hadn't heard of RUBY RED or Linzi Glass. The description has intrigued me, and I'll be adding this title to my TBR list for this year. I also want to check out her other novel, THE YEAR THE GYPSIES CAME.

What about you? Have you read any of these books or either of these authors? What did you think of them? If not, do they sound good to you? I gotta say, with those covers, they look good!
RUBY ROOD
(Dutch edition of RUBY RED)
by Linzi Glass

Description (from the publisher): In Ruby Winters' world, colour opens some doors and slams others shut. Her opulent Johannesburg neighbourhood is a far cry from the streets of Soweto where anger and hatred simmer under the surface. Ruby can't resist the blue-eyed Afrikaans boy who brings her the exciting rush of first love, but whose presence brings hushed whispers and disapproving glances. She might not see race, colour or creed - but it seems everybody else does. For Ruby, making some choices means letting others go, and as the darkness begins to descend, she must find a way to follow a brighter path...This dazzling novel will entrance teenage and adult readers alike.

A NORTHERN LIGHT
by Jennifer Donnelly

Description (from the publisher): An astonishing and heartbreaking debut—the story of a young woman's coming-of-age and the murder that rocked turn-of-the-century America.
In 1906, sixteen-year-old Mattie, determined to attend college and be a writer against the wishes of her father and fiance, takes a job at a summer inn where she discovers the truth about the death of a guest. Based on a true story.

Thanks for inspiring this post, Marjolein!

Lookalikes

Ah, Summer! Winter is barely upon us, but summer is never far from my thoughts.  Both of these books have summer themes and will be on my reading list for 2010. SUMMER HOUSE was published in June of 2009. The finished book in the U.S. has a different cover, but this is the cover I fell in love with. LOCAL KNOWLEDGE was published in January of 2009, but I only just heard of it by way of Mary at Bookfan's latest Mailbox Monday post. Has anyone out there read either one?

LOCAL KNOWLEDGE
by Liza Gyllenhaal

About the book (from the publisher): From an exciting debut author—a novel about three people haunted by the mistakes of their past and their plunge into an uncertain future.

Maddie Alden has always longed for more than her small town could offer. Now that it’s being overrun by wealthy New Yorkers looking for a respite from the city, Maddie has gotten herself a lucrative new job in real estate. And her first sale brings her a charismatic new friend who is everything Maddie longs to be. Little does Maddie realize that the glamorous Anne will shake up her quiet marriage— and will force Maddie to face the truth about the past, and the terrible secret she shares with her husband and his best friend…

SUMMER HOUSE
by Nancy Thayer

About the book (from the publisher):After years of wandering from whim to whim, thirty-year-old Charlotte Wheelwright seems to have at last found her niche. The free spirit enjoys running an organic gardening business on the island of Nantucket, thanks in large part to her spry grandmother Nona, who donated a portion of land on the family’s seaside compound to get Charlotte started. Though Charlotte’s skill with plants is bringing her success, cultivating something deeper with people–particularly her handsome neighbor Coop–might be more of a challenge.

Nona’s generosity to Charlotte, secretly her favorite grandchild, doesn’t sit well with the rest of the Wheelwright clan, however, as they worry that Charlotte may be positioning herself to inherit the entire estate. With summer upon them, everyone is making their annual pilgrimage to the homestead–some with hopes of thwarting Charlotte’s dreams, others in anticipation of Nona’s latest pronouncements at the annual family meeting, and still others with surprising news of their own. Charlotte’s mother, Helen, a Wheelwright by marriage, brings a heavy heart. She once set aside her own ambitions to fit in with the Wheelwrights, but now she must confront a betrayal that threatens both her sense of place and her sense of self.

As summer progresses, these three women–Charlotte, Nona, and Helen–come to terms with the decisions they have made. Revisiting the lives and loves that have crossed their paths and the possibilities of the roads not taken, they may just discover that what they’ve always sought was right in front of them all along.

Lookalikes: ooh, ooh, ooh! What a little Photoshop can do!

LOST AND FOUND

by Carolyn Parkhurst

THE SONG READER

by Lisa Tucker

Lookalikes: Last seen . . .

Heeeyyy. Does this little girl look familiar?

I've been unpacking some boxes of "the good stuff" which I had stored at my Mom's because I've moved so often the last couple of years. These are boxes of books that I absolutely didn't want to lose track of no matter what.

Anyway, if you think you recognize this barefoot miss, you're probably right. Not sure? Click here and check out this previous post of mine.

BTW: It's a great collection of stories - highly recommended!

DOWNHOME: An Anthology of Southern Women Writers

Edited by Susie Mee

Publisher: Harcourt Books, Inc
Pub. Date: October 1995
ISBN-13: 9780156001212
Sales Rank: 742,048
512pp
Edition Number: 1

Lookalikes: Where in the World?

OFF THE TOURIST TRAIL was a Library Thing Early Reviewer selection -- I fell in love with the cover, of course! The Dr. Summers book I came across by accident while looking for something else, and thought "Wait a minute . . ."
Anyone have any idea where in the world this cover photo was taken? I've got an inkling, but I'd love to hear what you think.

DR. SUMMERS: A LIFE-STUDY

by Oscar Penn Fitzgerald

Publisher: BiblioLife
Pub. Date: March 2009
ISBN-13: 9781103627349
360pp

1,000 Unexpected Travel Alternatives

OFF THE TOURIST TRAIL:

Forward by Bill Bryson

9780756653996
336pp



You can click here to watch Bill Bryson briefly discuss OFF THE TOURIST TRAIL. It looks like a book even armchair travellers could get lost in!

Publisher: DK Publishing, Inc.
Pub. Date: August 17, 2009
ISBN-13:

Lookalikes: Doubletakes

I absolutely PROMISE that I did not go looking for this! I was actually skimming through Google Reader and came upon the Mailbox Monday post at Debbie's World of Books.

This is the book that caught my eye:




It seemed like something I would like to read, so I Googled it and, on the Penguin USA website, I found this:

. . . which looks an awful lot like a book from my wishlist:

. . . which was also on the Penguin USA website.
Well, I guess someone had to change something sometime! All I know for sure is that now I've got BOTH books on my wishlist!
Here's a description for each book:

VELVA JEAN LEARNS TO DRIVE
by Jennifer Niven

Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
Pub. Date: July 2009
ISBN-13: 9780452289451
416pp

Description: Set in Appalachia in the years before World War II, Velva Jean Learns to Drive is a poignant story of a spirited young girl growing up in the gold- mining and moonshining South. Before she dies, Velva Jean’s mother urges her to “live out there in the great wide world.” Velva Jean dreams of becoming a big-time singer in Nashville until she falls in love with Harley Bright, a handsome juvenile delinquent turned revival preacher. As their tumultuous love story unfolds, Velva Jean must choose between keeping her hard-won home and pursuing her dream of singing in the Grand Ole Opry.



THE WELL AND THE MINE
by Gin Phillips
Publisher: Hawthorne Books & Literary Arts, Incorporated
Pub. Date: January 2008
ISBN-13: 9780976631170
Sales Rank: 1,268
251pp
Description: A novel of warmth and true feeling, The Well and the Mine explores the value of community, charity, family, and hope that we can give each other during a time of hardship.

In a small Alabama coal-mining town during the summer of 1931, nine-year-old Tess Moore sits on her back porch and watches a woman toss a baby into her family’s well without a word. This shocking act of violence sets in motion a chain of events that forces Tess and her older sister Virgie to look beyond their own door and learn the value of kindness and lending a helping hand. As Tess and Virgie try to solve the mystery of the well, an accident puts their seven-year-old brother’s life in danger, forcing the Moore family to come to a new understanding of the power of love and compassion.

Winner of the 2008 Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Fiction Award.

Lookalikes Revisited

THE FIXER UPPER

by Mary Kay Andrews

GOOD THINGS

By Mia King

Just like last time, I'm probably not the first to spot this clever use of design technology, but I just couldn't let it pass unmentioned! Even though I now remember seeing the cover for GOOD THINGS quite a while ago, I didn't recall it. I came across it by accident and certainly recognized those shoes!

Have you seen any doppelgangers lately?

LOOKALIKES or I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN BETTER!

I'm a big fan of the Alea's lookalike postings at her blog, Pop Culture Junkie. She has an amazing eye for spotting similarities on book covers, whether it's just a trend or a stock photo that has been reworked, a cover model used frequently, or even an illustration based on a famous painting. So I was pretty excited when I saw this cover of MIDNIGHTERS #2: TOUCHING DARKNESS by Scott Westerfeld on Fyrefly's Book Blog yesterday because I just knew I'd seen the photo before!



So, I hunted it down and, sure enough, I found the book I was thinking of: SHELTER ME by Alex McAulay.

Then I thought, I better be sure before I post this. Aaannnndd, sure enough, Alea had already found it! Last October! See it here, and browse through her other postings while you're at it. They're very interesting.

See? I should have known better than to try taking on the master!