Inspired by the “Book Cloud” that hangs over our front desk, pictured above, welcome to All the Covers of the Rainbow.
We all know the saying “don’t judge a book by its cover,” but that doesn’t mean we can’t appreciate them. A beautiful cover can grab a reader and draw them into the book before they even look at the first page. In this blog series All the Covers of the Rainbow, we’ll highlight a collection of books that share the same cover color.
Sir Winston Churchill once said “I cannot pretend to feel impartial about colours. I rejoice with the brilliant ones and am genuinely sorry for the poor browns.” Today, let’s rebuke the former Prime Minister of the U.K. and celebrate brown for the incredible color that it is. Most commonly associated with resilience, dependability, and safety, brown can be seen widely in the natural world: wood, soil, human hair, eye color, and skin pigmentation. In fact, dark brown is the most common eye color in the world. Brown has been used in art since prehistoric times, as seen in Lascaux caves in France and tomb painting from ancient Egypt. The first recorded use of brown as a descriptor of the color was in 1000. Monks of the Franciscan order wore brown robes as a symbol of humility and poverty in the Middle Ages. Today, brown can been seen in the uniforms of professional sports teams and in the logos of brands such as UPS, M&M’s, and Hershey’s. And now, let’s take a look at our collection of brown books. Happy reading!
Each book cover below is also a link to purchase the book on Bookshop.org, which supports local, independent bookstores. We also strongly encourage you to support your local bookstores by ordering online. They need our help more than ever, and we need them to stick around.
Written by Matthew Masino
“I wanted to remember him exactly as he was right then, how his arms looked brown against his white shirt, the way his hair was cut a little too short in the front. Even the bruise, there because of me.
Then he was gone.”
—Jenny Han, We’ll Always Have Summer
“‘I am a man,’ he told her, ‘and men do not consume pink beverages. Get thee gone woman, and bring me something brown.'”
―Cassandra Clare, City of Glass
“It looked like the world was covered in a cobbler crust of brown sugar and cinnamon.”
―Sarah Addison Allen, First Frost
“You’re a good man, Charlie Brown.”
―Lucy, You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, Lyrics by Clark Gesner
“God has a brown voice,
―Anne Sexton, “For Eleanor Boylan Talking with God”
as soft and full as beer.”
Matthew Masino is the Community Engagement Manager for the AWM. He is also a content creator, writer, and theatre director based in Chicago, Illinois. He graduated with a B.F.A. in Theatre Directing from Columbia College Chicago in 2019. As a theatre artist, Matthew has worked with the International Voices Project, the Chicago Fringe Festival, and BYOT Productions. You can learn more by visiting his website www.matthewmasino.com.