Backless Books

No, I'm not talking about stripped books where the covers have been removed.

I'm talking about these books.

 

Maybe it's just me, but I'm feeling somewhat self-conscious about carrying these two books around, to read say, at work, over lunch. I took Centuries of June home with me for 4th of July weekend and when my mom arched her eyebrow at it, I find myself protesting, "It's not that kind of book!" (All those middle school and high school years of sneaking books past my mom that I knew she would object to me reading is a hard habit to break....) 

"Then why's that on the cover?" Mom asks. 

"It's a metaphor." It's a poor fumble for a reason, but it's something and it sounds literary and important. (On the upside, having finished the book, it was a metaphor of sorts so my flimsy excuse was studier than I imagined.)

As for Naamah's Blessing, which I'm less than 100 pages into, I know from past Jacqueline Carey titles that it is, sort of, that kind of book.

And I think the covers -- though both of women who are naked or mostly that way -- show that difference. Centuries of June (which will likely get it's own Book Banter post) is beautiful and lyrical. The nude on the cover is like art, a statue of a Venus. The woman on Naamah's Blessing gives off a far more sensual aura. Maybe because her face is visible, or all the jewelry, questions immediately come to a potential reader's mind -- is she dancing? For whom? Does she love him? Is it all show? Yes, there will be sex in this book, but there's a whole heck of a lot of political intrigue too. Still, I sort of want to make one of those brown paper bag covers like in grade school.

Has this happened to any of you? Any book covers that have made you embarrassed to be caught reading them?