Server conveys the seductive nature of many paperbacks in post-WWII America.  He describes this area as a "brief but gloriously subversive era in the history of American publishing.  These cheap, pocket-sized editions came wrapped in lurid cover art and screaming headlines, hyping stories about crime, lust, and violence.  Casting a neonlike glow from wire racks in drugstores and bus depots across the nation, they conveyed an alluring collective vision of a corrupt and sensual world" (9).  The covers Server presents are shocking to a modern sensibility, what we would consider highly politically incorrect.  He features titles such as 12 Chinamen and a Woman (which replaced the original title of 12 Chinks and a Woman), A Swell-Looking Babe, Love Hungry Doctor, and Indiscretions of a TV Sinner.  Common to these books and almost all of the others depicted here is the overt sexualization of women.  They are often depicted in the nude, in varioust states of undress, and in seductive poses.  The books are riddled with triumph of the heroic man - over attractive women as well as over other various threats to society, such as mobs and drugs.  These paperbacks were not critically acclaimed, but did have a wide readership - due in large part to their sensational covers. 

Schiffrin offers insight into the international publishing world with this narrative history. He recounts his experiences in the publishing world, describing pivotal moments (acquisitions of companies, market censorship, the emergence of blockbuster best-sellers) through his personal lens. This book provides an interesting and accessible introduction to the evolution of the publishing industry over the second half of the 20th century.

The authors take the reader through a history of American book cover designs, from the inception of the book jacket as a utilitarian object in the 1820s to the incredibly influential and indicative introduction to the text that we now know them to be.  Drew and Sternberger trace the technological, political, and social trends that contributed to the evolution of book jackets.  The book is visually engaging, as well, with numerous color photographs to illustrate the text.  Each chapter begins with an introduction to the chapter's theme (with ambiguous or difficult terms and concepts helpfully explained), and then progresses on to numerous case studies.  In general, supplementary sources are helpful to elaborate on the grand themes of the book, but the basic ideas are more than adequately supported with examples. 

Danielle St-Laurent explores the evolution of spy novel covers, grounding the essay in an anecdote explaining the intrigue of first seeing an attractive man pick up a thriller with a pin-up girl on the cover. St-Laurent examinesthe critical shift in the roles of women on the covers of spy novels over the course of the 20th century.

She references Klimt and Muncha as marking "the beginnings of the use of women in advertising and, by extension, on the covers of spy novels" (277). Many early spy novels covers featured men as the primary subject, with women in various states of undress relegated to the background. Even as women came to the fore of the covers in the 1930s and 1940s, a clear subjugation of the female gender remained; hieratic ideals (with their roots in Egyptian iconography) such as larger and darker-skinned male figures continued to be employed.

Over time, the covers evolved further, with women depicted in minimal clothing, and, often, fully nude [N.B., St-Laurent examines covers in French Canada, where there is less prudity regarding nudity]. A number of other conventions come into play as well: almost all the women are young (under 30), white, depicted frontally to emphasize primary sex characteristics. Furthermore, the women, almost without exception, are depicted with a gun, and gaze beyond the scope of the cover, thus enlarging the pictorial space to envelop the viewer.

St-Laurent makes a compelling argument that "The cover pinup image here is actually a part of the way one reads the novel" (278). For example, a darker-skinned cover girl indicates an exotic locale. The adherence to visual conventions makes the departures all the more striking, thus serving as an effective marketing tool. The cover and the text are inextricably linked.